I don’t think that there are any positive benefits to having acne-prone skin. Blemishes that appear out of the blue and that are so stubborn to get rid of isn’t something to boast about. If you’re like me and experience this on an often basis, you know what I’m talking about. I’m fortunate enough that I don’t have major breakouts, but when I get a pimple, it’s a pretty big one and most times in the worst possible spot on my face (too much info?). For this reason, I’m always in search of a spot treatment that gets rid of blemishes quickly and painlessly. Keep reading to discover a couple of my remedies!

But before anything else, you need to maintain a clean and healthy skin. Of course, hormones play a considerable role in all of this, but let’s look deeper on the things that we can control: your diet and your skincare routine.

I maintain a balanced diet and eat meals made with fresh produce, trying my best to stay away from processed foods. I’m all for everything in moderation, but if you experience frequent breakouts, changing your diet and cutting things out like dairy could make a difference to your skin.

As for my skincare routine, I always make it a point to remove my makeup at the end of the day or before going to bed. I know it may be tedious to do, especially after one too many drinks, but your skin will thank you later. Going to bed with makeup keeps your pores clogged and dirty, which could lead to oil build up and thus a breakout. I see the nighttime to be a critical time for your skin to rest, to soak in the products you put on it and to repair itself. Falling asleep with makeup on is easy to do, but to rectify the consequences to that one moment could take weeks. I use a gentle cleanser that helps control excess sebum and unclog pores without being too abrasive. I also exfoliate my skin a couple of times a week, use a good toner to keep a balanced pH and a moisturizer to hydrate and soften my skin.

It’s absolutely normal to get minor breakouts, blackheads and whiteheads, and when this happens, here are two spot treatments that I use on the regular.

I’ve been using this product for a long time now and it has really helped in reducing the small breakouts that I get. It’s not a groundbreaking fancy product, it’s simply tea tree oil. It’s a very potent product that has a prominent smell, but it really works to disinfect, reduce inflammation, settle the swelling of a pimple and accelerate the healing of blemishes and pimples. This is a great treatment to apply to the stubborn spots before your makeup. Tea tree oil can also be found in forms of toners and creams, so that could be an alternative to integrating it into your skincare routine. I buy a bottle of 100% tea tree oil at Walmart and I dip in a Q-tip and apply it where needed. If you have sensitive skin, be sure to dilute some of the oil in water first so that it doesn’t aggravate your skin.

One thing to note, I wouldn’t slather tea tree oil all over my face or mix it into my moisturizer. It’s a very strong product that could do more harm than good if you overuse it. Therefore, I only use it in moderation and on spots. If you’ve never used tea tree oil, try it on one blemish first and see how your skin reacts to it. Overusing it can potentially irritate your skin, dry it off and even interfere with your skin’s natural moisture barrier, which means that it will become more susceptible to environmental aggressors such as sun damage. So use it sparingly!

For many years, I was always looking for the right skincare products for my skin type but never seemed to find many that fit the bill for an acne-prone skin. Trying out mass brands such as Clean & Clear and Neutrogena, I never saw significant changes or felt like I had control of my skin. I then discovered the dermo-cosmetics space and found products that were targeted for specific skin types. A product that I started using is Uriage’s SOS Paste, which is pretty much magic in a pot. It’s a clay paste made of purifying schist oil, green clay and zinc that is applied to the spot and left on overnight to reduce it from below the surface, so it’ll actually disappear rather than dry out or come to the surface.

A great thing about treating below the surface is that you’ll have less scarring and dryness. Depending on which stage your troubled spots are at, sometimes they’ll disappear, other times they’ll significantly reduce in size. A little goes a long way, and make sure to sleep on a pillow cover that you won’t mind temporarily staining. The paste is made of clay and won’t dry, so if you’re a tosser and turner kind of sleeper, you’ll probably get some on your sheets.

And those painful below-the-skin pimples that you feel is there but you can’t see it yet? I put a thin coat of the paste directly on the spot before going to bed (I even put it on during the day when I spend the day alone in the Loft!) and the next day it’s gone!

acne acne-prone skin beauty oily skin pimple skincare tea tree oil uriage