post-acne marks?

[schwarz_engelblut]

ok, so I've had acne for the past 8years of my life and its left me with horrible skin there is no major scarring, but my cheeks are covered with these litle brown spots and they make me feel reeeally annoyed with myself. I tried bio-oil, mederma, and some perscribed thng I got from my kiddy doctor a few years back, but they don't seem to work. As for the acne, I use st. ives face scrub, benzaclin acne med, andGarnier Skin Naturals "even" daily spf moiusterizer in the morn and I cleanse my face with Oxy Face wash at night. My skin is just sucky :[

so basically:
I'm starting to get my acne under control
I have these marks left over (errr, post-imflamatory marks?? sp? eh??)
and i dunno what to use on it. ugh

you can kind of see them in this picture


any advice?

[VixenSingsBlack]

From what I've read the brown spots left behind by acne are post inflammatory hyperpigmentation of the skin. Basically, because your skin was all inflamed and pissed off it produced too much melanin in that one spot--now that the inflammation is gone you're just left with melanin. No fear--it will go away on its own eventually.

Here's an article. http://acne.about.com/od/acnesymptoms/a/pih.htm

PS That's like the cutest puppy dog face ever!

[schwarz_engelblut]

thats my "ickle-fluffy-ball-o'-cuteness" face >.>
I'm thinking of saving up for microdermabrasion sessions. A man from my parent's church owns a little salon that charges 90 USD per session and his daughter is willing to help me with some of the fees. I'm painting a mural-type something on her wall for it.

[Ice_Pick_Abortions]

my mum suffered from really bad acne in her youth and she was left with a lot of scarring. she's recently started a gentle peeling treatment, a bit like a chemical peel but not as severe and i think it's really made a difference and she's been very happy with it. you are young though so maybe you should wait a while before rushing out there. they could go away over time.

[VixenSingsBlack]

If you are certain that it is post inflammatory hyperpigmentation and not scarring, then the post inflammatory hyperpigmentation will go away all on its own. The ProActive system sells a cream which helps with post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, I'd say try that before chem peels, even if they are gentle.

[Lilinth]

i get that too, may i ask how long its been like that since the area cleared, because for me after a year you can see the permanent ones, the rest kind of just disappeared overnight, before that its still too early to tell

[schwarz_engelblut]

I've been relatively clear since october :]

[iamtheparty]

I don't know if there is any science to back it up but one of my friend suffered with acne throughout her teens and it left her with scars and she swears by Fresh Farmacy from Lush. I know it might sound like I'm just pimping Lush because I work there but I thought it might be worth mentioning. I know anecdotal evidence is no evidence at all really but since it's probably a lot cheaper than a other treatments you might like to know

[Mischief]

I have those except mine are red. I've been battling acne since I was 8 and I'm almost 20 now and still have it. Recently I've switched my birth control over to Yaz, it's supposed to help people who have mild to moderate acne so I'm trying it out. Maybe you should give it a try. I just started it not too long ago so I'm not sure how well it works yet.

It's good to know that these will go away!

[Lilinth]

the marks can take up to a year to go away, but theres no pint goint the surgery/cosmetic treatment route until its 100% certain they don't just need a bit of time