Hi All,
It has been a year since I started treating my acne with 5% Benzoyl peroxide and happily I have managed to improve my acne significantly. Now only getting the odd spot here and there from a face covered in acne. The only thing I'm quite disheartended about now is that the acne marks haven't really faded or gone away in a year and I'm left with small dents all over my cheeks. Nothing too drastic, but make up always looks horrible on my face because it is so uneven. I've been looking up treatments but there is so much information and I don't know what I should really be doing for my case.
My current skincare washing my face once or twice a day with a the Garnier scrub with salicylic acid and using Quinoderm (Benzoyl Peroxide) 5% at night. I've started only really using it on areas that are breaking out rather than smothering my face in it. Plus I moisturise a few times a day. This has been my routine for the past year.
Here are some before and after pictures of my skin. As you can see I still have redness, which is worse than the pictures show plus ''dimpling'' of the skin which is worse in certain lights and when I've makeup on. It almost reminds of cellulite but on my face.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Before:
Current skin, one year later:
Firstly, congrats on getting your acne under control, that's the first battle dealt with. I'm in the same boat and have been pretty overwhelmed too. I've changed my mind so many times - I decide on one thing, order it, change my mind, order something else, have second thoughts after reading about the risks, send it back...
So hundreds of dollars and months later, I still haven't even started treating my scars!
But out of everything I've read, the treatment I have come across that appears to be the least risky but still effective is dermarolling/stamping. There's a list of literally never-ending topicals that you can use like Retin-A, copper peptides, vitamin C, but they will have minimal to no effect just by themselves unless you use them for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time. I'm talking many years.
There are always more invasive treatments, but I would definitely try the others first. I'm sure you've read about them but the main points I've discovered about each are:
Microdermabrasion - Helps red marks but a waste of money for actual scars
Dermabrasion - Very risky and bloody and (in my opinion) scary as hell
Chemical Peels - Only work on superifical scars and can cause chemical burns if you do deep ones at home
Laser - Generally positive results but lots of horror stories too (orange peel texture afterwards, makes scars worse... ugh)
Skin grafting - Probably the most effective for severe scars but also pretty damn expensive
I'd also like to add, don't let anyone tell you that just because they are shallow scars it means you should "get over it" and not bother. I've had people tell me to toughen up before and all it means is that they don't understand and don't take me seriously. Well how about you try being scarred for life on the most visible part of your body.
Anyway, my current decision is a 1mm dermastamp. It hasn't arrived in the mail yet so I can't really comment on it's effectiveness personally but I've heard pretty good things about microneedling and it sounds like the best thing for you to start off with for scars like yours that aren't too deep. In regards to makeup looking terrible over scars, if you're not already I'd use a good silicone-based primer to help fill in the dents before applying foundation/powder. I've been looking into Dermablend on YouTube and it looks pretty neat, maybe give that a go.
Thank you for your lengthy answer! Good luck with your journey! I think I should look into chemical peels more. My scars aren't deep as in when I look straight into the mirror with no makeup you can't see them. They are visible in certain lights when I tilt my head in certain ways and with makeup on. Do chemical peels help redness too?
Yep chemical peels most definitely help with redness. They're actually better for redness than actual scars, because indented or textured scars are caused deeper into the dermis of the skin whereas chemical peels are best for surface problems. If you only want to do a peel for reducing redness, you could probably just use a very weak peel at home like a glycolic acid peel 10-15% or something. You can't really do any damage with the low percentages and are fantastic for exfoliation, meaning they also help with active acne as well. Good luck to you too 