If you have dark skin that gets dark marks after a breakout, this is for you. just like it heals burns and scap scars, it will help heal acne marks. put it on the blemish while it is still ''fresh'. i've noticed fading in some of my blemishes. also, its important to wear sunscreen. but the neosporin really helps prevent acne scars if you use it diligently. the only problem is, i hear, you can't use it for prolongs periods, which sucks since it takes forever for dark marks to fade!

I can't believe I forgot about this using product for zits. Nothing works as fast to reduce my painful cystic acne overnight. A bandaid is a must to keep the product on for as long as possible. But I am extremely disappointed to learn that I'm not supposed to use this long term! What am I going to do now?!

OMG this is such a miracle product for me! I have mild to active acne due to a lot of factors, but 2 days ago I had a big ol' zit (think it may have been a 2 in 1 zit... weird) right under one of my nostrils that looked like a tomato and it hurt so bad. It bothered me so much that I began to pick at it to try and get all the gunk out, and unfortunately by picking at it, it wouldn't stop bleeding and it hurted even more. So I decided to be experimental and used neosporin on it. I never really thought of using this for my pimples because neopsorin is oil based and I have enough oil on my face to deal with as it is. But wow, a few hours later, it no longer hurts and the swelling already went down. The next day, both my nostrils are the same size again, except the one with the pimple is still slightly pink with a slight bump.

I decided to read up on using Neosporin on acne to be on the safe side and one site suggested using this for spot treatments only because neosporin's antiseptics are very powerful and prolong usage of this can cause your skin to build resistance, meaning your skin will get use to the stuff and will no longer give effect if you use topical antibiotic treatments later. Also it kills off the resistance your skin naturally has to fight off bacteria. =(

"While the benefits of Neosporin may sound great, potential users should also take into account the warnings that Pfizer has taken the time to print on the label. Precautions such as “Do not use over large areas of the body" and “Do not use longer than 1 week unless directed by a doctor" are serious warning signs for acne sufferers. Neosporin kills a lot more than just the P. Acnes bacteria that is primarily responsible for the formation of acne pustules. It also eliminates many agents that normally help your skin resist harmful bacteria. With long-term use, there is a danger that your skin may build up an antibiotic resistance which could end up making you more susceptible to serious infection down the road." http://searchwarp.com/swa66598.htm

After reading this, I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping to find my HG acne product. In a way I did, but I would have to sacrifice my health if I were to use this daily.

For the ones who want to use Neosporin for more than one week, here's a trick I read up on: place a tiny amount and mix it in with your moisturizer. I'm no doctor but I wouldn't recommend using this method too long either. Better safe than sorry later...

4 lippies b/c it works wonders and it's the only thing that really helps kill off icky painful pimples fast, but 1 off b/c it has side effects with long term usage.

Awesome. Works well on zits blemishes, and youre cuts, too.

This stuff is absolutely amazing! I get cystic acne that sometimes I just can't leave alone, or I get a shot from the derm and my skin looks like I've been in a fight! I apply a huge glob of this on at night and the spot is almost gone in the morning! Not completely but it look a Heck of alot better than it would normally. It helps pervent scars, helps heal quickly also it leaves the skin smoother. I apply it under makeup on zits. It's just an HG! ~~Also I got a really bad motorcycle burn on my shin and applied this every day and night with a bandaide until the scab was gone and I have vertually no scar. DH was shocked. I use this on my kids for sports cuts & scratches. This stuff just rules! continued >>

Awww man, what a lifesaver! I have cystic acne on my chin and everytime I pick one of the bumps to get the infected hair out, the bump would start bleeding like crazy and leave this big mark on my face that take years to disappear. I picked this great big pimple last night and of course it bled like crazy so I figured that I would have a big scar to deal with in the morning that I would just cover up with makeup. However, I put a whole bunch of Neosporin over the bump before I went to bed, and what do you know?? When I woke up, there was hardly a scar or mark left on my face from the pimple that I had picked the night before. I almost cried...tears of joy!!

I can't believe I have gone all these years accumulating scars on my face because I picked my acne when all I had to do was put Neosporin on pimples while they were healing!!

***NOTE*** This does not stop or prevent acne. It simply helps with the healing of skin after the pimple or infected area has bust, broken, or bled.

this is great for acne. i would'nt say it aids in a speedy recovery (ex: your pimple won't dissapear overnight) however it is the only treatment that heals my blemish WithOut leaving it flaky, crackly, red, gross looking. it doesn't have to look worse before it looks better - neosporin helps the pain a little and helps it heal in a normal but steady but surely way.

I thought I was the only person in the world putting this on broken skin left by acne. It definitely speeds up the healing time and helps with skin tenderness. I always keep 2 tubes of this on hand. I use the cream during the day because it absorbs into the skin & is good for use under makeup. At night I use the ointment because it just plain works better. Not to mention it's fabulous for regular cuts & scrapes. Anyone can afford this, or the Band-Aid brand if you're allergic to Neosporin's ingredients. What more can I say? I wish every beauty product worked as well and was this cheap. continued >>

I love neosporin!!! I use it on breakouts after I have extracted pimples. It is great at deterring infection which keeps the pimple from coming back. I also use it as a spot treatment. When I feel a pimple coming up, I put benzoyl peroxide on it, let it dry, then apply neosporin. This works wonders on reducing a pimple!! I used both the gel (at night) and cream (during the day).

I really don't know what to say about Neosporin. It worked really well for me when I first started using it - if I had a pimple that just wouldn't go away, I would put a bit of Neopsorin with a small bandaid over it, and it would be gone by the next morning.

Now when I use it, though, it doesn't get rid of my pimples and gives me a red mark wherever I put the ointment. Minor chemical burn? I think I might be allergic now, though it does work on cystic pimples. I'll keep buying it, but merely as an antibiotic for cuts and scratches and such - I don't plan to keep using it for blemishes.

Wow, thank you MUAers.. without you I never would have tried this. I used to be chronic picker and was used to waking up to the nasty aftermath of my fingernails. I'm not so bad about keeping my hands off my face now.. but sometimes I just can't resist. That's where Neopsporin comes in handy. Right after an attack on my face, I apply it on the offending spot, then I stick a plaster on and go to bed. The next morning, the spot is barely visible. No more nasty, inflamed breakouts for me!
I have to admit though, I'm very frugal with this product. I know you can build up a resistance to it. So ONLY when I've really gone at it do I break out the Neopsporin.

Just to add about the Neosporin allergy issue. Several years ago I decided to try this on a large, painful oozing blemish (before I was a MUA member and could look up reviews) because it was good for healing cuts/wounds and had used it in the past with no problems. After applying it for 2 days, I was washing my face and felt a burning. The skin blistered and I had pus filled blisters and a nasty rash. I went to the dermatologist and he gave me a cream to treat it and told me as much as 25% of the population is allergic to an ingredient in Neosporin and I was shocked as it is used so much over the counter. He told me that any product with "poly" was ok to use (i.e., Polysporin) as it did not have the same ingredient. I was lucky not to have scarring as a result, so although I can use Polysporin on a cut, I have never tried it on my face and do not know if it would help blemishes as the Neosporin may.

Wow. I, too, read on here not long ago and thought to myself, Why have I not used neosporin? I tend to not bother on cuts because I have enough scars as it is, but I NEVER thought to use it on my face, and seriously. Yes, I look a bit like a space alien covered in bandaids before I go to bed and sometimes during the day, but this has done more for me than any acne medication. Yes, BP when used regularly keeps from NEW breakouts. Got that one. Alpha Hydrox helps heal old scars. But Neosporin makes my face look better NOW.
Now, one thing I have learned with my face is that this doesn't seem to help much with those slightly cystic pimples-this seems to help more after I've popped them and whatnot, although I had too many blemishes on my face to justify another bandaid on the cystic-y pimple the first few nights, so we'll see. It's still absolutely amazing.

This is an amazing product! I've always kept Neosporin in my medicine cabinet and always remember my mom using "the magic bandaid" on our cuts and scrapes when my brother and I were kids. I never knew about the beauty benefits!

I read about Neosporin on MUA the other night and decided to try it on two blemishes, an incredibly red, flaky nose (too much blowing), and chapped, sore lips. Well, I woke up the next morning totally blown away. My blemishes were half the size (which normally takes several nights of either benzoyl peroxide treatment or salicic acid) , my nose was almost 100% back to normal, and my lips felt hydrated, soft, and pain-free!

This was less than a week ago, and my blemishes cleared in record time (try a few days rather than a week or two).

If you haven't tried this product, you must. I will continue to use it on blemishes when I get them, as this seems to be a miracle product! continued >>

I am glad to see this up here. I also use Neosporin from time to time, thankfully with no allergies.
And though I am not "pleased" to see that people are allergic to it, I have to say that I feel a little less odd now.
I have shown allergies to many a "hypoallergenic" product in the past and just been treated like a freak. I'm glad that I am not the only one, though I definitely feel your pain(s).
I actually stumbled across the Neosporin acne treatment by mistake when I couldn't think of anything else to do, and by some miracle, it worked, and though I (thankfully) don't break out often, when I do, I go straight for the Neosporin/triple antibiotic ointment... and I also use alcohol on the area first to clean it up. Good call.

Though at 24, I should be finished with puberty, my skin does not always agree, and thus, though benzoyl peroxide-based stuff is very helpful at combating zits of certain kinds, Neosporin - or, more often, the cheaper "Triple Antibiotic Ointment" that is available absolutely everywhere and just as good in whatever store-brand form - has become essential for overnight treatment of the little whiteheads I still occasionally get. I start by using a cottonball with rubbing alcohol on it to disinfect it (because that's what they are, little mini-infections), hold it there for a while, applying pressure, etc, and finally finish by putting a little dollop of Neosporin/Triple Antibiotic on it to sit for a while - actually, as long as you can, as the longer its on, the more it helps. As some have mentioned before, covering the dollop with a bandaid and sleeping with it for overnight is THE way to have the zit be half the size or mostly gone by the next day.
Of course, this is only for the little ones I occasionally get, and I'm not sure about using it as an all-over ointment, as some people here seem to have done. But hey, if they've gotten results, why not?

I use Neosporin all the time. I didn't know you can be allergic to its active. Wow...I will think twice the next time I laminate it on my skin or my children's skin.
I have really sensitive skin and I am very careful what I put on it.

I'm also glad I saw the featured reviews on this! I changed my skincare routine about 8 weeks ago, and neglected my daily Mary Kay Acne treatment gel, and boy, am I breaking out now! Anyway, I had a monster cyst on my cheek (less than a week before all the holiday parties!), and had tried to extract it too early, and wound up with a seeping, ulcerated depression with a significant amount of redness and bruising around it. Lovely! Anyway, I didn't work yesterday, so started with the Neosporin several times yesterday, and did the Band-Aid trick overnight. It's now looking the way it normally would a week after picking; if I do the same for the next 2 nights, it should be noticeably improved by the weekend.
Anyway, to use my medical background to respond to some of the most recent reviews, it is the Neomycin that some people will react to, so Polysporin is preferable for those people. Also, any medicine that is in ointment form is more potent than if it's in a cream (or lotion) form--it just has to do with the drug delivery system. In addition, Hydrocortisone is a topical steroid, NOT an antibacterial/antibiotic. Steroids can actually make infections WORSE, because they suppress your natural immune response to the infection. It is your immune response that causes all the redness, swellling, and inflammation. So, the steroids are great for eczema, or for reducing swelling and redness, but don't be deceived and think they'll get at the bacteria. (It's also common that people may use a steroid on a fungal infection, thinking it's eczema. The steroid reduces the redness and initially makes it look better, but the fungus is loving it, and returns in full force once the steroid is stopped. So if you're ever in that situation, try lotrimin or see your doctor!)

Wow....so a while ago I got a cut on my hand and immediately put Neosporin on it. Several years ago I had used Neosporin on every cut and had no problems, but all of a sudden when I put Neosporin on a cut I had, it just got worse, and actually looked infected. I kept putting it on and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Turns out I was allergic to the active ingredient in Neosporin and immediately stopped using it. The doctor recommended I use just plain Vaseline instead if I got a cut, because the reason why a scar forms is that a hard, dry scab forms on the skin, so if you keep that area hydrated there is less of a chance of scarring.
But, I had no way of dealing with the painful breakouts on my face which were leaving my face with bad hyperpigmentation and scarring. Using vaseline on that would just make me breakout more.
Anyway, with that being said, if you AREN'T allergic to Neosporin, the product itself does the job and really does help reduce scarring and prevent infection. I had to take lippies off because of how bad it is that such a generally accepted as safe product can bring out the worst skin irritation, especially from broken skin.

Face picker here! I tried neosporin and have the same results as everybody! Its great!
My only issue was that i cant wear it during the day because its so "vaseline" like and makes my face shiny loking if i apply it all over, also it brings attention to my blemish. And forget makeup!
So anyways, Neosporin is AMAZING for night use or days when you stay at the house, but for self concious people like me , TRY CORTISONE (or Hydrocortisone). I used it at a friends once and it worked as well if not better than Neosporin. I ended up buying the cream type (i'm sure neosporin also comes in a cream, i just havent looked into it...) I apply it after i wash my face as a moisturizer.
I'm no dermatologist, but my face cleared up really nicely!!!! Both products are so great for acnee recovery, and the face pickers who make blemishes out of picking! They both are antibacterial i believe so if you do go at it one day and cant stop picking, at least it wont get infected! And it helps scaring, which is crucial when you are talking about the face!