Maskne: How to Prevent & Stop Mask Acne? (+ Treatment Tips)
Although surgical face masks have been always been around for health care workers and many others around the world, they really came into our mainstream in recent years. Face masks became a big part of all of our lives during the pandemic, and it has certainly taken an unexpected toll on our skin.
As we've become accustomed to wearing face masks, we've also unfortunately become a little too familiar with mask-related acne, which we call 'maskne'. Acne and its embarrassing blemishes are often caused by the constant wearing of face masks, with pimples, itching, and redness typically appearing around the mouth, jawline, and chin.
Maskne can happen even to those who had never experienced acne before. It's an annoying and unfortunate side effect of the pandemic, but thankfully it's one that's easy to prevent and treat. If you struggle with skin problems thanks to your face mask, here is your guide to solving them. We'll explain the many types and possible causes of maskne, and look at what are the top 10 skin care products to prevent and treat this condition.
How a Face Mask Can Affect Your Skin
Unfortunately, face mask skin problems aren't just limited to acne. There are a number of reasons that your skin could be flaring up when in contact with your face covering. Here are the main types of face mask related blemishes you could be seeing, and how you can identify them:
Bacterial Acne
Bacterial acne (acne vulgaris) is the most common type of acne, which happens when oil and dead skin clog your pores and allow bacteria to thrive. It's usually linked to hormonal changes and is characterized by whiteheads, blackheads, papules, and pustules.
Fungal Acne
Fungal acne is caused by an overgrowth of yeast that leads to an infection in your hair follicles. This tends to happen in moist, sweaty environments, which can become more common for your skin when we wear face masks in warm weather.
Fungal acne has similar symptoms to bacterial acne, but it is differentiated by stubborn blemishes that don't respond to normal treatment, as well as itching and irritation of the skin.
Acne Mechanica
Acne mechanica is a specific type of acne that is caused by friction, with inflammatory blemishes like pimples and nodules appearing in places where the skin has been rubbed, pinched, or stretched.
Some disposable masks can have a scratchy texture that causes this, but even a cloth mask can create friction. Unlike acne caused by bacteria or yeast, acne mechanica is a direct result of mechanical causes like friction and pressure.
Contact Dermatitis
Contact dermatitis is a skin condition caused by contact with a substance you are allergic to, leading to itching, redness, and inflammation. It often happens with new skincare products or laundry detergents that contain perfumes or other irritating ingredients, and it could be that you are slightly allergic to something in the material of your mask.
Eczema
Eczema is a preexisting skin condition that affects 1 in 10 people in the U.S., characterized by flare-ups of extreme dryness, sensitivity, itching, and flaking. There is no cure for eczema, only treatment and management of the symptoms. 1
For people with eczema, wearing a mask can cause flare-ups of skin problems, as friction from the mask can exacerbate sensitivity and cause itchy, dry, flaky skin.
More helpful reading: What is eczema?
Rosacea
Rosacea is another chronic skin condition that is incurable. It's characterized by flare-ups of redness, inflammation, dilated blood vessels, and red lumps that can sometimes be confused with acne. For people with rosacea, wearing a mask can lead to pesky flareups of redness and pimples.
Wondering how to treat rosacea? RenewSkin Inc. explains here.
What Causes Maskne?
Unfortunately for those of us who have to wear face masks regularly, the warm, moist environment between a face mask and your skin can create the perfect environment for any of the above-listed conditions to thrive. Mask-related acne and other skin blemishes can stem from the friction, humidity, and lack of oxygen that your lower face is suffering from.
Your mask-related skin issues may include:
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Pimples
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Redness
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Itching and irritation
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Peeling skin
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Dry skin
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Extra sensitive skin
The main cause of many facial blemishes is the build-up of dead skin, dirt, and bacteria on the surface of the skin. In humid, sweaty, or oily conditions like the area below your mask, these tend to stick around to clog pores and cause an array of unsightly blemishes.
Friction from the rubbing of your mask against your skin can also trigger redness, itching, and irritation, especially for those with a sensitive skin type or preexisting skin conditions like eczema or rosacea.
How to Prevent Face Mask Skin Problems
As always, prevention is better than cure, especially when it comes to skin issues like these. With some good mask hygiene and basic skincare, you can do a lot to prevent maskne or at least lessen its effects. Here are our expert tips on how to prevent maskne:
Choose the Right Mask
First things first, when choosing a face mask for the day ahead, make sure you have one that fits your face properly. A poorly fitting mask can cause unnecessary friction and irritate your skin, leading to acne mechanica or other forms of inflammation and redness.
Your face mask should fully cover your mouth and nose, fit neatly against the sides of your face with no gaps, have comfortable ear loops, and ideally have a wire that you can bend over your nose to keep it snug. You can adjust the ear loops and wires until it fits properly, avoiding unwanted friction.
If reusable masks are your choice, opt for breathable silk or cotton masks, and make sure to avoid masks made with synthetic fabrics. Don't forget to take regular breaks from your mask-wearing either, ideally taking it off to let your skin breathe at least once every four hours.
Wash Your Mask Regularly
Whether you choose to wear cloth masks or disposable masks or a combination of the two, it's so important that you keep your mask clean.
For cloth masks, you should wash them at the end of every day and not wear the same mask for two days in a row. Otherwise, bacteria, oil, dead skin, and dirt can build up on your mask and cause more skin problems for you. When washing your cloth mask, avoid scented detergent which may inadvertently cause allergic reactions. Instead, opt for a hypoallergenic laundry detergent to avoid skin irritation.
If using surgical masks, they should only be used once and ideally replaced every day. If you are wearing surgical masks for extended periods of time, ideally you would replace your disposable mask every four hours – especially if you have an acne-prone or oily skin type.
Keep Up With a Solid Skincare Routine
Wearing a mask every day can be hard on your skin at the best of times, so it's extra important that you maintain a good skincare routine that regularly cleanses, exfoliates, and moisturizes. We're not saying you need an elaborate ten-step Korean skin care routine, just a quick scrub to keep oil, dirt, and other nasties at bay. Here's how to do just that:
Use a Gentle Cleanser Daily
For skin that is irritated by a mask all day, choose a gentle cleanser to use morning and night to remove excess oil and dirt from your skin. Use lukewarm water and a light cleanser to gently cleanse your skin, patting dry to avoid rubbing the skin and exacerbating sensitivity.
Ideally, you would avoid harsh products and opt for a fragrance-free cleanser that is free from sulfates, parabens, and other potential irritants.
It also helps to wash your face with a fragrance-free cleanser after any time you've been wearing a mask, such as when you get home from work.
More helpful reading: https://www.renewskinco.com/blogs/i/best-face-wash
Exfoliate to Remove Dead Skin Cells
The majority of blemishes caused by face masks are down to clogged pores, which all come down to the build-up of dead skin and dirt on the surface of your skin.
The number one way to avoid blocked pores is to exfoliate your skin regularly, using either physical or chemical exfoliants. Physical exfoliants manually scrub away dead skin with a scrubbing action, using products like coffee granules or sugar. Chemical exfoliants use gentle acids to break down the bonds that bind dead skin cells to your face, allowing them to shed away naturally.
A light chemical exfoliating toner (with 5% or less of an ingredient like glycolic acid) is a great way to exfoliate on a daily basis. Physical exfoliants tend to be harsher on the skin, so they're best to avoid while you're struggling with sensitivity and skin problems.
Apply Moisturizer & Lip Balm
To finish off your skincare routine, it's important to moisturize your skin and lips to maintain a healthy skin barrier, giving your skin its best chance at keeping bacteria out. Not only that, it will help prevent and reduce dry skin and chapped lips, which can cause irritation and friction with your mask and worsen acne-like breakouts.
You can help prevent chapped lips by applying petroleum jelly before putting your mask on. You have to be careful when applying petroleum jelly to only cover the lips, and avoid the surrounding skin because it can cause irritation.
For your skin, choose a light face moisturizer packed with hydrating ingredients and protective antioxidants to help boost your skin's natural defenses against toxins.
Taut Intensive Recovery Serum is a powerful yet lightweight moisturizing serum that can give your blemish-prone skin a new lease of life. Formulated with 7 powerful botanical herbal extracts with proven antioxidant & anti-inflammatory properties, Taut Intensive Recovery Serum repairs stressed environmentally-damaged skin and reinforces your skin barrier.
This can help prevent breakouts, promoting radiance, clarity, and firmness that makeup can't deliver. Even better, it's gentle enough for dry and sensitive skin!
More helpful reading: https://www.renewskinco.com/blogs/i/best-face-serum
Avoid Oily Products & Makeup on Mask Days
After your morning skincare routine, you may be tempted to apply your makeup as usual before you head out the door. However, if you really want to avoid skin problems while wearing a mask, it's best to skip the foundation.
The truth is, you want to avoid all unnecessary pore-clogging products when wearing a mask, as these will only make your problems worse. That includes thick, heavy-duty moisturizers too. Of course, you should always apply moisturizer in the mornings, we just mean that you should choose a light, gel moisturizer that is non-comedogenic (i.e. it won't block your pores).
Even if you're the type to never leave the house without some makeup on, it is important to skip any makeup that would come into contact with your mask. Besides, your face mask will only rub the makeup off anyway – so don't be afraid to go au naturel.
More helpful reading: https://www.renewskinco.com/blogs/i/skincare-for-oily-skin
10 Expert Tips for Treating Maskne
So what if you're already struggling with maskne and preventative measures just won't cut it? Then it's time to break out the maskne treatments, which can help reduce and soothe your symptoms. Here are our top 10 expert tips to treat those existing blemishes and nurse your skin back to health:
1. Gently Hydrate & Soothe Your Skin
Irritated, red, raw skin is a common part of maskne, so it's important to find an effective dry skin treatment that will help banish these symptoms without clogging your pores.
The very best ingredients for irritated skin are humectants, which attract and retain water in the skin; emollients, which form a protective moisture barrier on the surface of your skin; and antioxidants, which repair and protect your skin from inflammation.
Choose a lightweight, fragrance-free moisturizer with ingredients like hyaluronic acid or aloe vera (humectants), ceramide (an emollient), and antioxidants like vitamin C and vitamin E.
You can also boost your skin health and moisture from within with a good diet, plenty of water, and some skin-loving supplements. Taut Hydrate hyaluronic acid pills are gentle hydrating supplements that contain just two key active ingredients:
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Hyaluronic acid (120mg): a natural, powerful humectant that provides intense hydration by binding water into your dermis, keeping your skin plump, soft, and healthy without any oily or greasy products.
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Grape seed extract (120mg): a potent antioxidant that helps to protect your skin against free radical damage, reduces skin imperfections and gives you the amazing glow you're seeking.
Together, these ingredients nourish your skin from the inside out, deeply hydrating and soothing from within to reveal more moisturized, luminous and supple skin.
2. Banish Dead Skin Cells
Dead skin is one of the key instigators of an acne breakout, so exfoliating treatments can go a long way in reducing your maskne symptoms.
Your skin replenishes itself constantly, shedding old cells and creating a fresh layer of skin every 40 to 56 days. When your skin is oily or damp, these dead cells are in the prime environment to stick around and clog up your pores, causing pimples and other blemishes. This is one of the main causes of maskne on your lower face, and it's why exfoliation is such an important step in treating these kinds of skin conditions. 2
To treat maskne, use a chemical exfoliating treatment 2-3 times per week. This will help lift dead skin, dirt, and bacteria from your face. The main types of chemical exfoliants are:
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AHAs: these acids are the stronger exfoliants, offering aggressive peeling of dead skin that can help reduce pigmentation and wrinkles. Examples of AHAs in skincare are glycolic acid, lactic acid, and citric acid.
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BHAs: as well as peeling away dead skin, these types of acids also increase your skin's defenses against UV damage and kill bacteria. The main BHA in skincare is salicylic acid. 3
When treating maskne, salicylic acid is most likely to be effective, as it will help unclog pores while also killing the pimple-causing bacteria on your skin. For acne-prone, oily, or combination skin, look for products containing between 0.5% to 2% salicylic acid.
However, if your maskne is causing extra sensitive, dry, or irritated skin, you should proceed with caution as BHAs may dry out your skin even further. An AHA formula containing between 8% to 10% glycolic or lactic acid may suit your skin type better.
3. Reduce Redness With Vitamin C
Many types of maskne cause flare-ups of redness in the skin, so when it comes to choosing the best maskne treatments, you should know that one of the very best products to reduce redness on face is a vitamin C treatment.
This powerhouse ingredient is also referred to as ‘ascorbic acid’ or ‘L-ascorbic acid,’ and it's an antioxidant that can work wonders to improve skin tone, texture, brightness, and firmness. It helps protect your skin against toxins and prevent breakouts in the future, too. There is also scientific evidence that vitamin C for skin helps speed up wound healing, which minimizes acne scars and reduces pigmentation. 4
While you can find this vitamin in all kinds of skin care products from cleansers to serums and more, a deep treatment like a sheet mask can go above and beyond to really lock the antioxidant goodness into your skin.
Taut Collagen Mask is our luxurious vitamin C-packed face mask that can tone, hydrate, and brighten your skin in just 15-20 minutes. Also infused with hydrolyzed marine collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid, and botanical squalene, this is a cooling and soothing formula that can help calm maskne-related inflammation, heal acne scars, and reduce redness.
4. Kill Bacteria With Benzoyl Peroxide
Although face coverings are there to keep us safe from catching infections, wearing a mask can also create the conditions that maskne-causing bacteria need to thrive in your pores. So if you're prone to maskne, antibacterial ingredients are needed to help regain your skin's balance.
Benzoyl peroxide is a deep cleansing antiseptic agent that kills bacteria on your skin, and it's one of the most commonly-prescribed treatments for acne. It's available over-the-counter in creams, gels, and cleansers, with a variety of concentrations available to suit the severity of your breakouts.
If your breakouts are severe, you should discuss your options with a board-certified dermatologist, who may prescribe a stronger treatment.
5. Relieve Itching With Cortisone
Cortisone is a mild corticosteroid that can help relieve itching, redness, and swelling. If your daily mask-wearing is causing any of these irritating skin symptoms, topical cortisone may help relieve your discomfort.
If your maskne involves redness and itching, these symptoms are likely accompanied by dry skin and irritation, too. For many people with eczema or psoriasis, wearing a mask will cause a flare-up of symptoms like these.
In this case, you should ask your local pharmacy for a treatment containing cortisone along with ceramides, which can lock moisture into your skin and soothe irritation. This may come in the form of a gel moisturizer or a hydrocortisone cream.
6. Treat Acne Blemishes with Collagen
With all of the buzz surrounding this skincare ingredient, you may be wondering is collagen good for acne, too?
The answer is yes, alongside its many anti-aging benefits, collagen can also benefit maskne-sufferers. To start, collagen is packed with anti-inflammatory amino acids which can soothe inflammation and reduce redness.
Its most important impact on acne, however, is its incredible ability to speed up wound healing and reduce the long-term scarring that comes from acne. Collagen is the natural protein that regenerates tissue when our skin is injured. The crater-like scars that acne commonly leaves behind occur when collagen doesn't fully grow back after a pimple heals. Including a collagen supplement in your routine can help speed up collagen formation and tissue repair to effectively heal acne scars.
Taut Liquid Collagen is our best collagen supplement, specially formulated with 13 grams of marine collagen peptides, along with hyaluronic acid, elastin peptides, grape seed extract, ceramide, and vitamins C and B. Together, these ingredients work synergistically to fight imperfections, heal maskne scars, and promote beautiful skin from the inside out.
Not only will a collagen supplement help heal maskne from within, but your skin will become smoother, firmer, and more hydrated to boot.
7. Improve Skin Cell Turnover with Retinoids
If your face mask is causing dull, blemish-prone skin, retinoids may be able to help. Retinoids are a family of ingredients derived from vitamin A, commonly used to treat acne and maskne
By boosting skin cell turnover, retinoids can help unclog pores, increase skin strength and thickness, and improve your skin's texture. By unclogging pores, they can effectively clear whiteheads and blackheads. These potent ingredients also help block inflammatory pathways, reducing cysts and pimples.
Retinoids are easily available in many skincare products, either in the form of retinol or in prescription-strength retinoid products like Retin-A and Tretinoin.
Learn more about vitamin A for skin.
8. Topical Acne Medications
Although maskne as a general condition can be treated very effectively with the above home treatments, more severe cases can require stronger treatments. If you are struggling with severe and persistent blemishes your maskne could be a result of fungal or bacterial infections on your skin that need a prescription formula.
For stubborn maskne, see a board-certified dermatologist who can assess the exact cause of your blemishes and prescribe appropriate medications. These may include:
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Retinoids: prescription-strength formulae like Retin-A and Tretinoin.
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Antibiotic creams: used to kill bacteria on the skin.
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Anti-fungal creams: used to kill fungi on the skin.
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Topical combination creams: combine an antimicrobial agent with another acne-fighting ingredient like benzoyl peroxide or tretinoin.
9. Oral Acne Medications
For very severe maskne, the causes may go beyond your daily face covering. If you struggle with deep, inflamed breakouts that don't respond to the usual treatments, contact a board-certified dermatologist who can examine your condition.
They may prescribe oral acne medications, which can include:
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Oral antibiotics: to kill persistent acne-causing bacteria.
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Hormone treatments: for women with persistent maskne, the contraceptive pill may be prescribed to rebalance hormones and regulate oil production in the skin.
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Oral isotretinoin (Accutane): a synthetic form of vitamin A that shrinks the sebaceous glands and reduces oil production.
10. Treat Yourself to a Facial
Aside from the usual skin care products and prescription treatments, you may also find that regular facials can help decongest your skin, reduce blemishes, and even up your skin tone.
For maskne, go for a decongesting and brightening facial. Some of the common types of facials for treating acne include:
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LED light therapy: a facial that uses red laser light to infiltrate deep into the dermis, activating your skin cells to stimulate collagen growth and reduce inflammation.
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HydraFacial: an exfoliating facial that uses patented technology to extract debris from deep within your pores, while also infusing your skin with soothing antioxidants and hyaluronic acid.
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Microdermabrasion: an exfoliating treatment that removes the outer layer of your skin, smoothing and brightening your complexion, minimizing blackheads and whiteheads, and reducing scarring.
All of the above are great options for treating acne, but as always, different types of facials need to be assessed according to your specific skin concerns. Some will be best suited to treating pimples, while others are best for calming redness. Speak with a board-certified dermatologist to discuss which option is right for you.
The Secret to Keeping Blemishes at Bay
As with any skin condition, the resolution is never simple, and your body will need a number of different things to help heal and rebuild your complexion. Unfortunately, there's no single miracle solution to fix all of our skin concerns. The true secret is to take a holistic approach to maintaining your skin health.
Here at Taut, we're big believers in nourishing your skin from the inside out with a nutrient-rich diet and a healthy lifestyle. Our supplements were designed to support this belief, providing your body with the necessary components to build a strong, resilient foundation for your skin.
Our Ultimate Transformation Program is the perfect starting point to try our best products, offering the ideal combination of supplements and topical skin care to revitalize tired, irritated skin from all angles. This beauty bundle contains a three-week supply of Taut Premium Collagen Drink, Taut Hydrate, and Taut Collagen Masks, designed to work together to dramatically transform your skin from the inside out and the outside in.
For maskne-sufferers, the combination of collagen, hyaluronic acid, and vitamin C can make a huge impact. By strengthening the structure of your skin with collagen, you are enabling your skin to heal as fast as possible from any acne-related scars and blemishes. With hyaluronic acid, you are staving off irritated, dry skin without clogging your pores. With vitamin C, you are maximizing your skin's antioxidant defenses against inflammation, and giving your skin its best chance at radiance.
Try this three-week program today to discover just how fast your skin can improve with the right nutrients and care.
Psst: did you know that you can save up to 15% on Taut products when you sign up for our auto-ship service? Check it out.
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