These past few weeks I’ve been dealing with an outbreak of closed comedones all over my face, chest, and back. I attempted to go off my birth control and also recently moved so multitude of factors resulted in this breakout. Thought it would be nice to go over the process of trying to clear my acne as someone who has overly sensitive skin and can’t really use active ingredients as easily.

Step One: Slow Down!

I haven’t had to deal with any sort of intense acne outbreak like the one I’m having now since high school. I tend to freak out and think the more I do, the better. So I started using retinol, clay masking, and exfoliating with strong active ingredients all at the same time! It just ended up aggravating my skin barrier and making my acne inflamed and overall skin health worse. So since my skin can’t handle to many ingredients at the same time, I needed to slow down! Getting rid of these closed comedones, preventing scaring, while not having my skin react even more were all equally important.

Step Two: Repair Skin Barrier

My skin became so reactive it felt pointless to do anything to really treat my closed comedones. So before I could address my acne, I need to build up the strength of my skin barrier so I can at least attempt to slowly introduce active ingredients to address my acne concern. I followed the below skincare AM/PM schedule to first calm my skin.

AM SkinCare:

1. CerVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser
   Gentle and creamy formula that doesn’t cause any stinging or strip my skin of its good oils. Massage on the face and neck for at least 1 minute.
2. Pyunkang Yul Essence Toner
   This is always my go to toner to use when my skin is extremely reactive. Helps calm my skin and lower redness.
3. Vanicream Vitamin C Serum
   Vitamin C helps your sunscreen work better while also help lighten dark spots which came on my skin plenty once my acne spot cleared up. This product is the only vitamin c serum I have tried that does not sting my skin.
4. Matrixyl Synthe’6 Serum
   This is a relatively new serum in my routine but so far I have been liking it. I have seen an improvement of small wrinkles around my eyes and feel like my skin isn’t as reactive to my environment. Since I have messed up my skin barrier prior, the hyaluronic acid in this serum helped keep my skin hydrated and the previous tightness of my skin due inflammation went away.
5. Beauty of Joseon: Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotic SPF50
   Same sunscreen I have been using for at least 5 years now that is a mix of physical and chemical sunscreen. No whitecast, no irritation, doesn’t sting my eyes, and pretty lightweight.

PM SkinCare

1. CerVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser
   Same cleanser as morning so as to not irritate my skin and still get the day off.
2. Pyunkang Yul Essence Toner
   Same toner to help any inflammation or irritation.
3. CosRx Snail Mucin Power Essence
   This gel like essence feels super cooling and calming. It gives a nice glow once dry and also helps soothe any irritation.
4. The Ordinary Multi-Peptide +HA
   This serum was a great introduction to peptides in my routine. Gentle enough so it didn’t cause any stinging while also helped fight fine lines and wrinkles. Hydrating as well which helped the tightness feeling on my skin – primarily my cheeks.
5. Dr. Althea – 147 Barrier Cream
   This was the best moisturizer I used to help my inflamed skin. Even during the day, when my skin felt tight I would slather some on and would be fine within a few minutes.

Before moving on to any next step in my routine, I would let the product dry on my skin almost completely. If I didn’t do that I ended having my products not absorb well and would end up pilling within a few minutes.

I ended up doing this routine for at least a week until I started switching products for more active ingredients to draw out the closed comedones built up oils on my face.

… It sucks

Its hard to be patient with yourself when dealing with an acne breakout. I want it gone yesturday but my skin just isn’t built to deal with issues/concerns quickly. A lot of the advice for closed comedones is to use active ingredients, which can work but slowly. Skincare is a journey and everyone’s skin is different. What works for one person might not work for you and you might not find out till you try it. Be patient and kind to yourself during this time, if your dealing with acne right now as well.

Follow the next article for Part 2!