A few weeks ago I wrote about shiny skin. One of my suggestions for controlling oil was to use acne or oily skin products from a professional skincare line.

For those of you unfamiliar with professional skincare, I thought you might like to see some examples of professional acne treatments.

These 3 products are from Lira Clinical’s ICE line, which is designed for acneic and oily skin. Each product focuses on a different key function, all of which are critical for treating or controlling acne:

  1. exfoliating inside pores (to unclog)
  2. killing bacteria
  3. absorbing oil

LIRA CLINICAL Acne Treatments

ICE Balancing Lotion – A Salicylic Acid (SA) treatment serum or hydrator (in a white emulsion). You can use it as a serum or as your final moisturizer.

This contains 1% SA, which is a standard amount. The maximum percentage in an OTC product is 2%. The salicylic acid works to keep pores clear, by exfoliating inside a pore, not just on the surface of skin. This inside exfoliating action helps to break up a clog and release the pore contents more readily.

Think of this as a maintenance treatment – something you can apply all over your face or just in areas prone to clogging. It’s more for preventing clogs that lead to blackheads/whiteheads or pimples, rather than correcting ones that have already occurred.

Once you develop a substantial blackhead that’s settled in or a full-blown pimple, this won’t make it go away. Blackheads that have settled in need to be extracted, but it’ll help loosen baby clogs (microcomedones or small comedones). An active breakout (bright red pimple) is better treated with an anti-bacterial agent – see next product.

This product has the consistency of a serum. It’s easy to spread. If you have used Lira’s Vitamin C serums, the consistency is very similar.

$40, 2 oz

 

ICE Clarifying Treatment – A Benzoyl Peroxide (BP) spot treatment (in a white lotion). This is an anti-bacterial spot treatment containing 5% BP, which is also a good amount (not too much, up to 5% is all you need). Benzoyl Peroxide kills bacteria by releasing oxygen into the pore.

You use this to treat active breakouts, so it’s applied only to individual blemishes or breakout areas, not over the entire face.

As with the entire Lira Clinical line, this product contains some brightening agents, which helps to deter the spotting and acne scarring caused by post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH). It also provides some cooling relief.

The consistency of this product is thicker than the Balancing Lotion. It blends invisibly into skin, but you need to rub it in more than the Balancing Lotion in order to make the white color disappear.

$32, 2 oz

ICE Refining Masque – A clay-based mask, which also contains Salicylic Acid along with some soothing ingredients. The clay absorbs excess oil.

This is a product that is a helpful addition to a skincare routine if you suffer from oily skin. It’s also useful if you want to absorb oil but not every day. For example, you can buy clay cleansers that absorb oil, but these tend to be too drying to use on a daily basis unless you have very oily skin. So if you have acne but not very oily skin, then a clay mask is a good oil-control product to turn to a 1-3 times a week.

$30, 2 oz

 

What’s Unique About Lira’s ICE Line

What I like about Lira’s ICE products is how gentle and non-drying they are. Unlike many acne products, they don’t strip your skin of sebum and leave skin feeling dry or tight. They are kind to skin.

If you’ve read some of my earlier posts about Lira, then you might remember how much I like the textures of their products. Lira does a great job of making products with cosmetically elegant textures that are easy to love whether you are oily or dry.

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