February 23, 2021 

“As skin care concerns like maskne continue to plague the complexions of beauty lovers everywhere, many have enlisted the help of the best acne serums for clear skin to help restore balance and evenness to their skin,” explains WWD. “Unlike moisturizers and spot treatments, serums are designed to absorb quickly into the skin and deeply penetrate the pores, delivering active blemish-busting ingredients like glycolic acid more directly to the affected areas.”

For fast relief from breakouts, a glycolic acid acne serum can help to effectively target and tame blemishes.

Acne serums are an especially powerful way to combat acne because serums can deliver a more intense dose of active ingredients, like glycolic acid, deep into the skin.

“The main reason serums are able to do this is because of what they do not contain,” Kenneth Howe, board-certified dermatologist, told Allure. “In contrast to moisturizers, serums don’t contain air-tight, occlusive ingredients, which allow them to penetrate more deeply into the epidermis, carrying their active ingredients with them.”

In particular, glycolic acid acne serums are especially helpful for targeting breakouts because of the AHA’s powerful exfoliating and antibacterial properties.

Glycolic acid is one of the best ingredients for an acne serum because it is a superior chemical exfoliator. 

“Exfoliating is a key part of the skincare process—especially if you’re combating acne,” celebrity esthetician Renee Rouleau told Byrdie.

As the smallest member of the Alpha Hydroxy Acid family, glycolic acid can best penetrate the skin cell and work to dissolve pore-clogging debris. Once applied, glycolic acid rapidly works to sweep out dead skin cells, excess sebum, and dirt from pores. By peeling away these contaminants, glycolic acid can help to reduce blemishes down and keep pores cleaner.

Additionally, glycolic acid is excellent for potent acne serums because of its ability to kill Cutibacterium acnes cells via the disruption of bacterial cell membranes.

According to the findings of a recent study:

“Glycolic acid is the smallest alpha hydroxy acid and widely used for skincare applications, including to treat acne vulgaris. Herein, we report that glycolic acid exhibits pH-dependent antibacterial activity against C. acnes and mechanistic studies identified that the nonionic form of glycolic acid is more active than the anionic form. In light of skincare formulation needs, we selected the pH 3.5 condition for further testing and determined that glycolic acid kills C. acnes cells by disrupting bacterial cell membranes.” pH-Dependent Antibacterial Activity of Glycolic Acid: Implications for Anti-Acne Formulations, Scientific Reports volume 10, Article number: 7491

These antibacterial and antimicrobial properties make glycolic acid an especially helpful ingredient to add into a breakout-busting facial serum.

Consumers love facial serums that quickly and effectively work to resolve or improve skincare issues. For acne sufferers, a glycolic acid acne serum is the perfect product to gently exfoliate the skin, reduce the run time of a breakout, and help prevent blackheads, whiteheads, and blemishes.

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