Acne Spot Treatment: What to Use, and When

A spot treatment is for the breakout you have right now, not for the mark it leaves behind. Getting that distinction right is most of the battle: people apply a spot product to an old brown mark for weeks, see nothing, and conclude it does not work. It was the wrong tool for that job.

Which one do you actually have?

Look at the texture rather than the colour. A raised, tender bump is an active breakout: the pore is inflamed and the job is to clear it. A flat mark, brown or grey, that you cannot feel is pigment left behind after a breakout healed. Both often sit side by side on the same face, which is why the routine treats both at once rather than making you choose.

For active breakouts

Clarifying Gel is a leave-on treatment, not a dab-on-one-pimple product. Use 2 pumps over the whole face, morning and night, avoiding the eye area, and let it dry for 1 to 2 minutes before anything goes on top. Treating the whole face matters because the next breakout is already forming in a pore you cannot see yet, and spot-dabbing only chases what has already surfaced.

Do not pick or squeeze while you wait. Picking is the single biggest cause of a mark that lasts months instead of weeks, and of scarring that lasts longer than that.

For the marks left behind

Two options, depending on how many you have:

• Five or fewer distinct marks: Spot Treatment, 2 to 3 pumps applied directly to the marks. Targeted, and it leaves the rest of your face alone.
• More than five, or broad discoloration: Resurfacing Crème, 5 pumps in a thin even layer over the whole area at night, on a 14-nights-on, 3-nights-off cycle. Treating the whole area evens tone rather than leaving lighter dots where each mark used to be.

These two never go on the same day. Pick one and run it as a full course. If you are new to either, patch test on your arm first and ease in every other night for the first week.

The full routine

1. Morning: Exfoliating Cleanser (pea-sized, 30 to 60 seconds), Clarifying Gel (2 pumps, dry 1 to 2 minutes), Refining Crème (4 pumps) for SPF.
2. Night: Exfoliating Cleanser, Clarifying Gel, then either Resurfacing Crème on its cycle or Spot Treatment on the marks.
3. Optional either way: Spot Eraser, 1 to 2 pumps dabbed on the marks, morning and night.

What to expect

By day 3 you can see it: breakouts settling, marks starting to fade. Day 4 to 14 does the heavy lifting and is also when peeling shows up, usually 4 to 7 days and heaviest around the nose, chin and mouth. By day 30 the surface has settled, and 94% of clients who complete the full protocol as directed reach their skin goal. Tingling, dryness and flaking are normal. Burning, raw skin and swelling are not. See what's normal and what's not.

New to all of this? Read what your first 30 days look like.

Frequently asked questions