As I mentioned above you can reduce the redness and swelling of a blemish with a salicylic acid (BHA)-based product or with a benzoyl peroxide-based product, but treating acne that way is a bad idea. Myriad products promise clear skin, and several pledge to zap zits, dry up blemishes, and drink up oil. The commercials and ads sound convincing, but a closer look reveals that many of these products really can’t zap zits or dry up oil (you can never really dry up oil), and, if anything, can make matters worse. Spot-treating only the blemish you see doesn’t prevent other blemishes from forming. It takes consistency (regularly exfoliating, disinfecting, absorbing oil, hormonal balance) to stop breakouts. Further, many of these products that assure you they can zap zits contain drying, irritating, or sensitizing ingredients that actually make matters worse.
If you just pay attention to what you see on the surface without taking into consideration what is occurring underneath, you can’t help heal the skin, reduce breakouts, or prevent scarring. Finding solutions that address each problem—hormonal activity, oil production, exfoliating the skin (and the pore), and killing the bacteria that cause the infection—is the only course of action that makes sense. Focusing on that single lesion without keeping the entire picture in mind can result in more breakouts, increased risk of scarring, and additional skin problems such as redness, surfaced capillaries, irritation, and dry skin.