It’s hard enough having to wear a mask, even worse getting acne from it.
Mask acne, or “maskne” is a big deal. There’s a medical term for it, acne mechanica.
It’s not only affecting acne sufferers but many people who’ve never had acne or breakouts before. For many of you, it’s a whole new beast to tackle.
My skin is sensitive to anything rubbing on it or covering it, even just wearing a protective face mask for a few hours. I’ve got a bunch of tips and suggestions how to decrease skin irritation and allow your breakouts to heal. Plus, what you can do to try and prevent mask acne in the first place, and keep your skin balanced and healthy while wearing a protective mask.
If you have to wear a mask a few hours a day, you will probably need to adjust your skin care routine in one way or another.
Masks create a warm humid environment that breeds bacteria and increases skin sensitivity. The constant rubbing of a mask can also cause dermatitis, redness, lesions, and chafing.
In today’s video and blog post I go over some suggestions I have on selecting and caring for your masks to prevent breakouts, what you can adjust in your skin care routine to prevent sensitivity, how your diet and lifestyle can support your skin health. Plus, I have some recommended products that help clarify congested skin, clogged pores, and pimples.
- Wash your face with a mild cleanser
- Moisturize with a lightweight fragrance-free moisturizer (optional)
Skin care routine – when not wearing a mask
If you are just getting a pimples or two from wearing masks, you can continue with your regular nighttime skin care routine. You can add a spot treatment to your skin care routine to speed up the healing of pimples and breakouts, but I don’t recommend going overboard with acne treatments.
Best to just stick with a cleanser, moisturizer, and a spot treatment applied just on the pimples. Once or twice a week, you can use a clarifying facial mask to help exfoliate your skin and dissolve build up in pores. This can be useful for a more deeper cleanse, and preventing clogged and congested skin. (List of recommended products at the end of the blog post).
If you are getting a lot of acne breakouts, irritation, redness and sensitivity; I recommend a very gentle evening skin care routine and avoid all strong products. This would include taking a break from retinol, strong exfoliating acids, and any treatment serum you were previously using before using a protective mask. We have to remember that strong skin care products can sensitize your skin making it less resilient. Even if you’re using the product at night, your skin might be too sensitive the next day and a protective mask could increased irritation and aggravate your skin.
Since the start of regularly wearing face coverings and masks, many people have reported that their skin can’t tolerate the same skin care products or skin care routine they once used. The combination of wearing face masks regularly for long periods of time while using strong active ingredients is a recipe for disaster. It’s breaking down people’s protective skin barrier and making the skin more susceptible to breakouts, infections, and sensitivity.
Skin care routine when skin is not covered with a mask (at night or days when at home):
- Cleanse with mild cleanser
- Moisturize (cream, lotion or facial oil)
- Spot treatment
- Deep cleansing treatment mask 1-2 times per week (only if skin is not sensitive or irritated). When you have active pimples and acne, avoid all facial masks that have a gritty or scrub-like texture.
I’ve listed recommended products at the end of the post, click here to jump to that section.
How your diet and lifestyle can help maskne
When I mention improving diet to help clear up maskne, most people respond by saying “It’s the mask causing the acne, not my diet”. And yes, I agree. But, if your diet and lifestyle aren’t supporting your health, your skin just won’t repair and heal as well as it could.
When we are healthy and eating nutritious food, your body is better equipped to fight off illness and infections. It has the resources to heal.
Same with your skin. It’s an organ and it’s constantly repairing itself.
If your body is overwhelmed by things like stress, lack of sleep, junk food, too much sugar, alcohol, processed food, etc., it’s just not going to heal and repair as quickly or efficiently as you probably want it to.
So if you want the pimples and acne to heal and clear up faster, take care of yourself. Your whole self. The inside and the outside. You’ll get much better results.
What you can start doing now to support your skin health
- Increase green and colourful vegetables in your diet (add them to all your meals)
- Eat 1 large green salad with homemade salad dressing every day
- Replace sugary/sweet drinks with plain water
- Decrease sugar and processed food in your diet
- Make more homemade food
- Decrease or eliminate alcohol
- Reduce stress and take time to do things you enjoy
- Get more sleep
- Move around and exercise more

Recommended Skincare & Treatment products
Below are recommended gentle skincare products, as well as spot treatments and clarifying masks that can help balance out, clarify, and soothe your skin.
Cleansers:
- Manuka Honey (for instructions how to use honey as a facial cleanser, click here)
- ODACITE Black Mint Clarifying Cleanser
- ANNMARIE SKIN CARE Citrus Mint Cleanser
- MONASTERY Sage Cleansing Oil
Moisturizers:
- LOA SKIN Botanical Beauty Elixir
- ANNMARIE SKIN CARE Herbal Facial Oil For Oily Skin
- JAO BRAND Face Creme Sensitive Skin
- ODACITE Green Smoothie Ultra Quenching Creme
- WILDLING Lumin Brightening Oil
Spot Treatments:
- ODACITE Bl+C Pimples Serum Concentrate
- ODACITE Jo+L Clogged Pores Serum Concentrate
- MARA Clear Skin Mineral Milk
- LIVING LIBATION DewDab
- LIVING LIBATIONS Zippity DewDab
- Tea Tree Oil
Clarifying Facial Masks:
- ACTIVIST Manuka Honey Mask
- ODACITE Synergie(4) 4-in-1 Powder Mask
- ANNMARIE SKIN CARE Purifying Mud Mask
- MARA Volcanic Sea Clay Detox Masque
- MAYA Chia The Refresh Mint
References for this article
Mills OH Jr, Kligman A. Acne mechanica. Arch Dermatol. 1975 Apr;111(4):481-3. PMID: 123732.
Draelos, Zoe Diana Acne Mechanica Acneiform Eruptions in Dermatology (pp.125-128) DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-8344-1_18
I’ll tell you right now, less is best. I have found that the less products you are putting on your skin while wearing a mask, the better. And whatever skincare regimen you were on before might not be compatible with wearing a mask, especially if you are starting to have issues and breakouts. Small adjusts can make a big difference.