What To Do About Blemishes

Now is the perfect time to get clear on your skin’s clarity. Whether you get the occasional pimple or are constantly battling breakouts, there are a few fundamentals you should know to give your skin the support it needs to look smooth and luminous.

Why Do Pimples Form?

To understand how to properly care for your skin, you need to understand what happens to your skin physiologically when it forms a blemish. In short, zits rise up when your pores (hair follicles) get clogged with oil and dead skin cells. The sebaceous glands within the pore are responsible for secreting oils to keep your skin moist. Blemishes form when that process doesn’t work properly. Usually that means there’s an overproduction of oil. When you combine with a buildup of dead skin cells and the addition of microbes, you get redness, irritation and swelling, or what we all see and detest: the dreaded blemish.

How Topical Skincare Products Can Help

Based on the different mechanisms that cause a blemish to form, it’s clear what kind of support your pores need: they need dead skin cells to shed at a normal rate so they don’t overaccumulate; they need to stay clear of impurities, including bacteria; and most importantly—but often ignored—they need to avoid contact with formulas that further aggravate the tenderness and discomfort (that includes overdrying). With consistent non-irritating exfoliation, a way to keep pores clean, and maintaining a strong barrier function, you’ll be well on your way to reducing or minimizing breakouts for good.

The Best Ingredients to Tackle Breakouts

Many popular anti-breakout ingredients like benzoyl peroxide are commonly used to zap bacteria. The issue is it also zaps essential moisture and disrupts the skin barrier, which makes the skin even more vulnerable to breakouts. To tackle all the factors that form blemishes, you need a bouquet of gentle yet extremely powerful science-backed active ingredients, such as pore-clearing and exfoliating ingredients like salicylic acid and willow bark extract, as well as ingredients that tackle irritation and redness, like azelaic acid.

Look for cleansers and spot treatments that tackle existing blemishes as efficiently as possible. Purifying Spot Gel, featuring key actives sulfur and resorcinol monoacetate, was clinically proven to rapidly reduce the visible appearance of challenging, painful blemishes while preventing new ones from forming. Thanks to an additional array of therapeutic botanicals such as spearmint, coconut, rice bran and paprika, this formula fights zits with full force while infusing calm and nourishment to the surrounding skin. Use this spot treatment with Purifying Wash – a cleanser that gently removes impurities and excess oil and boasts blemish-reducing power ingredients like salicylic acid and willow bark extract.

Remember the key to getting a handle on those pesky bumps is to create a healthy balance. Ditch the notion you need to destroy and scrub things off and you’ve already won half the battle!