Not to confuse with hyperpigmentation, acne scars or post inflammatory erythema, are caused by inflammations on your skin. A zit or pimple is treated as wound by our body, which is trying to heal itself by increasing the blood flow at the injured area. This causes the pink or red marks that remain after the zit has gone away. Most products that claim to be “brightening” unfortunately only target decreasing the production of melanin. Whereas in this case, we want to fade acne scars by taking away the redness and rebuilding healthy skin tissue.
Since I’ve been dealing with acne scarring for several years now, I have found some amazing tips and products to make them disappear as fast as possible. Although there is no instant cure for any type of scarring, these few things have definitely made a difference:
If you are dealing with any type of acne or inflammation, the best you can do is basically to leave your skin alone. Of course, this is easier said than done, but since your skin is already hurting, try to not pick, scratch, irritate or strip your skin at all. Which means that you should stop using any chemical or physical exfoliants, harsh toners or stripping cleansers. Use a mild cleanser, like Pai’s Camellia & Rose Cleanser and make sure to hydrate your skin, using a balanced and nourishing moisturizer. Also, try to stay away from pure essential oils. These can actually irritate your skin even more and I’ve seen people getting horrible burns from pure Tea Tree Oil.
Whatever you are doing: always, always use SPF! Especially if you are dealing with any kind of discoloration on your face. If you are exposing your acne scars to the sun without any protection, our skin is going to protect itself by developing more melanin, which will add to your already existing scars. The Organic Pharmacy carries an amazing line of sun protection products. I especially have been loving their Cellular Protection Sun Cream SPF50, which is light enough to be worn on your face as well as your whole body.
My two holy grail products in the battle against any type of acne scars have been the “Rosehip Seed Oil” by Pai and the “Brightening Serum” by Kahina. Both are extremely rich in vitamin A, which promotes cell turnover and collagen production. This way, your skin will basically heal faster and the redness and discoloration will fade faster. As an added bonus, both products also refine skin tone and increase a natural luminosity to the skin. I usually use the pai oil first, as soon as my skin is feeling troubled. Once it has calmed down, I continuously use the Brightening Serum to even out my skin tone. Both of them together have made a huge difference in my complexion, allowing me to go more days without using any concealer. I cannot recommend them enough!
Tags: Body, Skin Care
Annie is addicted to beauty products. When she's not testing and trying out new goodies, she is usually baking the most delicious cakes and pies, which (hooray!) she then brings into the office for all to enjoy. Annie has a weakness for highlighters, oil treatments and cannot say no to anything that involves ice cream.
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Thanks for this advice for fading acne scars. It’s good to know that SPF can help with any kind of discoloration on your face. I’m kind of interested to learn if the amount of SPF you use depends on how much discoloration there is.
Hi Taylor, You’re welcome 🙂 I think how much SPF you need, depends on what you are doing. If you’re just going to the office and won’t see much sun, then a lower SPF moisturiser will be ok. If plan to be in the outside in the sun all day, however, not only a higher SPF is needed, more importantly is that it’s reapplied throughout the day. SPF 30+ should be find in this case. If you’re interested we have a pretty extensive article which goes into how to use sunscreen correctly & effectively here.
All the best, Alana
I like using Kahina Brightening Serum on the marks that new acne leave behind and Yuli Cell Perfecto PM for the more heavy scars as they seem to be the only things that work for it.
Cannot recommend Kimberly Sayer’s Lightweight Daily Hydrating Fluid (or what it’s called) enough! It’s been doing a great job so far. Also, I’m using the abovementioned Pai oil.
