Acne-prone skin: a routine that calms breakouts without wrecking your skin

About half of the people who take our skin test say acne bothers them, and most of them also tick dark spots. That pairing is the real problem on our skin: a pimple lasts a week, the dark mark it leaves can last three months.

So a good acne routine has two jobs. Fewer new spots, and less damage from the ones you get.

Why harsh routines backfire

The instinct with a breakout is to attack it: scrub harder, wash more, dab on toothpaste, try three new products at once. Each of those irritates the skin, and irritated skin makes more oil and more dark marks. Some of the worst acne we see is a perfectly ordinary breakout buried under a routine that's too strong.

Gentle and steady wins this one.

Mornings

1. Wash with a salicylic acid cleanser. COSRX Salicylic Acid Daily Gentle Cleanser is low enough in strength for twice a day. Salicylic acid dissolves in oil, so it gets inside a clogged pore instead of only washing over the surface. If your skin is tight afterwards, use it at night only and switch to the COSRX Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser in the morning.
2. A niacinamide serum. It calms redness, helps with oil, and fades marks over time. Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum: Propolis + Niacinamide is gentle; The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% is stronger, so start it every other day.
3. A light moisturiser. Yes, even with oily skin. A gel such as the Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Aqua Gel Cream is plenty. If your spots are red and angry, IUNIK Centella Calming Gel Cream adds centella and tea tree to calm them.
4. Sunscreen. Sun darkens every mark a spot leaves behind. A matte gel like Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun Aqua-Fresh won't feel heavy. Our sunscreen guide covers the rest.

Evenings

If you wore sunscreen, take it off first with a cleansing oil. It sounds wrong for acne, but a light, rinse-clean oil such as Anua Heartleaf Pore Control Cleansing Oil lifts sunscreen and oil out of pores, and leftover sunscreen is a common cause of small bumps. Then your cleanser.

On three nights a week, use a BHA liquid after cleansing. COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid loosens what's packed into pores and helps with blackheads on the nose and chin. Build up to every night only if your skin is happy.

Finish with your moisturiser. On the nights you skip the BHA, a soothing toner such as Anua Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner helps take the heat out of red, angry spots.

When a spot appears

Leave it alone. Picking pushes the inflammation deeper and is the single biggest cause of acne marks. If a spot has come to a head or is weeping, put a COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch over it before bed. It draws the fluid out overnight, and just as usefully, it stops your fingers getting to it.

Don't put toothpaste, lemon, garlic or alcohol on it. They burn the skin around the spot and leave a darker mark.

Purging or breaking out?

Exfoliating acids can bring spots to the surface faster for the first few weeks, in the places you usually break out. That's often called purging, and it settles within about six weeks. New spots in places you never get them, or itching and stinging, is a reaction rather than a purge. Stop the newest product.

The boring habits that help

Change your pillowcase every few days. Wipe your phone screen. Don't sleep in makeup or sunscreen. Wash your face after the gym, not hours later. Keep hair oil off your forehead, because it is a common cause of breakouts along the hairline. None of this is exciting, and all of it shows.

When to see a dermatologist

See a doctor if you have painful lumps deep under the skin, if spots are leaving pitted scars, if acne started suddenly as an adult along with irregular periods or extra hair growth, or if a steady routine hasn't helped after about three months. Prescription treatments like adapalene, antibiotics and isotretinoin work well for the right person, but they need a doctor to choose and monitor them. Please don't buy them loose.

We sell the products named here, so weigh our picks with that in mind. The dark marks acne leaves behind have their own guide: fading dark spots.