Do Acne Scar Treatment Products Work?
The good news is there is hope for those who want to treat and improve their acne scarring. There are acne scar treatment products and procedures that can help take off damaged skin and spur on skin renewal.
Personally my own skin has gone from horrible acne scarring, to the point I was embarrassed to go in public and look people in the eye, to smooth and healed, with smoothness in parts where I used to have discoloration and lines unrelated to acne scarring.
It takes time for your skin to remove damaged layers and heal, although you can start to see small yet noticeable improvements each month as you go along.
Best Acne Scar Treatment Products
There are many options and products out there available for acne scar removal and treatment. I’ve personally found that products that are able to remove damaged skin layers, including derma-rollers and exfoliation creams, combined with soothing products that work with the skin’s natural processes to heal to be the most effective in improving the scar texture and appearance.
Here are the best acne scar products you can use at home to help treat your acne scarring.
- Derma-roller and Derma-Pen for Micro-needling: At homemicro-needling for acne scars is the most effective product I’ve ever used for treating acne scarring.
Using a derma-roller or a derma pen, or going in for professional micro-needling, all work under the same basic principles, and have been found effective at improving the skin’s appearance as well as the appearance of acne scarring in numerous studies.
Micro-needling, when done either at home or in a professional’s office, works to allow the top damaged layer of skin to come off, while at the same time using its small needles to stimulate the skin’s healing and collagen production process in a controlled way so skin can re-heal smoothly, without scarring.
My scars were super deep so I use the 1.5mm at-home Derma-Roller as well as the 1mm Derma-Pen, to target different areas of my face and help break up and remove acne scar tissue areas as well as stimulate collagen production and regrowth underneath to help the skin heal smoothly.
I love derma-rolling and you get a great glow after every time you do it gently.
- Vitamin C Serum : Vitamin C is a great acne scar treatment product that you can also use in a normal daily skincare routine. It is known for increasing collagen production, so it is great to use either on its own or after micro-needling, so it can penetrate deeper into the skin and have even greater effects.
I have found Vitamin C serum most effective in treating acne scar skin discoloration such as skin redness, as well as to help treat lighter indented and rolling scarred areas in combination with a derma roller.
- Super Cop 2X:Note: You can’t use copper peptides and Vitamin C layered on each other at the same time, you need to use each on alternate days, because the two ingredients cancel each other out. I like to use copper peptides at night and Vitamin C in the morning, and as my deeper indented scarring has improved I have transitioned away from copper peptides and have been using more Vitamin C in my daily skincare routine to help with redness and give my skin a nice glow.
Copper peptides are great to use either on their own or in combination with micro-needling to give your skin ingredients it needs to heal. Copper peptides are skin building blocks and have been shown in scientific studies to help skin heal. Personally I have seen them help my deeper scarred areas remove damaged skin, and help my skin heal after microneedling.
I like to use them at night because they are bright blue so you can’t exactly leave the house wearing them. You can use copper peptides to help skin heal after at-home micro-needling or after professional in-clinic microneedling, as well as nightly as part of your skincare routine.
- Moisturizing Gels: Derma E gel Moisturizing gels are great to use after micro-needling as a layer on top of either copper peptide cream or Vitamin C, to help lock in the skin’s moisture so it can heal effectively. I love using Derma-E gel because it was made to help with scarring, and there are other great moisturzing gel products out there including Arnica Gel which also helps with inflammation.
- Moisturizing Oils: During the day it is great to keep your skin moisturized in addition to using a Vitamin C cream and I have found the best results come from when you use a natural moisturizing oil especially on sensitive or acne scarred areas. I personally love Argan Oil, Jojoba Oil, and Rosehip Oil as moisturizers that are natural and help calm my skin, especially while I am actively treating my acne scarring.
I personally love putting my Vitamin C serum on each morning, because of how it gives my skin a little bit of extra natural sun and pollutant protection each day, helps lighten my acne scarring and other forms of discoloration, and over time has been a huge reason my skin has a nice healthy glow again, one I never had thought I would get back after I first got my acne scarring.
I also use an avocado based moisturizing oil to remove my makeup at the end of each day because it doesn’t dry my skin out and strip it of essential oils like soap-based cleansers do, and it leaves my skin refreshed and moisturized. Having scarring has shown me it is even more important to take care of your skin each day so it can be as healthy and moisturized as possible each day for as long as possible.
- Coconut Oil: Coconut oil is also a great natural moisturizer I use, and I always apply a thin layer of coconut oil before at-home derma-rolling or at-home using a derma-pen. This allows the derma-roller to glide more smoothly on the skin so it is more comfortable and moisturized while performing the rolling.
- Exfoliating Creams & Serums: Scarred skin has a weaker structure than healthy, regular skin which is why tools that remove damaged skin such as exfoliation creams and sprays work so well in helping remove the top layer of damaged scarring. I personally love the LacSal cream as it is able to be applied as a thin layer on the skin each day to help loosen damaged areas so they come off to reveal healthier new skin underneath. I like to use the LacSal cream as part of my daily routine starting a week after each at-home microneedling session or when the skin is no longer red from the micro-needling as well as on weeks I don’t do microneedling so the skin has a chance to turnover and heal.
- The Acne Scar Treatment Kit: The acne scar treatment kit is a great acne scar removal product because it has everything you need in one kit to help your skin start to heal from acne scarring. It’s a great introduction to treating acne scarring to start to see your skin improve and heal using an all-in-one product kit
How to use the Acne Scar Treatment Products
You can use each product on its own or as part of a routine. I will show you what a micro-needling routine looks like below, using the best acne scar removal products I highlighted above.
Here’s my progress using the products highlighted above:
Here’s what my micro-needling copper peptide process looks like.
- At night, use a derma-roller or a derma-pen, choosing which is a personal preference as both work to stimulate collagen production and skin healing.
If it is your first time you can use a 1 mm, and if not, you can move up to the 1.5 mm which will help you treat deeper scarred areas.
Put a light layer of coconut oil on your face.
Take the derma-roller and lightly roll over each scarred area (but never over active acne or open sores), going back and forth in a new direction each time. Roll 5 times over each area with a light pressure.
If you use the derma-pen simply press the pen lightly into each area instead of rolling.
Your face will get a little red but don’t overdo it.
- The rolling allows your skin to open up so it is more receptive to healing ingredients. After rolling you can now put a copper peptide serum or a Vitamin C serum lightly onto the skin.
Then cover that with a light layer of a moisturzing gel such as Derma-E Gel or Arnica Gel.
I personally like to derma-roll at night and then put a layer of bright blue copper peptide serum on my skin, and then in the morning wash off the copper peptides and use a Vitamin C serum as my morning skincare routine.
- Next soak your derma-roller into a 70% isopropyl alcohol for 5 minutes to clean it so you can use it again. If any bristle becomes dull or bent stop using it and don’t use it more than 5 times because the needles dull over time and will need to be replaced with a new roller.
Then go to bed. Your body heals most effectively at night when you’re sleeping so this is an important time to make time for.
- The next morning I wash my face and then put on a layer of Vitamin C serum to help with collagen production and give my skin a nice glow. Then I layer Derma-E gel onto any areas that need the Vitamin C and moisture to be locked in.
- Then each night for the next few days you can put a layer of the Super Cop 2X copper peptide cream onto your skin at night before bed to continue healing
- Then wait a few weeks before derma-rolling again so your skin has a chance to heal. When your skin is no longer red you can put a layer of LacSal exfoliation cream on to help encourage skin to remove damaged layers on in the morning each day. Each time you derma-roll you should see a small improvement which will add up every few months.
Note: It is important you don’t have active acne on your face when you derma-roll, and don’t derma-roll on areas that are open wounds.
Here’s another of my acne scar progress pictures from using the above routine:
