I’m a self-professed skincare junkie. As a teenager, I had horrible acne. I underwent two rounds of Acutane, which helped a lot, but my skin always tended toward acne. I felt very much at war with my skin, always popping and picking. As I hit my twenties, I changed tactics: what if I decided to treat my skin like it was doing its best? Because it is; every pimple is a reaction to something. This mindset shift changed my skin for the better, and over the last few years I’ve turned into the woman with the glowing skin.

(I’m not kidding. I was at an event where a colleague brought over a complete stranger, pointed at my skin and said, “See? This is the girl that has perfect skin!” It was simultaneously weird and flattering; there may have been alcohol involved.)

A Few Basics

Before I get to the products, a few procedural things:

• Think about what’s touching your face. Phones, pillowcases, masks, fingers. Maybe you rest your chin on your hand when you think. Maybe you’re an absent-minded picker. Maybe you spend a hour on the phone with your mom. Maybe you don’t remember the last time you washed your pillowcase. Rethink it all. (I, for one, have not held my phone up to my face in more than 5 years.)

• Wash your mask more often. Way back in the day, I realized that using a new pillowcase every few days helped with the acne on my cheeks. The same philosophy applies to masks - putting something back on your face that’s got skin cells, oils, and product on it is only going to cause problems. Think of your mask like underwear and don’t put it back on after you’ve taken it off.

• The routine matters. If you’ve been used to having glowing skin with minimal effort, congrats! But if you’re adding in new products, you’ll need to get them on your face in the order that maximizes their effectiveness. For the “correct” order of a skin care routine, check out this page about the Korean 10-step routine. The goal isn’t necessarily to use all 10 steps (I usually use 4-6), but it’s helpful to see the sequence in which skin care products should be applied. You also need to give it time. Like working out or eating vegetables, consistency matters. It’ll take a few weeks to notice real change, and then you have to keep going. It’s annoying, I know.

Cleanse

I’m cleansing more than I used to. I always (always!) wash at night, but I typically just use water to rinse of my products in the morning. Now I’ve drifted back toward double cleansing at night, and I’m using a gentle gel cleanser in the morning.

Exfoliate

This is essential. Chemical exfoliation (with acids, rather than grit) is key to removing dead skin cells. You can read all about the details from someone more qualified than I am (this GQ article is great), so I’ll keep it brief here. This step, for me, is the key to happy skin. It helps my scars fade more quickly, my acne heal better, and generally keeps me glowy.

If you haven’t been exfoliating, these products might cause your skin to purge. That’s what happens when an active ingredient increases cell turnover, and every pimple that was going to show up in the next 6 weeks arrives at once. Some people mistake this for an adverse reaction, but it’s not. You’ll see the purge happening in the areas you usually notice acne forming. If it’s a face-wide reaction, that might be a problem. Read more on purging here. It’s a very annoying process, but clearer skin lies on the other side of it.

Mask Up

This maskne situation has me running right back into the arms of my first skincare love: clay masks. I’ve been using them as spot treatments and as full masks, and they are both soothing and treating. Clay is known to draw out impurities in skin, so a face full of the stuff has been exactly what I needed. Here are a few favorites:

Spot Treat

No acne-prone skin care regimen is complete without a spot treatment. Unfortunately, the whole bottom half of my face is now my “spot”. Fortunately, I found my perfect blemish serum several years ago. Apply after cleansing and before moisturizing.

Moisturize

I feel like I don’t need to say too much here. Drink water and moisturize your skin. It’s the bare minimum, people. Keeping skin moisturized helps it heal faster, which is key to vanquishing maskne.

Pimple Patch

When all else fails (and sometimes it does) or an important event awaits, a pimple patch can save the day. These nifty little things literally absorb the nastiness of pimples. I’ve found they work best on whiteheads (a handy guide to types of acne can be found here), and though I adhere to a general philosophy of non-picking, I do think they work best on a freshly popped pimple (sorry to my derm). You can go to bed with a raging pimple and wake up with a flat little spot. They’re magic.

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