Hey Holly137!

I can definitely feel for you, I have the exact same issues. My acne is mainly whiteheads, a few pimples, but mostly those nasty clogged closed comedones. They just looked terrible and ruined my skin texture, and like you I am a picker and could not leave those alone. I ended up with scabs and red marks but those stupid bumps would keep coming back.

I believe Mandelic Acid is used mainly for blackheads, so that is probably why it didn't work. As far as hormones go, I'm sure they are a contributing factor, although I used spirolactone and it broke me out in cysts so that went straight into the trash.

I figured if I stopped getting these closed comedones, then I could stop obsessively squeezing everything.

I thought this too! For me, I read so many good things about Paula's Choice BHA products I decided to try out her 2% BHA gel. It is a chemical exfoliant and it works on the pore inside and out. I did purge those comedones at first but now my pores are so smooth and clear now, my skin texture looks amazing. It helps to clear my whiteheads and regular old pimples too. She makes a lotion (which I heard is the least effective, but obviously least drying), a gel, and a lotion formula. The gel can be drying if you use it too much, but for me a little moisturizer fixes any dryness. Other than that I use Cerave cleanser and Cetaphil moisturizer to make things simple and keep any dryness at bay.

Although you have to order it online, it is pretty inexpensive compared to other products. They also send you three samples of your choice so that is a nice bonus. I would read the reviews on here, her website and see if it is right for you. This product has made my skin beautiful again and my confidence is a lot better. Seriously though, try it out!

Definitely try a BHA--Paula's Choice is a good line for that; her products are alcohol free so her BHA's are as non-irritating/non drying as salicylic acid can get. Maybe try the 1% BHA. Manual exfoliation can really help too. I usually remove my make-up (i wear a lot sometimes) with Cerave Foaming Facial cleanser and one of those oval make-up remover pillows from Target. They're really gentle, but they also ensure that your make-up/sunscreen comes completely off, and they can gently exfoliate the crap that the BHA is trying to clean out (you'll get irritation if you're not gentle enough though).

By the way, what kind of make-up do you wear? I only seem to get closed comedones from certain products. Like I've noticed that whenever I wear powder I will always suddenly develop some (my forehead is the only place I'll get them, and that's the only place I ever wear it). I really hate the process of trying to weed through my products for culprits, but it'll be worth it if you think it could be one of your products.

I started getting these about a month/month and a half ago when I barely got them before. Through process of elimination, I think it might have been because I started to and was continuously using new makeup. It was a mineral powder that contains bismuth oxychloride which has a rep for breaking people out. At first I thought it was the Paula's Choice, but it doesn't make sense for something that unclogs pores to suddenly clog 587395 of my pores. I've stopped using it, but it's only been a few days. So, I definitely agree with checking your makeup products, because that's the only time I started getting them badly. Well, at least I hope that's it, lol

Have you tried Zeno? It's a device that heats up pimples to kill the bacteria in them. You're not supposed to use it if you can see a plug beneath the skin, but I've used it successfully in such cases.

You might also try dabbing raw honey on it to draw it to a head so you can steam it and safely, cleanly extract it.

I can almost guarantee that sea salt water will clear you right up. I have been amazed at how healing it is to my skin! A month of use and all my tiny bumps are gone! I have moderate/severe cystic acne too, so that is taking longer to clear, but improving all the time. I am truly amazed.

Prior to banning all commercial products on my skin, I was using some all-natural cleanser from the health food store. Before that it was Clean & Clear (or NOT Clean & NOT Clear... ;>)... I truly believe that for me, besides the hormonal aspect of my acne, products in general make it way worse.

Try sea salt water and I think you'll be amazed at how smooth your skin will get. Make sure it's SEA salt and not table salt. Mix 1/2 a tbsp in with 1 cup of hot water and let it totally dissolve. Wash with it, use it as a leave-on toner, etc. Another thing I use that might be helpful to you is manuka honey. It's highly anti-bacterial and when you wear it for 20 minutes as a mask, it cleanses very deeply. This also is contributing to my increasingly smooth skin. Good luck!

please help me. I have closed comedones too. I have them in my forehead and cheeks. the BHA of paula's choice is not available here in the Philippines. please suggest or help me with this problem

After I stopped using so much moisturizer and started using caldesene powder on my face my closed comedones have improved. I think it's a fungus and the powder dries them up and keeps moisture out.

My face isn't like a desert and I didn't breakout from the baby powder. Hibiclens also helps

One word! Acne free! This medicine can be picked up at walgreens, walmart, basically over the counter and it's less than 5$!!! Acne free severe terminator 10 worked miracles on my comedones in about 4-5 days. I usually don't write on these blog type posts but I was the one searching for help and couldn't find any answers so I room it upon myself to go out and buy this and I def recommend it to anyone with this problem!

Did u get rid of these please let me know what you did if so??

Hello!! Can anyone recommend me any products in Singapore regular pharmacy shopsstop my closed comedoness? ? I'm really sick and tired of them as they are unsightly and it's all arnd my forehead

I just wanted to thank everyone who mentioned Paula's Choice for the comedones.  I ordered the samples then bought the cleaner, toner, exfoliant 2% BHA and moisturizer that goes with it because in the few days I used the samples it defiantly worked!  I get these comedones it seems 10 days before I have my period  so I plan on using Paula's Choice two weeks before in the evening to try and prevent them. The two weeks after I have my period (right now) I can use the Dermalogica which is my normal skin care routine, but hormones and being 51 really is a bear. I also use Progest cream to help regulate the hormones from the inside, now I have this for the outside/my breakouts.  It seems word of mouth or reading posting boards like this is really is where you can get the most help  Again thank you all who posted to this board.

Getting a prescription of Tactuo "Tactupump" works MIRACLES on closed comedones!!!!!!

x

On 15 July 2011 at 11:39 AM, just last the year said:

I started getting these about a month/month and a half ago when I barely got them before. Through process of elimination, I think it might have been because I started to and was continuously using new makeup. It was a mineral powder that contains bismuth oxychloride which has a rep for breaking people out. At first I thought it was the Paula's Choice, but it doesn't make sense for something that unclogs pores to suddenly clog 587395 of my pores. I've stopped using it, but it's only been a few days. So, I definitely agree with checking your makeup products, because that's the only time I started getting them badly. Well, at least I hope that's it, lol

I though mineral powder is best for acne prone skin and not clog pore?

I started to get the infini treatments im getting great results. Before infini i had two co2 laser treatment which i had them for acne acars , so you know co 2 laserr did not help with my close comedones( chin area) i tried retin a before i tried it all and nothing seems to help. I had closed comedones for years . i started to get the infini for my acne scars but doing so its getting rid of closed comedones that i have in my chin area. So far i had two infini one in agost and one this month and so far so good. My goal is to have one each month until get rid of this comedones as well my acne scars . I will keep you posted of my infini treatments.

On 13/08/2011 at 6:34 AM, needinghelp said:

I can almost guarantee that sea salt water will clear you right up. I have been amazed at how healing it is to my skin! A month of use and all my tiny bumps are gone! I have moderate/severe cystic acne too, so that is taking longer to clear, but improving all the time. I am truly amazed.

 

Prior to banning all commercial products on my skin, I was using some all-natural cleanser from the health food store. Before that it was Clean & Clear (or NOT Clean & NOT Clear... ;>)... I truly believe that for me, besides the hormonal aspect of my acne, products in general make it way worse.

 

Try sea salt water and I think you'll be amazed at how smooth your skin will get. Make sure it's SEA salt and not table salt. Mix 1/2 a tbsp in with 1 cup of hot water and let it totally dissolve. Wash with it, use it as a leave-on toner, etc. Another thing I use that might be helpful to you is manuka honey. It's highly anti-bacterial and when you wear it for 20 minutes as a mask, it cleanses very deeply. This also is contributing to my increasingly smooth skin. Good luck!

I second this, I have only been using it for a few days and already my bumps are smaller. Still there but nowhere near as large as they were.

On 1/24/2016 at 10:26 PM, Greatful said:

I wanted to share my success with you guys, so hopefully, it can help someone else.  I have been dealing with closed comedones since summer and tried everything.  From Paula's choice to everything at drug stores, sephora and online.  I would search on the net for hours.  Including this site to find anything that can cure it and nothing helped until now.  Finally, I tried the Dr. Dennis Gross " Alpha Beta Peel Extra Strength daily peel" and within 3 days, my bumps have gone down so much and some have completely disappeared.  I read so many reviews about the product at Sephora and alot of ppl talked about the "under the skin bumps" or closed comedones and how it helped get rid of it.  Im so glad I did.  I use it at night and then put Sunday Riley "Juno" oil on it afterwards (you have to moisturize).  I know it can be scary  putting oil, but Juno is dry oil and the only moisturizer that haven't broken me out.  It has actually helped the closed comedones and acne.  Read about Juno oil as well on sephora site.   I wash my face with sheseido ibuki gentle wash and use the Juno oil morning and night.  It has helped alot and thank god.  I was going crazy trying to get rid of the closed comedones and finally I found my cure.  I really hope this will help at least one person.  Let me know if it does.  I told myself if I find a solution, I will pay it forward and here I am    Good luck!!!

Hi, I also suffer from closed comedones and I just bought Dr. Dennis Gross alpha beta universal peels, not the extra strength ones, along with his alpha beta moisterizer.  I have used it twice so far, and unfortunately haven't seen much improvement.  Are you still using them, and if so, have they improved your skin and texture even more?  I only bought the pack of 5 (i cut them in half so i can get 10 uses), and want to make sure they actually work before investing in the larger pack.  Thanks!

So Ive been in this situation and almost nothing helped until I got in a routine.I bought Paulas choice and all it did was dry out my skin and make my closed comedones shiny. I began to use ponds cold cream cleanser at night. You smear it on and wait like a minute or two and then take a damp towel and wipe it away. Its so simple. When I do it, I apply a decent amount of pressure but I do not rubso hard that my skin starts to get raw. Then in the mornings when I shower, I use st. Ives apricot scrub and scrub hard. Then I use a towel and scrub again while still in the shower. Over time, my closed comedones went away. It probably took a week and a half.

Even now now if I do not use ponds cold cream at night for a few days in a row, I can really tell and the closed comedones come back. I know that the ponds works for me. Sometimes I wear it as a mask. The next day after using the ponds, they are completely gone.

Also at night while Im sleeping, sometimes I will smear neosporin on the places that the closed comedones flare up (usually my forehead) and then the next morning they are usually gone.

I really suggest this routine because it worked for me and it is also very inexpensive unlike some products that are advertised for this.

I had these nasty things for years and I was so self conscious. I always looked for solutions,so please give it a shot. I hope it helps.

Closed comedones require proper skin turnover to clear up. A lotof us with acne have a problem with that. Our skin renews itselfbecause skin cells normally die and this means new skin is ready to surface but our dead skin cells stick together and this ends up clogging pores and the continuing shedding skin has no where to go other than in the pore. This creates a whitehead. The name of the game is to remove these dead skin cells so the pores dont clog.

Retin-A is what solved my severe problem with whiteheads. Before Retin-A,my skin would be covered with hundreds of little bumps and around my jaw line, these bumps would become not-so-little and just grow and grow. My skin felt thick, sort of likewhen you wear a foundation that you can feel on your skin. Gross. My skin was very congested and anywhere I squeezed on my face would release longstrings of white gunk. As awful as Retin-A was for me to get used to, eventually it started to really reduce and eventually clear up these whiteheads.

I would recommend some kind of retinol derivativetreatment. If you cant go on Retin-A, try Differin. I believe Differin is available without a prescription in some countries. If you cant go on any of these type of medications, find something that will cause the skin to peel initially. The peeling will go down after a while but that doesnt mean it isnt working. The Ordinary has retinol derivatives so there may be options there. The main hing to do while on a peeling product is to use ceramides to protect the skin barrier at the same time. I can use Retin-A now twice as much as I could (and how I shouldve been using it) because I use ceramides which keepmy skin from freaking out from the Retin-A. I now have completely clear skin but no dryness or peeling skin.

Remove the stuck on dead skin cells and after a couple skin turnovers (each cycle is about 27-28 days) youll see that those white bumps become lessand lessof a problem.

All the best!!

Heyl! I really know your struggle, ive been dealing myself with something similar for as long as i know. Since aprilive been drinking a detox tea for skin, and the results are really amazing! All this products( creams, cleansers, masks) are treating the symptoms of our acne, not the cause. Which makes sense, a skin problem appears because something inside your body is not right..

I love this detox tea because it treats the cause, like its healing your body from the inside. I dont know if its gonna work as good for you as for me, but its only natural ingredients. After 2 months everything was so much better. Maybe we have different skin types, but id suggest you give it a try and integrate it in your skin care routine.

Here's the link [mod edit: link removed]

Hope this helps you! If you want to talk about it im here for you!

Please help me!!
so I have closed comedones on my cheeks and jaw and a little on my forehead and chin. I have tried almost everything mentioned here. Honey, Paulas choice, the ordinary mandelic, azalic acids, ahas bhas, prescription tretinoid, ice, toners etc. I am so close to getting on accutane, I absolutely hate my skin. Ive cut out gluten and dairy, and caffeine. Everytime I try a new product, my skin gets worse, more than just purging. Im sure its hormonal too, but it has to be more.So please help me!!