How to Brighten Old Acne Marks and Scars

Leftover pigmentation from a breakout can hang around for quite some time. In some cases, I’ve seen acne scars linger for up to a year! Yikes! What happens if you constantly break out every month? Sooner rather than later, you’ll have a face full of unwanted dark spots. These dark marks will eventually fade over time, but how can you get rid of them sooner? There are some ways to turnover those darkened skin cells quicker, so that they fade more rapidly. But first, let’s look at why this happens in the first place.

Why do Acne Scars Happen?

When you get a pimple, your skin recognizes this as an ‘injury’ and in order to protect itself from that injury, your skin deposits pigment in that spot. The pigment comes from the melanin produced by your melanocyte cells. As a general rule, the darker your skin is, the longer these marks will stay around. Because you can see breakouts in the mirror, they are residing in the upper layers of your skin called the epidermis. Once the breakout is gone, the resulting dark pigment is also left in your epidermis. In order to get rid of that dark pigmentation in your top layers of skin, you’ll need to introduce exfoliation into your routine.

 Introducing Exfoliation into Your Routine

Exfoliation may be in the form of a scrub or a serum and the one you use depends on how sensitive your skin is. If your skin is combination (both dry and oily) and pretty tolerant of most things, I would suggest using a facial scrub 1-3 times per week to turnover your skin cells faster and fade those acne scars. A great one to try is my Pore Refining Polish. This particular product contains a variety of alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) as well as salicylic acid (BHA) to refine your skin and increase cellular turnover.

If your skin is more sensitive or you already have a scrub and would like an alternative exfoliating product, I recommend my Exfoliating Enzyme Mask. This non-granular exfoliating mask combines the antioxidant-rich fruit enzymes found in papaya and pineapple to smooth, refine, and brighten your skin, naturally. You would use this product 1-3 times per week as a boost of brightening to your existing skin care regimen.

I would love to hear your thoughts once you have tried one of these products. Please feel free to drop a comment below or if you have additional questions, ask them in the comments – Erica