How To Reduce Acne Marks Fast? 6 Simple Steps

Every time you look at a mirror, and you still see acne marks. You feel so down and less confident to do anything at all. It really is not a nice moment in women’s life. And yet, we all seem to keep getting pimples and struggle to get rid of them. You keep wondering “how can I reduce acne marks fast?!”

In this article, I’m going to share a method that I use to reduce acne marks. It is a Japanese way – particularly the diet. It is what I learned from my grandmother, mother and aunt as well as my research in Japanese.

Learn what Japanese women do to remove acne marks, and you can start applying their techniques today! Ready?

Let’s dive in now!

Difference Between Acne Marks and Scars

Did you know acne marks and acne scars are two different things?

To treat acne marks, it is important to know the difference between the two so that you can treat it in the right way.

Acne Marks (Red, Dark)

After pimples heal, you may get a pink or dark mark on the skin where the blister was. Many people confuse them with acne scars, but they are NOT actually scars

How does it happen?

They appear as inflammation in the area where the skin is healing. Inflammation occurs when the body tries to heal itself, and it is the body’s natural response to the skin.

While it heals, the area stays red, and it looks like a red spot. The redness is a sign that the skin is still creating inflammation as it heals. Red marks are smooth, unlike scars which are raised or intended.

Another cause of redness is dilation of the blood vessels underneath the skin. The blood vessels open up as the surrounding cells try to repair themselves, which makes the area red. It will get less and less red as the repair completes.

It can take a few weeks to sometimes several months to heal, depending on the severity.

The red mark may turn dark as the repairing process prolongs. When it goes on for too long, it damages the skin, and it becomes dark. It’s called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

And, you may want to note that as you age, the skin’s turnover process slows down, and discolouration may linger anywhere from a few months to sometimes even a year or longer.

Now I’m in my late 30’s, I can see that it takes noticeably longer than before, but fortunately, the marks disappear in a month or so (phew!). It means there is no permanent collagen damage done yet!

Acne Scars

Acne scars occur when the damaged skin produces collagen abnormally. They appear bumpy or raised, and unfortunately, they are permanent. Some scars are thick, and they look like craters.

There are five types of acne scars, and they are different beasts, so I will cover this topic in another post.

Let’s just focus on tackling acne marks in this post!

How To Reduce Acne Marks FAST

If you want to clear the skin FAST, make sure you do the following! Japanese women follow these rules to treat acne marks and it works!

They approach from the inside out. Particularly Japanese diet plays a big role.

From Within 

1.  Review your diet
2.  Secure sleep (particularly non-rem sleep)
3.  Take appropriate supplements

From Outside 

1.  Use a post-acne face lotion
2.  Cleanse your face the right way
3.  Wear sunscreen

Let’s go over each point in detail!

1. Review Your Diet

If you’ve been eating fatty foods and sugary snacks more than usual, they will keep you away from having clear skin! Those foods consume vitamins in the skin. Vitamins are vital to maintaining healthy skin.

Also, stay away from alcohol and spicy foods. They tend to increase inflammation further.

Foods to Eat More –> Vitamins!

They increase collagen production, helps regulate the sebum secretion level and reduce damage to cells. I list below some foods you can try (some are Japanese).

• Vitamin C

Green or yellow looking vegetables, red peppers, acerola cherries, guava, rosehip etc

• Vitamin B

Particularly B1, B2, B3, B5, B6

Nuts, natto, eels, tuna, cod roe (tarako), eggs, pork, chicken thighs, chicken livers etc

• Vitamin E

For antioxidant effect

Nuts, eels, soya products (tofu, miso, edamame)

• Vitamin A

To enhance the immune system.

Chicken levers, pork livers, eel, green and yellow vegetables, seaweed

• Zinc

To help rejuvenate the skin

Japanese root vegetables (daikon, gobo, renkon etc)

• Dietary Fiber

Regulate the bowel movements to help clear impurities

Natto, sweet potatoes, konjac, seaweed, Japanese mushrooms (shiitake, shimeji, enoki etc)

Another secret Japanese women follow is to drink green tea (NO sugar or milk added please!).

I always drank a type of green tea after a meal when I was growing up in Japan. It is part of the culture and an essential part of the Japanese diet.

My mother always used to say:

“Green tea is good for you. It helps digest fat, prevents cancer, and keeps your body clean. It’s also got an anti-ageing effect.

2. Secure Sleep (esp. NREM)

Having a good sleeping pattern is vital to maintaining healthy skin (well, for overall health!). During sleep, our body repairs and regrows tissues and cells, and the immune system gets strengthened.

Our sleep is made up of two types; REM and NREM. 75% of our sleep is NREM, and this is when all the miracles happen! During NREM, growth hormones are released, and they act to work on the skin’s regeneration process.

In Japan, people may have a bath or drink “Sayu (白湯)“ (distilled hot water) before sleep to help improve the quality of sleep. They are one of the Japanese beauty secrets!

Distilled hot water is believed to improve the blood flow, which in turn helps to remove impurities from the body. Many Japanese women drink it as part of their diet and beauty regime. It is also part of my beauty routines too, and I’ve been drinking “Sayu (白湯)” first thing in the morning and before bed for probably the last two decades.

I love drinking Sayu. It does feel like my body is happier and I can feel the purity of the water is feeding my body with the energy needed to stay beautiful 🙂

3. Take Appropriate Supplements

To speed up the healing process, take some beauty supplements that are specifically designed to work on acne marks!

You should try to take multivitamins (Vitamin B, C). They help support and promote cell renewal as well as stress relief (yay!). 

B Vitamins are necessary for almost every process in the body and deficiency in itself can cause acne, rashes, dry and flaky skin, cracked lips and wrinkles too (OMG!).

Also, it’s helpful to know that lacking B vitamins can make your skin sensitive to sunlight and personal care products, including your skincare products.

Japanese beauty supplements are good options if you don’t know where to start. My mother always had “Chocola BB® Plus” tables in stock for us. The tablets are gently on the stomach and easy to digest and yet work really well.

courtesy of brand

Chocola BB® Vitamin B 

So, take B vitamin complex! Not just to prevent acne, but it will generally help you maintain overall good health and anti-ageing. You can also try powder versions or drinks.

4. Use a Post-Acne Face Lotion

In Japan, you can get face lotions that are designed to combat acne marks, and they are really good! Those lotions contain ingredients which reduces redness and promote cell regeneration.

There is a long-bestseller face lotion called Skin Conditioner by ALBION.

courtesy of brand

It has been loved by Japanese women with all skin types ever since it was launched in 1974.

People lovingly call it “SkiCon“! You can check it out here.

It is designed to help regulate the skin’s turnover and promote healthy skin. I use it daily (morning and night) when I suffer from recurring acne. It really does help my acne marks calm down and regulate the skin condition well.

Below are the main benefits of using the Skin Conditioner. 

• Brightens the skin
• Regulates metabolism and soothes
• Removes excess sebum 
• Tighten the skin and restores firmness
• Minimise the redness with a cooling sensation

It soothes fine lines and voila my skin gets dewy again in a matter of days! 

After the lesion is gone, it is important to keep applying anti-inflammatory products together with a product that is going to help repair and fortify the skin barrier.

If you followed this principle, your skin becomes healthy again faster, and acne marks will be gone in no time! 

5. Cleanse Your Face the Right Way

I cannot stress enough how crucial it is to get the cleansing method right for the skin condition and the skin type. I get reminded of it myself still every time I suffer from stubborn pimples. 

If the cleansing product you are using does not suit your skin condition or type, it will have NO effect whatsoever no matter how expensive it is. In fact, it will most likely make it WORSE.

If you want to remove acne marks fast, you need to keep the skin free of bacteria and dirt with gentle exfoliation which encourages cellular renewal. Also, try not to touch the area with your fingers too often, so you don’t add any unnecessary dirt or bacteria to the skin!! It will delay the healing process,100%!

I personally recommend avoiding oil cleansers while the skin is healing.

I found milk type cleansers and micellar water cleansers are the perfect choices when combating acne marks. My absolute favourite is the Bioderma’s micellar water which I’ve been using for the last 15 years.

courtesy of brand

I also use the highest quality cotton pads I can find not to irritate my skin. I highly recommend Shiseido’s cotton pads. They are devinely soft and gentle on the skin.

courtesy of brand

Some cotton pads are cheaply made and really rough on the skin. (When I first moved to Europe, this was one of the first things I noticed coming from Japan actually!).

It is just not for acne prevention, but getting the cleansing method right is by far the most important element in anti-ageing. It decides the texture of the skin, the level of hydration, and if you’re doing it wrong, it will lead to dry skin (or oily skin even), breakouts, pimples, wrinkles, fast ageing etc.! So, always remember to pay extra attention there!

6. Wear Sunscreen

Wearing sunscreen is a great way to treat red spots, on top of using the appropriate acne treatment products. (Well, you should wear it all year round if you want to stay looking young!).

UV rays can cause inflammation and stimulate melanin cell production. It means your acne marks will stay darker (or redder) and visible for long. So, wear sunscreen EVEN IF it’s cloudy or rainy 😉 It will help speed up the healing and fading process for sure.

Plus, it might sound basic but wearing sunscreen is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to anti-ageing so!

My Experience and Advice on Acne

When it comes to acne, I’m not sure when I did not suffer from it! I just know that when pimples keep appearing, it’s my body crying for help. It is a sign of maybe stress, poor diet, wrong skincare products, wrong cleansing methods or a combination of all of them.

Pimples tend to appear when I am not listening to my body well enough. They attack me shouting ‘don’t neglect my needs’. They appear when I’m not respecting the unique needs of my skin. 

I’d been stressed over so many things lately, which led to poor sleeping patterns, mood swings, and poor diet. And guess what? My body punished me with stubborn acne for a month!! 

Now, I had to examine everything in my life and really listened to my own needs — deep introspection. I had to commit to changing all of my bad habits from the diet, skincare methods, morning and nighttime routines to everything that is connected to my wellbeing. 

After a week since then, the pimples started to disappear as I began to live in harmony with my body and skin. Now I am at the stage where I need to treat acne marks left, and focusing on below is making acne marks fade day by day 😉

From Within

1. Balanced diet (mainly Japanese diet)
2. Quality sleep
3. Beauty supplements

From Outside

1. Post-acne face lotion
2. Right cleansing method
3. Sunscreen

You can do it too! Hope you find my tips useful, but please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need any help! I’d love to help 🙂

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