The Many Benefits of Salicylic Acid

There are many benefits of salicylic acid when it comes to using it for acne treatment. Not only does it help your skin exfoliate, but it is anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory as well. All of these properties help salicylic acid prevent new acne from forming.

Salicylic Acid Structure

Salicylic acid is a man-made chemical that was originally derived from the bark of a white willow, but is now synthesized from aspirin (aspirin's scientific name is acetylsalicylic acid). While this type of acne treatment may not be natural, it still has many beneficial effects for your skin.

Salicylic acid is the only beta-hydroxy acid (BHA) that exists for treating acne. This is unlike alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA) which exist in a few different forms.

To be effective, the BHA should be at a concentration of at least 0.5% but 1%-2% is more common. I've personally found 2% to work the best, and my sensitive skin has no troubles adapting to the strength of the acid at that concentration.

In addition, the salicylic acid should be in a solution that has a pH between 3 and 4 in order to be effectively delivered to the skin. Many poor-quality BHA products have a much higher pH, which means that the acid mantle of the skin gets damaged and very little of the salicylic acid gets delivered to the pore to do its work.

Most over the counter products do not identify their pH, which makes it difficult to determine if they will be effective. A simple pH strip test available at many health stores can give you a rough idea, but I prefer to use high-quality products (such as Paula's Choice Toner) that list the pH on the label. The pH of your BHA product is a crucial property for the salicylic acid to be effective, and in many cases the pH is too high.

Lastly, the inactive ingredients that carry the salicylic acid need to not be irritating, which would be very counter-productive for preventing acne. This isn't always easy to find out when looking at various products, however. Trial and error and the reviews from consumers are your best way of finding the best salicylic acid product.

Benefits of Salicylic Acid

Since salicylic acid is a derivative of aspirin, it seems to inherit aspirin's anti-inflammatory effect. This means applying salicylic acid will reduce redness and swelling of blemishes. As a result, your skin will heal faster, scarring will be prevented, and the chance of more acne is reduced.

One of the best benefits of salicylic acid over other exfoliants is that it is oil-soluble. This property allows it to get inside the oil of the pore to help clear out any sort of dead skin cells inside. Blackheads and whiteheads are then less likely to occur.

Salicylic acid also kills the acne causing "p. acnes" bacteria. This bacteria thrives in clogged pores which then gets fought by white blood cells. The result of the fighting is inflamed redness around a pimple. By killing off the bacteria in the first place, a clogged pore cannot grow into the large and red acne pimples you commonly see.

Salicylic acid is not as good of an anti-microbial as benzoyl peroxide however. Benzoyl peroxide does a much better job at killing p. acnes bacteria. Using both salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide together has been shown to work very well. (Source: Skin Pharmacology and Physiology, May 2006, pages 283-289)

All of these benefits makes salicylic acid one of the best over the counter products for treating acne. I personally use salicylic acid for my own skin because of all its benefits.

Salicylic Acid Downsides

We've gone over the many benefits of salicylic acid, but what about the downsides?

At over the counter concentrations of 1-2%, salicylic acid is very safe for most people. Don't take salicylic acid if you have any of the following conditions:

• Blood vessel disease
• Diabetes mellitus
• Acute skin inflammation or infection
• Have recently been on Accutane

We don't know much about the effects of long-term usage of salicylic acid, however. It does make your skin more sensitive to the sun, so avoiding prolonged sun exposure will help prevent skin damage.

The only other real downside is that acne treatment with salicylic acid is temporary. The root cause of why you have acne in the first place likely still exists, unless your hormone balance has improved since you started treatment. If not, as soon as you stop applying salicylic acid your acne will probably come back.

Salicylic Acid Peel

You can also use salicylic acid as a peel. The concentration of the acid is higher so it can help heal scars, fight wrinkles, and clear acne more effectively. You might hear it referred to as a BHA peel or a chemical peel. The benefits of salicylic acid peels is a reduction in hyper-pigmentation (red marks), unclogged pores, and a more even skin tone.

These peels can be done at home, in a doctor's office, or a beauty salon and the concentration of the acid can go up to 30%. Note that this isn't an "everyday" type of treatment. I've never personally had a peel done myself but I've seen that it can be a nice boost for your skin.

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