The Best Face Serum for Every Skin Concern: Acne, Dark Spots, Texture, Scars and Fine Lines

There is a shoebox under my bathroom sink that I think about more than I should. It holds about forty serums. Some are half used, most are barely touched, and at least six have oxidised into a shade of orange that I now know means the vitamin C died months before I gave up on it.

I bought every one of those bottles for the same reason: something on the label sounded scientific, and something in the mirror was bothering me. What I never did was connect the two. I was buying ingredients the way you might buy lottery tickets, one at a time, hoping one of them would happen to be the right answer to a question I had not actually asked.

The thing that finally worked was not spending more. It was picking one molecule for one specific problem and then leaving it completely alone for twelve weeks.

So that is how I have organised this. Not by ingredient, not by trend, but by the thing you actually see when you look at your face. Find your problem below, and I will tell you which active to look for, what concentration is worth paying for, roughly how long it takes to work, and which brands we would actually put our own money on.

First, what a serum is even supposed to do

A serum is a lightweight, high concentration delivery vehicle, and it goes between cleansing and moisturising for a reason. Its molecules are small enough to move past the stratum corneum, which is the outermost layer of dead, flattened skin cells that acts as your body's waterproof roof. Moisturiser then goes on top and slows transepidermal water loss, the technical term for water evaporating out through that roof.

In plain language: the serum does the work, and the moisturiser stops the work from drying you out. That is the entire relationship. If you take nothing else from this post, take the order. Cleanse, then thinnest serum, then thicker serum, then moisturiser, then sunscreen in the morning.

The non-negotiable that comes before any serum

I need to get this out of the way before we talk about a single product, because everything below depends on it.

Every brightening and anti-ageing serum in this post is working against ultraviolet damage. If you skip sunscreen, you are bailing out a boat with a hole in the bottom. The strongest evidence for this comes from the Nambour trial in Queensland, Australia, which randomised 903 adults to either daily sunscreen or sunscreen at their own discretion, then measured skin micro-topography 4.5 years later.

"The daily sunscreen group showed no detectable increase in skin aging after 4.5 years."

Hughes MCB, Williams GM, Baker P, Green AC, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013

Not slower ageing. No detectable increase. The daily group also showed 24% less photoaging than the discretionary group. I wish someone had shown me that number when I was twenty two and buying my third serum.

1. If you have active acne

Look for: salicylic acid 0.5% to 2%, azelaic acid 10%, niacinamide 4% to 10%

If you are dealing with breakouts right now, you are in enormous company. Global Burden of Disease data puts acne at 9.4% of the world's population, which makes it "the eighth most prevalent disease worldwide" according to Tan and Bhate's 2015 review in the British Journal of Dermatology. That figure covers all ages and every ethnic group, which is worth remembering the next time a product markets itself as a teenage problem.

Understanding the mechanism changes which bottle you reach for. Acne starts with follicular hyperkeratinisation, meaning the cells lining your pore stop shedding properly and form a plug. Oil backs up behind that plug, Cutibacterium acnes multiplies happily in the low oxygen environment, and your immune system shows up with inflammation. That inflammation is the red, sore, painful part.

Salicylic acid is the one I reach for first because it is lipophilic, which just means oil-loving. A water-soluble acid sits on the surface. Salicylic acid dissolves down into the sebum inside the pore and dismantles the plug from the inside. The technical word for that is comedolytic, and it is the reason salicylic acid works on blackheads when nothing else does.

Azelaic acid is the most underrated ingredient in this entire post, and I say that having ignored it for years. It is a dicarboxylic acid that does three jobs at once. It is antibacterial against C. acnes, it is anti-inflammatory, and it inhibits tyrosinase, the enzyme that manufactures pigment. That third property is the good part: it treats the spot and the brown mark the spot leaves behind. Most over-the-counter serums run 10%, prescription strength runs 15% to 20%.

Niacinamide is the supporting player rather than the star. Vitamin B3 regulates oil, calms redness, and strengthens the barrier so your skin can actually tolerate the harsher actives sitting next to it.

Salicylic acid vs benzoyl peroxide

This is the comparison I get asked about most, so let me be direct about it.

Salicylic acid gets inside the pore and clears the plug. It is your answer for blackheads, whiteheads, congested T-zones and generally oily skin. It will not bleach your towels, and at 2% it is gentler on the barrier than most people expect.

Benzoyl peroxide works differently. It releases oxygen into the follicle and kills bacteria there. It is your answer for red, angry, inflamed papules and pustules. It is more drying, it will absolutely ruin your pillowcases, and it is rarely sold as a serum.

How I choose: if the bumps are skin coloured and do not hurt, salicylic acid. If they are red and sore, benzoyl peroxide as a short contact wash, with a niacinamide or azelaic serum layered on afterward. A lot of people genuinely need both, just not at the same time of day.

What we would buy: The Ordinary Salicylic Acid 2% Solution is the cheapest credible entry point at around $10. The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% costs about $12 and has a slightly grainy cream-gel texture that is worth pushing through. Naturium Azelaic Topical Acid 10% runs about $20 and blends in niacinamide and vitamin C for a smoother finish. If your skin is reactive, La Roche-Posay Effaclar Serum at around $45 is fragrance free and built for exactly that. Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid at about $35 is technically a leave-on exfoliant rather than a serum, and it is still the benchmark.

Timeline: six to eight weeks. Expect things to look worse in weeks two and three as deeper microcomedones surface. If you are still breaking out at week twelve, that is a signal to see a dermatologist, not to buy a fourth bottle.

2. If you have dark spots and uneven tone

Look for: L-ascorbic acid 10% to 20%, niacinamide 4% to 5%, alpha arbutin 2%, tranexamic acid 3% to 5%

Pigment is the slowest thing on this list to fix and the easiest to accidentally make worse, so I want to be precise about what each ingredient is doing.

Melanin gets produced inside cells called melanocytes, packaged into little parcels called melanosomes, and then handed off to the surrounding skin cells. You can intervene at the production stage or at the handoff stage, and different ingredients do different ones.

Vitamin C intervenes at production by inhibiting tyrosinase, and it doubles as an antioxidant that mops up the free radicals UV light generates. The catch is formulation, and this is where most people waste money. Pure L-ascorbic acid is chemically unstable and pH dependent. Pinnell's absorption research at Duke found it "must be formulated at pH levels less than 3.5 to enter the skin," with maximal absorption at 20%. This is exactly why a beautifully packaged, neutral pH vitamin C serum can do essentially nothing. And if your bottle has turned dark orange, it has oxidised, and you are patting inert liquid onto your face.

Niacinamide intervenes at the handoff stage instead, and the data genuinely surprised me when I first read it. Hakozaki and colleagues at Procter and Gamble found niacinamide suppressed melanosome transfer by 35% to 68% in controlled models, without touching melanocyte count or melanin synthesis at all.

There is a second study I think about often. Navarrete-Solís and colleagues ran a split-face trial on 27 melasma patients, treating one side with 4% niacinamide and the other with 4% hydroquinone, which is the long-standing gold standard. After eight weeks, 44% of patients had good to excellent improvement with niacinamide against 55% with hydroquinone. But side effects ran 18% with niacinamide against 29% with hydroquinone.

Read that trade-off carefully, because it is the entire argument for niacinamide. You give up a little efficacy against the strongest option available, and you get roughly a third fewer adverse reactions in exchange.

Tranexamic acid is where I go when vitamin C and niacinamide have plateaued. It has an unusual origin story: it began as an oral drug for controlling bleeding, and dermatologists noticed their patients' melasma fading as an unintended side effect. Applied topically it works on the vascular and inflammatory signalling that drives stubborn, hormonal pigmentation. Look for 3% to 5%.

Vitamin C vs niacinamide

Vitamin C blocks pigment production and gives you daytime antioxidant protection, which makes it a morning product under sunscreen. It is unstable, it can sting, it oxidises visibly, and it carries a higher irritation risk on sensitive skin.

Niacinamide blocks pigment transfer and strengthens the barrier while it does so. It works morning or night and plays well with nearly everything. It is slower and quieter, and above roughly 10% some people flush or get small bumps.

How I choose: vitamin C in the morning, niacinamide at night, and I would like everyone to stop worrying about the old internet rule that you cannot combine them. That claim traces back to laboratory conditions involving heat that simply do not exist on your face. If a combined product feels fine on your skin, it is fine.

What we would buy: Good Molecules Discoloration Correcting Serum is startling value at around $12 for tranexamic acid plus niacinamide. The Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA at about $10 is a gentle tyrosinase inhibitor and a sensible beginner move. Naturium Tranexamic Topical Acid 5% gets you a higher concentration for roughly $20. Paula's Choice CLINICAL Discoloration Repair Serum at around $52 pairs tranexamic acid with bakuchiol for mild retinoid-like support. And SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic at around $182 is the 15% L-ascorbic benchmark that everything else gets compared to. It is expensive, and it does earn it.

Timeline: eight to sixteen weeks, and only if you wear sunscreen every day. Pigment is the one concern where skipping SPF does not slow your progress. It cancels it.

3. If you have a deeper skin tone

Look for: azelaic acid 10%, tranexamic acid, niacinamide, and a very slow retinoid ramp

This gets its own section because the standard advice actively fails here, and I have watched friends learn that the hard way.

On Fitzpatrick skin types IV through VI, melanocytes are more reactive. Any insult sets off pigment production: a picked pimple, an over-exfoliated patch, a laser setting that runs too hot, even a bug bite. The result is post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, or PIH, which is flat brown or grey-brown marks that outlast the original problem by months.

The strategic implication is counterintuitive and it took me a while to internalise. On deeper skin tones, the aggressive route is usually the slower route, because every episode of irritation creates fresh pigment while you are still fading the old pigment. I would rather use a gentle active for six months than a harsh one for six weeks followed by a whole new crop of marks.

That is why azelaic acid is our first recommendation here. It fades pigment while reducing the inflammation that generates more of it, and it has a long safety record on melanin-rich skin. Tranexamic acid is the second pick for the same logic. Niacinamide belongs in the routine permanently. Retinoids belong there too, but introduced at low strength, twice a week, buffered with moisturiser, and increased over months rather than weeks.

What I would avoid: high-percentage at-home peels, physical scrubs, and stacking three exfoliating acids into one week. I would also be genuinely careful with unregulated skin lightening creams, some of which have been found to contain mercury or undeclared high-dose steroids. If you want hydroquinone, get it from a dermatologist who will cycle it properly, not from an unlabelled jar.

What we would buy: Topicals Faded Serum at around $40 combines azelaic, tranexamic and niacinamide with PIH explicitly as the design brief. The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% gives you the same headline active for about $12 with a less elegant texture. The INKEY List Tranexamic Acid Night Treatment at around $18 brightens overnight without adding an acid load.

4. If your skin is bumpy and gritty

Look for: lactic acid 5% to 10%, mandelic acid, salicylic acid, adapalene 0.1%

If you run a finger across your forehead or cheeks and feel sandpaper without really seeing anything, you almost certainly have closed comedones. These are plugged follicles that never opened, so they never oxidised into blackheads and never inflamed into pimples. They just sit there, invisible in a bathroom mirror and painfully obvious in raking window light.

Two levers work here. The first is chemical exfoliation to loosen the plugs from above. Lactic acid is an alpha hydroxy acid with a relatively large molecule, which is a feature rather than a flaw. It penetrates less aggressively than glycolic acid and hydrates while it exfoliates. Mandelic acid has an even larger molecule and is my default suggestion for anyone with sensitivity or a deeper skin tone.

The second lever is normalising cell turnover so the plugs stop forming in the first place. That is a retinoid's job, and adapalene 0.1% is available over the counter in most markets. It is the single most effective option in this section, and it is also the one most likely to make your skin look worse for a month before it looks better.

AHA vs BHA

Alpha hydroxy acids like glycolic, lactic and mandelic are water soluble. They work on the surface, loosening the bonds between dead cells, and they add hydration on the way. Best for dullness, rough patches, fine surface lines and general sun damage.

Beta hydroxy acid, meaning salicylic acid, is oil soluble. It travels into the pore and clears it from the inside, and it is anti-inflammatory as a bonus. Best for blackheads, closed comedones and oily, congested skin.

How I choose: if the problem is on the surface, AHA. If the problem is inside the pore, BHA. Two to three nights a week is plenty for either one. Using acids every single day is the most common way I have watched people destroy their own barrier, including me.

One quick footnote for bumps that are not on your face. Persistent rough bumps on the backs of your arms or thighs are probably keratosis pilaris, a genetic keratin plugging of the hair follicle. It responds to urea and lactic acid body lotions, not to facial serums, and it is managed rather than cured.

What we would buy: The Ordinary Lactic Acid 5% + HA at around $10 is the gentlest possible place to start with AHAs. Naturium Mandelic Acid Serum 12% costs about $20 and is genuinely low irritation. Differin Gel at around $15 is not a serum at all, and it is still the most effective texture fix on this page.

5. If you have acne scars, or think you do

Look for: retinoids and azelaic acid for marks. For real scars, procedures.

I want to be honest here because a lot of marketing is not. Most of what people call an acne scar is not a scar, and the distinction decides whether a serum can help you at all.

Post-inflammatory erythema, or PIE, is flat and pink or red. It is dilated capillaries left behind by inflammation. It usually fades on its own over months, and azelaic acid, niacinamide and disciplined sun protection speed that up.

Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, or PIH, is flat and brown. It is excess melanin, and it responds to everything in section two.

Atrophic scarring is textural. Ice pick, boxcar and rolling scars are indentations where inflammation destroyed collagen and the tissue healed short. Here is the simplest test I know: run a finger over it with your eyes closed. If you can feel a divot, it is a scar. If you can only see it, it is a mark.

And here is the part serum brands almost never say out loud. No topical serum rebuilds lost dermal collagen inside an indentation. Retinoids can soften the shoulders of shallow scars slightly over a year or more of consistent use, which is worth doing on its own merits. But if the goal is meaningfully filling in a boxcar scar, the tools are microneedling, radiofrequency microneedling, fractional laser resurfacing, subcision and TCA CROSS, and all of them happen in a clinic.

My practical advice: treat the marks with serums, treat the scars with procedures, and treat the active acne before either. There is no point resurfacing skin that is still producing new lesions.

6. If you are seeing your first fine lines

Look for: retinal 0.05% to 0.1%, retinol 0.3% to 1%, or peptides if retinoids are off the table

Everything in the retinoid family eventually converts into retinoic acid, which is the only form your skin's receptors actually recognise. The differences between products come down to how many enzymatic conversion steps sit between the molecule you apply and the molecule your receptors read. Every step loses some of the dose.

Retinyl esters sit three steps away, which makes them very gentle and very slow. Retinol sits two steps away and is the well-studied, widely available default. Retinal, short for retinaldehyde, sits one step away and is more bioavailable at a lower percentage. Tretinoin is retinoic acid itself, prescription only, best evidence, harshest experience.

You will see brands claim retinal works "up to 11 times faster" than retinol. That figure comes from bioavailability work rather than head-to-head clinical trials, and honest formulators will tell you the real-world gap is narrower than the marketing implies. The conversion-step logic is sound. The multiplier is a sales number.

Retinol vs retinal

Retinol needs two conversion steps. It is available everywhere from about $10 upward and has decades of clinical data behind it. It is slower to show results, typically eight to twelve weeks, and it gives reactive skin a gentler ramp.

Retinal needs one conversion step, so a lower percentage does more work. It is also antibacterial against C. acnes, which makes it a nice fit if you have adult acne alongside early ageing. It costs more, and encapsulation quality varies enormously between brands.

How I choose: adherence beats potency every single time. A well-formulated retinol used four nights a week for three months will outperform a stronger retinal you abandoned in week two because your face was peeling. Pick the strength you will genuinely keep using.

On timing, collagen density declines steadily from your twenties onward, so the intelligent move is prevention rather than repair. If you are in your mid twenties and seeing lines that stay put when your face is completely at rest, that is the moment to start. If retinoids are not an option, and they are not during pregnancy or breastfeeding, peptides are the reasonable alternative. Signal peptides such as Matrixyl and copper tripeptides are short chains of amino acids that nudge fibroblasts toward collagen production. The effect size is smaller than a retinoid. The irritation is close to zero.

One technique genuinely rescued my retinoid routine, so I will pass it on. Apply a thin layer of plain moisturiser, wait five minutes, apply the retinoid, then moisturise again. This buffers the delivery without meaningfully reducing efficacy, and for me it was the difference between tolerating a retinoid and quitting one. Start twice a week. Only increase after two full weeks pass with no flaking.

What we would buy: The Ordinary Retinal 0.2% Emulsion gives you encapsulated retinal for around $12, which is remarkable. CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum at about $20 has ceramides built in and is forgiving for beginners. Medik8 Crystal Retinal comes in a six-strength ladder from roughly $50 to $100 and is my pick if you want structure to climb over a year. The Ordinary Multi-Peptide + HA Serum at around $18 is the pregnancy-safe alternative.

7. If your skin has lost its glow

Look for: vitamin C in the morning, mandelic or lactic acid twice weekly, hyaluronic acid plus glycerin

Dull is a description of light, not a diagnosis. Skin looks radiant when its surface is smooth enough to reflect light coherently and hydrated enough to be slightly translucent. It looks flat when dead corneocytes pile up unevenly and scatter light in every direction, and when the tissue underneath is dehydrated.

So glow is a three-part fix. Exfoliate gently to smooth the reflective surface. Add antioxidants to counteract the oxidative damage that yellows skin over time. And hydrate properly, which is the part almost everyone gets wrong, including me for about six years.

Hyaluronic acid is a humectant, meaning it binds water. It gets advertised as holding up to a thousand times its weight in water, and that is perfectly true in a beaker. On your face, the direction water travels depends on the humidity around you. Applied to dry skin in a dry environment with nothing sealed over the top, a humectant can pull moisture up from deeper layers and let it evaporate, which leaves you tighter than when you started. The fix is embarrassingly simple. Apply hyaluronic acid to damp skin, then seal it with a moisturiser containing an occlusive such as squalane, petrolatum or a ceramide blend.

What we would buy: The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 at around $10 uses multiple molecular weights plus panthenol. Timeless 20% Vitamin C + E + Ferulic at about $25 is a well-regarded clone of the expensive benchmark. La Roche-Posay Hyalu B5 Serum at around $40 delivers hydration with real barrier support and is very well tolerated. Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum at about $17 is a gentler route to luminosity.

8. If everything suddenly stings

Look for: ceramides, panthenol, centella asiatica, squalane, and nothing else for two weeks

I am including this last because in my experience it is the most common self-inflicted skin problem, and it does an excellent impression of sensitivity.

The signs are recognisable once you know them. Products that used to be fine now sting. Your skin feels tight after cleansing. You have flaking in places you never had flaking. You are suddenly reactive to things that never bothered you.

That is a compromised lipid barrier, and it is usually caused by running too many actives at once. Your stratum corneum is often described as bricks and mortar, where corneocytes are the bricks and a lipid matrix of ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids is the mortar. Over-exfoliation strips out the mortar. Water leaves, irritants get in, and everything you apply stings.

The treatment is subtraction, not addition. Stop every acid, every retinoid and every vitamin C for two full weeks. Cleanser, a ceramide moisturiser, sunscreen. That is the whole routine. Then reintroduce one active at a time, a fortnight apart, and pay attention to what happens.

What we would buy: The Ordinary Soothing and Barrier Support Serum at around $16 combines centella with a fatty acid blend. La Roche-Posay Cicaplast B5 Serum at about $40 uses panthenol and madecassoside and is reliably calming. CeraVe Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Serum at around $18 puts ceramides and hydration in one boring, effective step.

A routine you can actually keep

Here is how I would assemble all of the above without stacking five actives on a Tuesday night.

In the morning: gentle cleanser or a plain water rinse, then vitamin C or niacinamide, then a hydrating serum on damp skin if you want one, then moisturiser, then sunscreen at SPF 30 or higher.

In the evening: gentle cleanser, double cleansing if you wore sunscreen and makeup, then your treatment serum, meaning a retinoid or an acid or a brightener, alternating on different nights rather than layering them. Then a hydrating or barrier serum, then moisturiser applied more generously than you did in the morning.

That is it. Two actives a day, split across morning and evening, alternating through the week.

Five mistakes I made so you do not have to

Quitting at week three. Nearly every active here needs eight to twelve weeks. Skin cell turnover alone takes roughly 28 days in your twenties and longer as you age, so a four week trial tells you almost nothing except whether you tolerate the product.

Introducing three products at once. When your skin reacts, you have no idea which bottle did it. One new product per fortnight, always. I know it feels agonisingly slow. It is faster than starting over.

Treating exfoliation as a daily habit. Two to three times a week is the ceiling for most people, and once a week is genuinely enough for many.

Buying by price signal. Percentage, pH, packaging and formulation determine whether an active works. A $12 azelaic serum in an opaque tube frequently outperforms a $90 serum sitting in a clear glass dropper bottle slowly oxidising on your shelf.

Chasing brightness while ignoring sunscreen. This is the one that cost me the most time and the most money. See the Nambour trial above, then go buy a sunscreen you actually enjoy wearing.

Questions I get asked constantly

How many serums can I safely layer? Two per routine, three at absolute most, applied thinnest to thickest. Beyond that you are mostly diluting each product while multiplying your irritation risk. Splitting actives between morning and evening beats stacking them every time.

Can I really not use vitamin C and niacinamide together? You can. The concern came from laboratory work where L-ascorbic acid and niacinamide were combined under heat and formed nicotinic acid, which can cause temporary flushing. Those conditions do not exist in a modern formulation sitting on your face.

Do I need a serum at all if my skin is fine? No. Cleanser, moisturiser and daily sunscreen handle the fundamentals completely. A serum is for a specific concern you want to change. If you do not have one, adding actives introduces risk with no matching benefit.

Which serums should I avoid during pregnancy? All retinoids, including retinol, retinal and prescription tretinoin, plus high-percentage salicylic acid. Azelaic acid, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and vitamin C are generally considered acceptable, but confirm everything with your obstetrician, because guidance varies and formulas contain far more than the headline active.

Is an expensive serum actually better? Sometimes, and usually for reasons of stability rather than potency. Vitamin C is the clearest case, where formulation, pH and airtight packaging genuinely justify the price. For niacinamide, azelaic acid and hyaluronic acid, budget formulas frequently match premium ones on the active that matters.

When should I stop experimenting and see a dermatologist? If you have cystic or nodular acne, scarring that is actively forming, melasma that keeps returning, or any lesion that changes in size, colour or shape. Three months of a well-chosen routine with no improvement is also a fair trigger. Prescription options work faster than anything on a shelf, and a dermatologist can rule out conditions that look like acne but are not, such as rosacea or fungal folliculitis.

Where I would start tomorrow

If you read all of this and still feel stuck, here is the smallest possible version. Buy one azelaic acid serum for about $12 and one sunscreen you like the feel of. Use both for twelve weeks. Change nothing else.

Azelaic acid is the closest thing to a universal answer in this post, because it treats active spots, fades the marks they leave, calms redness, and is safe on every skin tone. It will not fix everything. It will fix more than the shoebox under my sink ever did.

Sources

Hughes MCB, Williams GM, Baker P, Green AC. Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013;158(11):781-790. PubMed 23732711
Tan JKL, Bhate K. A global perspective on the epidemiology of acne. British Journal of Dermatology. 2015;172(S1):3-12. PubMed 25597339
Hakozaki T, Minwalla L, Zhuang J, et al. The effect of niacinamide on reducing cutaneous pigmentation and suppression of melanosome transfer. British Journal of Dermatology. 2002;147(1):20-31. PubMed 12100180
Navarrete-Solís J, Castanedo-Cázares JP, Torres-Álvarez B, et al. A double-blind, randomized clinical trial of niacinamide 4% versus hydroquinone 4% in the treatment of melasma. Dermatology Research and Practice. 2011;2011:379173. PMC3142702
Pinnell SR, Yang H, Omar M, et al. Topical L-ascorbic acid: percutaneous absorption studies. Dermatologic Surgery. 2001;27(2):137-142. PubMed 11207686
Bissett DL, Miyamoto K, Sun P, Li J, Berge CA. Topical niacinamide reduces yellowing, wrinkling, red blotchiness, and hyperpigmented spots in aging facial skin. International Journal of Cosmetic Science. 2004;26(5):231-238.

Prices are approximate and change frequently. Verify current pricing and formulations before buying, since brands reformulate without renaming products. This article is educational and is not medical advice. If you have persistent, painful, scarring or rapidly changing skin problems, please see a board certified dermatologist.