11 year old and spots

[shins]

My daughter is hitting adolescence hard, it all seems to be going on at the moment with physical and emotional changes. She's quite bothered about the breakouts of spots and blackheads she's been getting. I don't think it's acne as such, just clusters on her chin and nose and forehead. It looks hormonal. She already cleans with cotton wool and micellar water, but she seems a bit young to be using loads of products.

She has very different skin to me (olive toned and oily whereas I'm fairskinned and dryish) so I don't know what's best. Anyone had to deal with very young spotty skin? I wish she wasn't self-conscious about it but she is, and I'd like to help.

Any spot is acne.

Look at Caroline Hirons cleansing cheat sheet & take her to the gp because you can scar really easily.

Dark skin can get post inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

Both my DC use this

DD is 11 with a few spots, she also uses micellar water and cotton pads but needs this to clean properly.

DS has a fringe and is therefore very prone to spots so this clears them and keeps them at bay.

When I say spots DD can get the odd skin coloured pin size bump in her forehead.

micellar water best just used a make up removal not as main cleanse. I would get her a mom foaming cleanser that you wash of with a flannel. Superdrug radiant hot cloth cleanser is a decent one and doesn’t break the bank usually have offers too. Followed by moisturising.

Non* foaming not mom lol

From my own experience, try to avoid too many Clearsil-type products, which strip the skin's oils and leave you even spottier (ime, anyway). Gentle is the way to go overall, with a topical treatment when needed. I have a gel from Clinique which nukes the little bastard things very effectively.

I have found that using Simple's moisturising facewash with a clean hot flannel every night has helped too. You have to be scrupulous about having a clean flannel though, I get breakouts if I forget to get a fresh one out. Anything that is scented sets me off, and facemasks always seem to make it worse too. Honestly, I tried all sorts of pore closing, anti-spot washes, and they just made me worse. Gentle suits my skin so much better.

My mum used to take me to an old-style beautician for facials - she steamed your face and then got in there and squeezed everything! If that's an option, it might help a bit?

Bless her, we all know how much shit a little pimple can dump on your day.

DD11 has similar. I took her to GP and she was prescribed Duac Once for 12 weeks. She's used it for about 6 weeks so far and it has made a difference but not totally cleared it up.

She uses my La Roche-Posay Effacler facial wash morning and night, and same brand moisturiser in the morning, then Duac at night.

Do not use the Simple face wash, it strips your skin of its natural oils. The Neutrogena one is a good formula with salycilic acid, great for spots and kind to skin.

Also do not use the Neutrogena grapefruit wash as that will dry out skin etc

Firstly , there is nothing that she is doing 'wrong ' to cause this. It is a hormone related condition and not effected by food etc. Topical treatments containing benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid help by drying out the skin and are often available as washes to be used with cotton pads or a clean flannel. There is an element here also of exfoliation or any least rubbing off the excess sebum. Pleas make sure that flannel is clean each time.Don't moisturise. If the solution she is using makes her skin red , use it less frequently.
If this is inadequate after committed use for 2-3 months and particularly if she starts to scar then see your GP .

Thanks all, advice much appreciated. I'm a big fan of hot cloth cleansing myself so I'll start her on that and see how it goes.

She needs salycilic acid (as someone else pointed out). If she has oily skin it probably means she is overproducing sebum which clogs pores and causes spots. Salycilic acid breaks down the sebum and prevents / reduces spots.

This is a great product: La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo