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Those are shallow acne pustules that have come to a white head at the surface of the skin. Try not to pop them. If you can’t stand the cyst of little miniature cysts (which is basically what they are) without an OCD compulsion to pop or scratch, you can get round little bandaids that come with Salicylic Acid acne medicine on them as well as ones without. Most are designed to be worn overnight and are supposed to help shrink the pimples while you sleep. Although it’s not the most attractive thing to have bandaids on your face, if that’s the only way you can keep from picking and popping then that may just be what you’ve got to do. I have had to do it frequently throughout my life with certain patches of blemishes because I just can’t not pick, scratch, squeeze, squash, pick and pop otherwise. And the reason you don’t want to is because it will leave scarring on your face. You see all those dark spots on your skin where pustules used to be, except they’ve healed? That’s hyperpigmentation and that may be present because you’ve been popping them, but it doesn’t have to be. It might be that you’re genetically predisposed to that and by the way, olive skinned people like yourself do often have a higher risk of hyperpigmentation. It could also be because you’re not wearing sunscreen on your face and are getting too much UV exposure, lying in tanning beds, or you’ve been using alpha hydroxy acids like Salicylic, Lactic, Malic, or Glycolic acids, or because you take aspirin or blood pressure medicine and you’re not wearing sunscreen with it. Here’s what I would recommend…. Start with the product I’ve recommended here. Benzoyl peroxide gel or cream in a 10% formula will clear all that up quickly including diminishing scarring. If your skin gets itchy, tight, red, crusty, dry and peely, and feels kind of irritated or almost like it’s sunburned, you’re over applying on an area that doesn’t need it anymore and if you’re applying preventatively, start skipping every day or every couple of days until you figure out how often to apply it without causing a rash but while still preventing more infected pores and hair follicles/pustule eruptions and inflammation.You can also build a tolerance where the product doesn’t work as well anymore after awhile but don’t worry, just switch to something else - Salicylic Acid, Retinol or Dapsone gel are all good alternatives - and use the alternative product for about six weeks and then you can switch back to the Benzoyl Peroxide and at that point when you come back to it after a 6-8 week break, it should be effective for awhile again. For some people they need to break from it for much longer though to regain efficacy though so you could be different from these recommendations and that’s still perfectly fine and normal.I honestly don’t know whether or not sunscreen is recommended with this product or not but you’ve got olive skin like me and I’ve personally never had any problems with it causing sun sensitivity. If you do notice something like sunburning or excessive tanning or more pigmented spots (the healed scar spots, not the white ones) forming though, obviously put some sun block over the area after applying the Benzoyl Peroxide or you can mix the two together in a small dish before application. Those scars - you can get those to go away, too. Try using a microneedling roller once all of those pustules HEAL FIRST (or else you’ll just prick them open and then rub contagious bacterial content from inside all over the rest of your face!) and there are also creams for skin scarring marketed as “skin lightening “ or “whitening” or “hyperpigmentation” creams and if you combine using that with a derma roller or micro needling tool or have a pro salon micro needling treatment (or several for best results over a couple or three to six months time) AFTER that acne is HEALED, you can get rid of those marks and scars. Just don’t pop the white bumps/pustules and start trying to squish the goo out of them or you’ll make those scars show up worse and actually that fluid inside them is full of white blood cells that are fighting the infection and so it needs to stay in there unless it opens on its own and it will when it’s time. You can go ahead and put the Benzoyl Peroxide cream in the open pustules too and it won’t hurt you and shouldn’t sting or bubble. If you squeeze them open prematurely though that scarring will be harder to get rid of, occasionally even impossible to remove completely without micro lasering from a dermatologist which is expensive. If none of this advice is good enough, go see your doctor and ask for pills for acne. The options are between birth control, antibiotics and Accutane. I would research them all on Google so you can have an opinion and feedback on what your doctor wants to prescribe and I would tell you about them as well but I’m really starting to get beyond the scope of this response, lol. If you really need to know that information though and you can’t find it yourself with a search engine, post another question asking which acne pills are the best choice or which ones are available or work best or something if you want to get a bunch of responses from people who will have differing answers on that topic. I hope this helps! You will see a LOT of improvement from daily usage of 10% Benzoyl Peroxide gel or cream though and especially if you combine it with Benzoyl Peroxide soap, too. The products made by ProActiv are mostly Benzoyl Peroxide and their subscription program is a very effective system of products as well that would also be an excellent and very effective choice.
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