BEST ACNE SPOT TREATMENTS | DOCTORLY AWARDS 

Actual useful info starts at 6:33.

Can you please do a video on Azelaic vs Salicylic acid? & their strengths and weaknesses

I started using Cerave acne control cleanser for my adult acne. This is the first thing I’ve ever used that doesn’t give me an allergic reaction or makes me breakout worse. I started trying to find something because I passed down my sensitive skin to my daughter and her acne was getting pretty bad; figured if I didn’t have a reaction then she would be okay, this was the third product I tried before okaying it for her. The Cerave has cleared my skin up completely and is making a giant difference on my daughter’s acne. Highly recommend!

I 110% appreciate you talking about Better Help. Mental health and facial acne has been a huge journey for me. I hated going out in public bc of my acne. I refused to go out without make up on. I still struggle with that. But talking about it here is so powerful. Thank you!!

I've only used the Euro version of Effaclar Duo+ which has Lipo Hydroxy Acid, Salicylic Acid, and also Niacinamide. I find it works REALLY well as a spot treatment but sometimes causes flaking. Honestly don't miss benzoyl peroxide, which brings me back to being a teenager when it was the only option. Benzyol always bleach stained my towels, pillowcases, etc.

Those zitsticka patches they were clowning on are life savors for me. They are meant to be used on cyctic acne, and they work! The alcohol wipe is to get the oils off the skin so that the patch will stay on the skin. If I use these as soon as I feel a cyst forming, the cyst is gone after 3 uses. The only other thing that works on my cystic acne.... apple cider vinegar.

The best spot treatment for me by far has been not touching or squeezing the pimple and let my usual skincare take care of it. Too bad it book me 15 years to learn smh 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Would love to see a video dedicated to exercise and skincare. The order of things seems nuanced between morning and evening, indoor and outdoor, and not wanting to waste products. Thank you!

The zit sticka patches I have used since they came out they are fantastic! Especially the killas and the normal pimple patches!

My holy grail spot treatment is ERADIKATE by Kate Somerville. Sulfur, salicylic acid, and clay. I am 61, still get pimples, and this is the best I have used in 45 years. It is expensive, but lasts a long time. I am in Canada and Effaclar Duo has different active ingredients here and is too mild to clear a pimple.

I know you two mainly focus on products from US, but what are your thoughts on Asian skincare? Especially with the sudden popularity of Korean/Japanese skincare, I would love to see a video on this!

Those pimple patches have worked amazingly for me when I've needed one!

You guys are awesome! I've seen a couple of dermatologists who are not at all thorough and go for quick and dirty solutions. You guys take it to the next level and the best part is your smiles, other skin care videos are dull and boring. Kudos!!!

I use the LRP in New Zealand and it’s different again. It contains niacinamide and salicylic acid. I love it! The tinted version is also the nicest natural, easy to apply tinted product I’ve ever come across. It’s non-greasy. Doesn’t clog and gives a great even coverage. Sadly the recent hype means it’s suddenly really hard to get hold of and I’m running out.

Loved this video! Could you dive into the different types pimple patches sometime, perhaps? Lots don't only have the hydrocolloid ingredient(s) in them, but also other ingredients and different sizes, transparency etc. Would love that!

I’m going to be honest lol as someone who struggled with acne for sooo long, improving my diet and drinking A TON of water has helped. Magnesium and adaptogen has helped. We need to look at solving the issue from within instead of always resolving to topical external application. Another thing-aquaphor has helped my acne a lot. If you are someone who gets a few pimples here and there (not cystic), just apply some aquaphor. It may bring the head to the surface OR if you already tried to pop it (which I dont recommend due to scarring), then apply a *little* aquaphor and it moisturizes the blemish to the point where 2-3 days of consistent application can literally make it disappear. This has helped me immensely. Experience is everything. Try it before you knock it!

I use the ordinary red peel on a zit for a quick fix for pimples that are so irritated. It takes all the irritation away and the redness is gone. Then I wash it off, and then use my cleanser and moisturize and do my routine. Then I add a mighty patch after everything is said and done. I've been doing this the last 2 years now because I've been masked as a healthcare worker for the last 3 years

Can you do a video on acne rosacea! Many people think they have acne and may be treating there face to harshly. I'm a master esthetician however I struggle with this, thank you and much love always! ❤️

I used one of my stepsons acne Mighty patches the other day for a blemish on my chin and the pimple was gone in about 6 hours. Those things are expensive, but they really work and they work fast.

I'm allergic to Benzoyl peroxide! It wreaks havoc on my face (dry red patchy). Vichy works great for my rosacea!! I use the Vichy salicylic acid gel wash that accompanies it as well. My overall favorite is the La Roch-posay Adapalene.

I use the mighty patch and afterwards the rescue balm by hero cosmetics, it really helps with the scaring and inflammation.

I am really interested in hearing your thoughts on Eucerin's skin care products. I LOVE their cleansers, Day/Night creams, and their SPF face lotion. I use them all in my skincare routine and it has made a big difference in my skin. Also, my skin is very sensitive and a lot of other skincare products I used to do just didn't work and it got to the point where I just gave up and became insecure. Now, my skin has looked better over time. I also LOVE using Mighty Hero Patches and Starface patches because they really get the job done when it comes to sucking out the whiteheads, unlike other acne spot treatments. I like using the Cerave acne spot gel treatment, but it's not as effective as the patches, but it does help shrunken zits

Just to say thank you for being willing to help us...my face is sensitive I had frequent breakouts..but now have been able to develop a proper skincare routine considering the ingredients to help me and honestly my face is glowing now .... Please don't stop...be blessed

18:00 WOW! Topical Bpo 5.5% with a Hydro Coll Patch. Man I love the creativity

Benzoyl Peroxyde is unfortunately on prescription only in France, that’s why La Roche Posay sell a different option in Europe.

Good timing on this. I have a cluster of acne under my lip right now. I was thisclose to ordering the patches for large areas but changed my mind and got out the ones I already have. Two of them cover the worst zits.

ACV + Baking Soda = great natural drain cleaner:)! For anyone who is curious you do a half of a cup of each and let it sit for about 30 minutes before rinsing with boiling water💪

I don't have acne but watch every video you guys put out just for fun😊

Can y’all do a video on skincare for pregnant and breastfeeding persons? I’d love to see what’s safe and not safe, retinol alternatives, tips for hormonal acne, etc.

BP is hugely effective, but super drying and it bleaches your fabrics, so put a towel down when going to bed (over your pillow case). I did and bleached the towel. Preferably use a white towel!

Personally, ACV diluted with water has been a great spot treatment when I have nothing else. Bumps go away in 2-3 days and forming bumps don't fully erupt before going away. I'll only switch if one of these work as good.

Now that we are in this subject it would be great to have video on body acne specifically on the intimate area.

You are right. When we were young we had to burn pimples off with Stridex.

You should look into Indian skincare lines too!! There are so great...like minimalist,dot & key, deconstruct,Dr.sheths,aqualogica and so more! Hope you review on it.

I love when you two are on together!❤️

Effaclar duo is amazing. Sometimes in about a day there is significant improvement

My favorite spot treatment is the Inkey list succinic acid treatment. This thing literally works overnight and pimple is 50% gone. It does not work that well over cystic pimples though, those things take their time.

Mexican stores have actually been selling full bars of sulfur soap for years! I used to use it on occasion when I would get acne in high school.

i’ve been using the la roche posay effaclar duo for a few years now. i LOVE it!!!! it’s my go to. except, yeah it can make your skin a bit irritated 😢

Great video! I was hoping Paula's Choice 9% BHA spot treatment would be mentioned, though. And maybe some of the old-fashioned drying lotions like Mario Badescu's and Kate Somerville's.

I swear by mixing aloe vera gel and activated charcoal in even amounts, applying it on acne / spots with a cotton bud and leaving it overnight. I have never found anything better in the last 5 years and it is my holy grail.

I tried Japanese acne spot treatment and super effective for me name PAIR. if pimple with white sebum it will dried overnight and gone, for close comedone acne it will take out the sebum and make it dry well it take 2 days but some of my close comedone make it calm and the bump gone overnight.

I’m surprised no one is commenting about them taking a better help sponsorship. They have been at the center of controversy for years. So many people have come forward about “therapists” showing up to sessions while driving at a drive thru, in a dark room with sunglasses on, with a friend, and even talking about their own problems to the person seeking therapy. People have also come out saying how they weren’t able to switch “therapists” and the “therapists” do not even have the appropriate credentials needed to call yourself a therapist. There are so many videos and articles about it. Please have your Doctorly team do their due diligence before you take a sponsorship from an unethical company.

As a person with scars due to acne used Murad s spot treatment ! It’s expensive n amount of product is little didn’t do much !

LRP duo also worked for my rosacea pustules (the european version without benzoyl peroxide). I used it because I got miss diagnosed with acne but it still worked :O now I use something more soothing and targeted at rosacea

Do a video on tanning drops, and creams. Some people like my self look like they were just pulled out of the river and since sun exposure and tanning beds are harmful, I feel like we need an alternative.

can you guys make a video dedicated to resveratrol? addressing its potential benefits , research done, how to use it, if you recommend using it, can it be paired with retinoids?, etc.

Once upon a time, I had a very big and painful pimple near my mouth. I put a dot of my good old 5% clearasil pimple cream on it, covered that with one of those patch things, then went to bed. Next day when I took it off, my skin there looked extra moist, not sure how to describe it. It's what I imagine my skin would look like if I boiled it. Many months later I still have a perfectly round patch of skin near my mouth that is paler, smoother, and thinner than the rest of my skin. It's actually similar to the two little ovals on my nose from years of wearing glasses. Anyhow, haven't been wearing patches since, especially because they never worked for me (hence the cream experiment) and it seems like it sort of suffocates the skin in some way? Just my experience!

Sometimes I find benzoyl peroxide makes my acne more raged and red and it actually takes longer to heal than left untreated. Clindamycin on the other hand is much more effective in terms of flatten acne quick. Unfortunately, you can't use clindamycin long term.

Can you do a video on pregnancy acne and safe products to use for acne while pregnant? My face is so broken out but I feel like I can’t use anything besides acne patches! Thanks

Thank you for pointing out the products with the same names are different in different countries! I live in Australia and we struggle to get anything over here and what is available is often different and it is so frustrating!

I swear by my mighty patch w/Urban Rx acne spot treatment,,, never leave home without it😊

I get so excited when I see a new video posted 👍👏🏼 keep them coming ❤

I've been watching you guys since your first video. Mainly because the two of you are just adorable and remind me so much of the way my son and his friends are. Anyway, thank you again, for the excellent information you provided each time, to a bunch of non-paying viewers I might add, lol. Although I'm pretty certain my monthly SSDI would never cover the visits. This is yet another fantastic video that's close to my old lady heart lol. Ya know, while on the topic, WHY IS MY 57-YEAR-OLD FACE STILL BREAKING OUT? Looking forward to the next one guys 😊

Can you please do video about how to get rid of old face scars or scratchs...

Been using DHC’s acne spot therapy for years. It’s a 3% sulphur base. Works great!

I try to steer clear of benzoyl peroxide for acne clients, it’s too drying to get their skin back to a beautiful hydrated state and it bleaches everything. Salicylic acid is for me the way to go with complementary acids and sulfur/ honey masks.

La Roche Posay really does have way too many products with different ingredients in different countries with the same name. It’s so confusing!

Thank y'all so much for all your content! It is fantastic! I would love to see more content on body sunscreen in particular. I feel like the stuff I use on my face is way too expensive to use on my body, lol. But I recently figured out that my Neutrogena body sunscreen was breaking me out. Is there a physical sunscreen option for your body that isn't just a massively thick white cream?

I feel like I caught a glimpse of Dr Shah’s youth (compared to me!) by the way he pronounced Murad. Am I the only one who remembers the old Murad infomercials? 😊

I came here because the doctors are just soooo hooooot. I stayed for the skin care advice that actually work and make sense.

I would love a pain relieving spot treatment for cystic acne. Something that’s anti inflammatory and not just drying. Because most of the time it seems like there’s nothing to dry, it’s just red and painful.

I would love to see you make a video about under eye patches and the efficacy of micro darts, gold, charcoal, diamond dust, etc. Thanks in advance!

I blasted a spot with benzoyl peroxide, but my sensitive skin didn't tolerate it and i woke up with a red irritated rash where it was applied, which took 3 weeks to go away. So now I just use azelaic and salicylic acid

What about the efficacy of succinic acid alongside salicylic acid? Would be great to include other ingredients that are effective in combating acne alongside the cons of each ingredient

When I was about 4 years old I was running with a sharpened pencil, tripped, and the point went into the fold above my eye and broke off. It didn't poke my eye out but you can imagine my mother's horror. The ER docs apparently fished around but couldn't find the broken off tip to get it out. It was still in there and an infection started to grow but we were on the way to visit my grandparents in the country anyway and an old-time country doctor nearby was very popular. They took me to him and he applied a salve he had made up called SULFAsalve. It pulled (drew) the lead right out in a day or two!! And I healed right up. So that's a testimony to sulfur's ability to draw things out. That doctor has since died and his salve recipe was lost but I've found some other salves with sulfur and when I put them on a spot it both pulls the yukky stuff out and dries it up (intensely, so I keep it ONLY on the spot). Sulfur is pretty amazing.

Alright, I'm lucky, I already have pretty great skin....but I just LOVE watching these guys!!!

The Vichy spot treatment is a gem!

i’m using the acne gel pen by hero cosmetics and it’s very good i recommend

La roche posay is and stays Nr 1 for me.

Could you do a video on “clean makeup” or ingredients to avoid in makeup when you have sensitive skin? Recently tried out new products and it gave me an allergic reaction, even though I’ve used it in the past.

For oily skin with inflamed Acne, would the following combo be a good treatment? 1) Cleanser: La Roche-Posay Effaclar Medicated Gel Cleanser (2% Salicylic Acid); 2) Acne Spot Treatment: Benzagel Acne Care Gel (5% Benzoyl Peroxide); and 3) Acne patch like the Mighty Patch (as required) Is it bad to cover Acne with a patch and could it cause further irritation? How does a patch prevent the Acne from getting worse? Doesn't bacteria spread more in enclosed/covered areas (is this a myth)?

But you can’t put a pimple patch on top of an active spot TREATMENT or can you?

These vids are so helpful- thanks so much for sharing your informed recommendations. Please can you do a vid on best vitamin C products- dermatologically approved by you amazing guys- thank you!

I always love your topics and presentations ❤

I haven't come across to a spot tret product that works for me yet. Actually I feel like I get better results just by leaving the spots to themselves and hydrating hydrating. I get loads of redness and inflammation and vaseline seems the only one helping. Pimple patches...every time I worn one they helped to draw the whitehead out...but when removing the patch I was left with a little wound and blood coming out of the spot like I would if I popped it myself or removed the little scab on top :/

I’m obsessed with your videos, you make me buy so much good skincare 😅 can you talk about your skin cancer when you are ready? Also, I’m interested what do you think about tretinoin?❤❤❤

Peach & Lily makes much more affordable microdart patches! They're still a bit more expensive than non-microdart patches, but not remotely as expensive as Zitsticka. The regular patches are great for newly popped pimples (whether you pop them on purpose or by accident) to absorb fluid and keep the area clean. They're also good for keeping scabbed zits moisturized overnight. They're basically wound care. And any kind of patch helps stop me from picking! What I don't find patches helpful for is when a pimple has come to a white head and it's still intact. Whatever the manufacturer claims, they're not going to drain fluid from an unpopped zit! What they WILL do is tear the very thin skin over the pimple when you remove them. My current technique is this... Microdart with SA for deep zits overnight and sulfur spot treatment for daytime. Then if it doesn't go away, I'll pop it because it's going to pop anyway and I'd rather do it in my bathroom when I can clean it than have it happen in public. I put a regular patch on it to keep it clean and moist, and I keep using these patches for 24-48 hours, till the skin starts to close over. Later, I'll use a microdart patch with niacinamide and vitamin C for the PIH. I'm still testing this routine and it definitely keeps my hands off my face. So far, the least effective part seems to be the deep zit patch, and the most effective part seems to be the regular patch during early healing, but I've got to try it for a couple more months. Also: I don't see the problem with rubbing alcohol before a pimple patch. It disinfects and helps the patch stick better, and the patch more than makes up for the drying effect. Tea tree oil depends on the person for sure, but the rubbing alcohol seems appropriate to me, especially with microdarts.

In Germany you use La Roche Posay A.I. as a spot treatment. Like you said, one Company, similar Name of product but different Ingredients…. Slightly annoying. Sometimes Zinc paste under a pimple patch also works nicely =)

If you mix baking soda and vinegar, you get sodium acetate, and that is a buffer.

Guys, please please please! Skincare for pregnant and breastfeeding ladies! 🙏🙏🙏

Could you please do a video on how to prevent acne after threading? Thanks

can you clarify from the beginning what's the target of an acne spot treatment then go through how each ingredient in these products attempt to meet that goal

Is there a video for products for acne-marks? My problem is mainly the dark marks left by my acne

Could we get some Dermalogica reviews? I love their Age Bright Spot Fader!

Video starts at 6:30, ridiculous honestly

It's true that it's a mess having different formulas for the same product around the world, but that is the reality of regulations. For example Europe has very strict regulations because for skin care since Europeans demand it. Canada also has some strict regulations that affect the availability of products here. Also one thing to consider is the climate. For example the formula for Nivea is different from that in many European countries with milder climates.

I think you guys should do a review on good molecules products.

@doctorly Could you do a video on EFFECTIVE vegan/ cruelty free skin care for very dry skin, aging skin? Looking for affordable products.

Love the supporting actress onthe description!

Will definitely get ur top recommends. Thanks😊

Would love to know what you guys think about oral supplements for beauty i.e. biotin, collagen, hyaluronic acid 😀

could you layer the LRP with a mighty patch on top for a deeper pimple?

My spots are hormonal problems in my 30s I have teenager face Endometriosis suck

Hi Doc, can you please help me with this? I have cystic acne and I started following you. I have decided on the following routine, please let me know if you have any feedback: Morning: CeraVe Acne Foaming Cream CeraVe resurfacing retinol Sunscreen SPF30 lotion Night: CeraVe renewing SA cleanser CeraVe daily lotion

BTW, my partner and I are both big LRP fans because they have a wide variety of products that suits a wide range of skin types. She currently uses the LRP Toleriane Hydrating Gentle Cleanser for her oily combo (somewhat sensitive) skin type and I personally use LRP's effaclar Medicated line of cleanser because the normal effaclar cleanser's efficacy wasn't as high. We use to also use LRP toner but recently switched to AHA/BHA toners that we use a few times a week... the AHA/BHA combo does not feel as harsh as LRP's Effaclar Lotion Astringent toner (not sure if that's because of the diff active ingredient or just placebo effect)?

Wait, (18:30) the "kind of pimples that someone over the course of the day is going to come along and pop FOR YOU"?!!! In what dystopian dermatological hellscape do you exist Maxfield?

Could you explain or link an explanation of the difference between AHA, BHA and azelaic acid?

Love you guys thanks for making me smile 😃🤗❤️

Since we are beekeepers, we use our filtered (of wings, etc) but not heated raw honey: spot treatment, burns, and some wounds.