Cream and gel Skinoren: reviews

The appearance of acne on the face is always unpleasant, but the spots and scars left behind can cause no less problems. Proper skin care when inflammation occurs and after it has healed will quickly return it to a healthy appearance, freshness and attractiveness. There are quite a few effective creams and ointments that can help remove acne marks. The best and most effective of them are sold in pharmacies and have undergone the necessary research and certification.

Creams and ointments for acne marks can be both very budget and quite expensive. Many of them have been known for a long time, others appeared recently, but have already proven their effectiveness. We have compiled a rating of the best drugs, including products in different price categories from both domestic and foreign manufacturers.

There are contraindications. Consult your doctor.

Skinoren: instructions for use

Skinoren: composition and release forms

• Skinoren gel: the main active ingredient is azelaic acid. 1 g of gel contains 0.15 g of azelaic acid. The gel is white or yellowish-white in color. Skinoren gel is available in packages of 15, 30 and 50 g.

• Skinoren cream: the main active ingredient is also azelaic acid. 1 g of cream contains 0.2 g of azelaic acid, as well as additional moisturizing components: glycerol, fatty acid glycerides. Skinoren cream is available in 30 g packs.

Indications for use –

• skin acne (blackheads and pimples),
• treatment, as well as prevention of the appearance of foci of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which often occurs after acne has healed.

Course of use - visible effect occurs approximately 3-4 weeks from the start of using the drug. However, the course of treatment is designed for 3 months. This period is necessary to consolidate its effect for a long time. The drug should be used 2 times a day (morning and evening before bedtime). Before using the drug, you need to wash your face with a mild cleanser and dry it. The drug is applied and lightly rubbed into acne-prone areas of the skin.

Skinoren gel or cream: what to choose?

The gel is well suited for patients with oily skin, and the cream is suitable for patients with dry and normal skin. The dosage of azelaic acid in the cream is slightly higher than that of the gel (20% versus 15%), but this does not mean that the cream is more effective. On the contrary, an increased concentration of azelaic acid in the cream is necessary to compensate for the lower effectiveness of creams as such (this is due to the fact that the active components from the cream penetrate the skin much more difficultly than from the gel).

Reviews of Skinoren for acne and acne –

Next, about the most important thing you should know if you decide to cure your acne and pimples on your own.
As we said above, the full course of treatment with Skinoren is 6 months, and you will receive noticeable results only after 3-4 months from the start of treatment. At the same time, the full course of topical retinoids is only 3 months (preparations Klenzit, Differin and others), and comedolytic and other effects are expressed in topical retinoids much more strongly than in preparations with azelaic acid. According to the recommendations of the most famous English-language textbook on dermatology in the world, Fitzpatrick's Dermatology, which publishes international acne treatment protocols, drugs with azelaic acid are only 2nd choice drugs. You need to start treatment with topical retinoids. However, preparations with azelaic acid can also be used as maintenance therapy - after completing a full 3-month course of treatment with topical retinoids.

Important: it is worth considering that if you have oily skin, then it is optimal to prescribe topical retinoids, because the latter significantly reduce the production of fatty secretions by the sebaceous glands. Another important point is to compare the cost-effectiveness of applying products with azelaic acid and products with retinoids. Products with topical retinoids in the form of gels are very economical and easy to apply in a thin layer (in addition, they only need to be applied once a day).

Products with azelaic acid are very different in this regard. We have already said that gels with azelaic acid are more reminiscent of regular cream in texture - they are white in color, absorb very quickly and are very difficult to apply in a thin layer (this results in more consumption). And besides, you will also have to use them 2 times a day, morning and evening, which further increases the consumption of the drug.

1) Skinoren for acne

Everything here is quite simple, because... acne is represented only by non-inflammatory elements - black and whiteheads (open or closed comedones). Therefore, if you still choose Skinoren, then in this case it does not need to be combined with other drugs for the treatment of acne, for example, with antibiotics or benzoyl peroxide. Those. Skinoren in this case is a replacement for topical retinoids, albeit somewhat less effective. But in parallel, you can use cleansers with salicylic acid or alpha hydroxy acids.

Closed and open comedones (types of acne) –

→ Acne treatment protocols

2) Features of using Skinoren for acne

The term “acne” is a colloquial expression, and in dermatology this pathology is called papulopustular acne. This name has taken root because acne can be of 2 types: firstly, in the form of pustules (these are traditional pimples with pus inside), and secondly, in the form of papules, which are inflammatory formations without pus. In this case, papules can either transform into pustules or disappear without a trace.

Pimples in the form of papules and pustules -

According to Fitzpatrick's Dermatology, the drug Skinoren and its analogues can be used to treat papulopustular acne (pimples), but only in the case of a small amount of inflammatory elements. At the same time, drugs with azelaic acid in this case will only be drugs of the 2nd choice, and preference should still be given to topical retinoids. If you are still focused on using Skinoren, then you will still have to combine it with antimicrobial agents, because Skinoren's own bacteriostatic effect is not sufficiently expressed.

• If you have papules (without pus), in this case, in addition to Skinoren, you should use products containing a bactericidal component such as benzoyl peroxide. Such drugs include, for example, the drug Baziron AS. In this case, you will use Skinoren 2 times a day in the morning and evening, and Baziron is enough to use only 1 time a day (it is applied only pointwise to areas of inflammation).

• If you have pustules (with pus inside) - in this case, in addition to using drugs with azelaic acid, you will need even more active antimicrobial therapy.
  Pustules are a strict indication for the prescription of external agents with antibiotics, but in order to prevent P.acnes bacteria from developing resistance to antibiotics, antibiotics are always combined with benzoyl peroxide. In this case, it may be the drug Indoxyl (contains benzoyl peroxide 5% + antibiotic clindamycin 1%). But of course, such a scheme, given the need to use products with azelaic acid twice, is very inconvenient. In this case, it is more convenient to use topical retinoids, for example, the drug Klenzit-S (contains the retinoid adapalene + clindamycin), and it can be used only once a day at night. And in addition to it, use Baziron with benzoyl peroxide once a day in the morning. Of course, this scheme is much more convenient.

Analogues of Skinoren

Pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics

The effectiveness of Skinoren in the treatment of acne is due to the antibacterial properties of azelaic acid and the ability of the substance to have a direct effect on follicular (hair) hyperkeratosis .

In in vivo and in vitro models, it inhibits the proliferation of keratinocytes (the main cells of the epidermal layer) and normalizes the terminal processes of epidermal cell acne .

With the use of the drug, there is a significant decrease in the density of colonies of propionibacteria acne , as well as a significant decrease in the concentration of free fatty acids in lipids on the surface of the skin (due to this, the oiliness of the skin decreases).

The mechanism of action of azelaic acid on the pathogenic phenomena that occur with rosacea has not been precisely established. Several studies have shown that in in vitro and ex vivo models, the substance is able to stop the inflammatory process by reducing the production of reactive oxygen metabolites (its free-radial forms) and the formation of anti-inflammatory agents.

Azelaic acid has a dose- and time-dependent inhibitory effect on the growth and viability of abnormal melanocytes .

After local application of the drug, azelaic acid penetrates into all layers of the skin, and the substance penetrates into damaged skin an order of magnitude faster than into intact skin. In total, after a single use of 5 grams of 20% Skinoren cream (equivalent to 1 gram of azelaic acid), no more than 3.6% of the dose is absorbed through the skin.

Clinical studies of the use of the product for acne have shown that the rate of absorption of azelaic acid for the cream and gel is the same.

From the body, the substance is partially eliminated with urine in its pure form, the remainder undergoes a cycle of degradation reactions and breaks down into dibasic carboxylic acids with a shorter chain length. Beta-oxidation products of azelaic acid are also found in urine.