I’ve always said that having a well-hydrated skin is the key to having a good skin. I have said it many times here in the blog but yet I still make the first fundamental mistake. That, is to forget that acne marks took a long time to disappear due to dehydrated skin.

It wasn’t until 2 weeks ago when I paid a visit to Premier Clinic TTDI that I was reminded about how a well-hydrated skin will get rid of acne marks. I was like ‘God! How on earth did I forget about that?’. Indeed I have.

It all started around 2 months ago that I kept getting acne breakout on the lower right side of my face. I suspect it was because I only sleep on my right side. But I have been sleeping only on my right side for years. Why now? Then I suspect it was the towel I had on my pillow but then again, I wash it on alternate days. I assumed it was partly the sleeping posture, the towel, the stress, and the hormonal changes that contributed to the continuous breakout attack. It was stressful for me as the acne was huge and painful and the fact that the breakout did not have a chance to heal and the next thing I know, another acne breakout came again and again. My skin condition 2 weeks ago was at the dullest and I have deep red and black-ish huge acne marks on my right face. I went to Premier Clinic for a treatment (which I’ll tell you about it this week) and the beauty consultant ask me if I know how to deal with it. She said it will take at least a few months to disappear, which I agree and I said I usually apply lots of whitening cream diligently day and night to help lighten the marks. She then said something so brilliant that no one ever said it to me before. She said ‘do you know that the skin on top of the acne marks are dry that is why they are dark in colour so all you need to do is to apply hydrating mask everyday’. That was honestly the most simple and straight forward solution to my problem, that I wished I had told myself 😛 . I took her advise and I’m happy to share with you what I did and how it had helped my skin in such a big way.

I still go through the whole day skincare routine and night skincare routine BUT I emphasised on two main products targeting to different skin needs. (1) A whitening cream and (2) a hydration mask. These are the two products that played a main role and it’s a must to apply nightly.

Whitening Cream

I’m currently trialling the new Dr. Jart+ V7 Toning Light Cream. This is a powerful, rich and yet matte whitening cream. It’s texture is quite unique and new to me. I actually love it a lot. An in-depth review will be up hopefully by this week as well.

Whitening cream play an important role in lightening acne marks, however it is not the primary product. I’m using it to help lighten the stubborn marks faster. It usually works on it’s own and it works even better under hydrating mask. The brand to use is not important. As long as it’s a whitening cream that works for you then it’s fine. Make sure it is not the type that makes your skin dry because a dry skin is the last thing we want.

Hydration Mask

The beauty consultant told me to apply hydration mask daily and I didn’t have any at home that would sufficient for daily use. Thank goodness I have a big jar of Laneige Water Sleeping Mask at home and I happily apply the mask on top of all the skincare products before I go to bed. This mask is meant for the use of 2 to 3 times a week so I was a little bit paranoid in using it daily. But I went ahead with it anyway. So far, after using it daily for 2 weeks straight, I’m glad to report my skin did not react badly to it. In fact, I benefited quite a bit in the most unexpected way.

I didn’t really notice any changes with my skin and complexion as I was too focused on the acne marks. On day to day basis I notice the acne marks changes from deep red to pink and from black to brown then to light brown. It was only a few days ago that I notice how smooth my under eyes was under makeup and I suspect it was from the sleeping mask, which I think I accidentally over applied to my under eye. So for the past few days I applied a thin layer of Laneige Water Sleeping Mask on my under eye on purpose and I notice how plump and smooth my under eyes has been 🙂

Because of the under eye incident, I start to take notice of my face and complexion. My face is noticeably brighter, plumper, smoother, clearer and of course, well-hydrated from the daily use of hydration mask. Maybe not clearer complexion to you but to me, this is the clearest complexion I have had so far. I started this special care routine to take care of my acne marks but I gained 2 extra benefits from it.

Now the acne marks. I tried this method not knowing it will work so I did not take any ‘before’ photo 🙁 . I should have taken it as you will be shocked with the difference it makes. What you are seeing below is an ‘after’ photo of using hydration mask daily for 2 weeks straight. Imagine the below at 6X worse, darker and redder. The larger marks used to be black-ish and larger, the smaller ones used to be deep red. Some smaller/medium marks that are brown has more or less disappeared 🙂 . Before this I spent a good 15 minutes trying to cover up with concealer. Now I can just apply a layer of powder on the weekend and go out the door 🙂

Warning: Ugly photos ahead!

There you have it. Definitely not a rocket science and I know I sounded like an excited kid with this beauty tips but sometimes we tend to forget the simplest anatomy and that is hydration. I certainly did not expect hydration could be such a big help in lighten acne marks as all these while I depend heavily on whitening products. Even though so, I still believe whitening cream helps to speed up the process thus the combination of whitening cream with hydration mask.

If you’re suffering from stubborn acne marks, try this hydration mask method and let me know if it works for you well as it did for me 🙂