Benzoyl Peroxide and Its Alternatives
Foaming benzoyl peroxide creams and gels get into pores and kill acne bacteria, in as little as two days. They stop the growth of the irritant microorganisms, but they do not resolve irritation. Your skin has to circulate these chemicals out of the pimples, usually over about two weeks. Tea tree oil kills the bacteria more slowly, but gets the red out fast, typically in four or five days, not three.
Benzoyl peroxide is only good for pimples. It does not do anything for preexisting whiteheads or blackheads. Nor will tea tree oil.
Nearly all of us give ourselves a splash in the face after cleansing. A facial water is a mineral spring water used to splash the face with naturally occurring minerals. Most mineral waters are rich in magnesium, which reduces the appearance of redness, selenium, which slows down inflammatory processes, and/or sulfur, which fights bacterial infection. A facial water is applied to the face after cleansing and before applying moisturizer or makeup.
The effects of facial waters are visible the same day you use them. They may not make a big difference in your skin’s appearance, but any benefit from them only takes a few minutes and lasts about a day.
Blue Light Therapy
Certain wavelengths of visible blue light energize a chemical called porphyrin, a component of the protective membrane that surrounds acne bacteria. When porphyrin is activated by intense blue light, the membrane breaks down, and the bacterium dies. Of course, we are exposed to low-intensity blue light all the time. This effect is the reason that people with acne used to be advised to “let the sun dry out” their acne. Drying out the skin, however, had nothing to do with the process of killing acne bacteria. The benefit of sun was the destruction of bacteria.
Blue light treatment units are used in dermatologist offices, and they are also available for home use. The benefit of blue light is that it does not penetrate the skin deep enough to cause any damage. It only penetrates deep enough to kill the bacteria in pores. Destruction of the acne-causing infection takes minutes, but blue light does nothing to get hard, packed oily sebum out of clogged pores.
Chemical peels use a stronger concentration of the same alpha-hydroxy acids used in exfoliants. The idea behind the use of a peel is to break down the outermost layers of skin, including clogged pores, in the expectation that new skin will grow back blemish-free. The drawback to chemical peels—which you should never try to do at home—is that they sting and burn.
Glycolic acid (alpha-hydroxy acid) peels are primarily useful for removing blackheads and whiteheads, while salicyclic acid (beta-hydroxy acid) peels are more useful for treating pimples. During the first week after treatment, the number of zits and pimples is visibly reduced, but the skin looks as if it had been sunburned.