17 celebrities who've openly shared their struggles with acne.

Remember when we all thought growing up meant no more acne? Goodness. What the hell was that all about? 

Adult acne is very much a real thing. And it's incredibly common. 

According to the Global Acne Report (see? it's so common it has its own report), 80 per cent of people experience acne from the onset of puberty until well into their 30s. That's a lotta people.

Watch: Need to cover a few pesky spots? Check out this acne coverage tutorial below.

And we're not just talking about you, me and that barista who always spells your name wrong. We're talking about celebrities. They get breakouts too.

And a lot of them are pretty candid about it on social media, which kinda makes having acne less of a ~thing~.

From Chrissy Teigen to Lili Reinhart and Mindy Kaling, here are a bunch of celebs who openly shared their struggle with acne.

Matilda De Angelis.

The Italian actress, who starred in The Undoing, shared a selfie to Instagram showing her painful cystic acne flare-up. Within the post she explained just how much acne affects her daily life, before adding that 2020 taught her that "there are things that cannot be controlled".

She wrote, "There are changes that we must accept in our life and with them, the perception of ourselves and the world around us... Paradoxical things happen in life don’t they? Well, for me, being an actress and working with a face eaten by acne is one of them."

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Keke Palmer.

Actress and musician Keke Palmer took to Instagram to reveal her struggles with acne as a result of polycystic ovary syndrome. 

She shared photos of her skin during a flare-up and said the hormonal disorder has been something she has struggled with throughout her life. She also wrote that her acne "has been so bad" that people in the entertainment industry offered to pay for treatments.

Listen: Acne scarring can really dull your vibe, hey? On this episode of You Beauty, Leigh and Kelly share their tips for those wanting to reduce their acne scarring. Post continues below.

"I tried EVERYTHING," she wrote. "I did Accutane TWICE. People say drink water, have a better diet, but I did all that, I ate all the 'right' things, my blood tests were fine. But it took ME taking a personal look into my family that has a history of diabetes and obesity to understand what was ACTUALLY happening with me."

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Mindy Kaling.

Trust Mindy Kaling to keep it real. 

While we're pretty used to seeing her all glammed on the red carpet, the actress shared this candid selfie of her face smattered in spot cream right before attending an event - and boy, have we BEEN. THERE. It's like the pimples *know* when you need them to not show up, right?

"That zit cream in your 30s life. At least I'm not going on The Tonight Show later today," she wrote on Instagram.

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Bella Thorne.

Bella Thorne is one of the OGs when it comes to normalising acne, regularly sharing her skin struggles with her followers and the s**t that comes with it. 

The former Disney star wrote, "I remember the first time I started to get acne, I started to see all these little bumps under my skin, and it just made me feel very insecure every time someone would look to me or talk to me."

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Chrissy Teigen.

Chrissy Teigen has showed off her cystic acne numerous times on social media and TBH it's everything we need. 

In one of her Instagram stories she said, "I fully believe that if you show the good, you’ve got to show the bad," before panning over her face and zooming in on her spots saying, "This is the bad."

Image: @chrissyteigen/Instagram.

Mandy Moore.

Yes - even Mandy Moore gets pimples. And like many of us, it's something that just decided to start plaguing her in her 30s. 

"People were always very complimentary about my skin," she said in an interview with People. "But that made it all the more traumatising when I hit 22 or 23 and, out of nowhere, my skin started breaking out literally overnight."

Image: @mandymooremm/Instagram  

Ruby Rose.

Aussie Actress Ruby Rose is another A-lister who has documented her acne struggles, cutting down skin shamers with a candid selfie.

"Yeah it sucks... for me," she wrote. "I don't see how it's bothering so many others? But I'm human." 

Hear, hear.

"One side of my face is clear, and the other is a mess. Dermatologist says it's from the bacteria all over the phone interviews…” she added.

Image: @rubyrose/Instagram  

Lili Reinhart.

The Riverdale actress has always been refreshingly candid about her cystic acne, often hopping on Instagram to share snaps of her blemished skin. She even introduced the hashtag #breakoutbuddy, to encourage fellow acne-strugglers to share their experiences. 

What a legend.

"I've had cystic acne since I was 12. And it has caused major self-esteem issues ever since," she shared on Instagram. "My breakouts don't define me. To anyone out there who feels embarrassed or ashamed by breakouts… I feel you."

Image: @lilireinhart/Instagram 

Kendall Jenner.

It's almost impossible to forget that time Kendall Jenner told a fan to "never let that shit stop you", after being applauded for still "strutting her stuff" with cystic acne at the 2018 Golden Globes.

But her confidence in dealing with her acne isn't a thing that happened overnight. In a 2015 interview with Allure, she said, "I wouldn't look people in the eye. It was not a good time for me - it just killed my self-esteem. I thought when I didn't look at someone, they couldn't see my face."

Image: Getty 

Selena Gomez.

While Selena Gomez looks like she always has picture-perfect skin in her music videos and red carpet appearances, it might surprise you to know that she also struggles with acne.

And she's pretty transparent about it, too.

"My chin gets it the worst because I hold my microphone as close to me as I possibly can, because some of my music has softer tones to it," she said in an interview with Allure. "So the chin is always the first area that I treat. I usually put a mask on and a humidifier on my face after my show."

In Vogue's Beauty Secrets video series, she also opened up about her ongoing battle with acne. 

"I've for sure had acne and usually it's kind of all in the T-zone," Gomez said. "I try not to pick at anything. Sometimes that's hard."

"I notice when I get stressed or something I break out more or I get lazy with my routine so I feel like it's just become a part of it. And I just deal with whatever I got that day," she added.

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Dua Lipa.

While Dua Lipa seems to *always* have the dewiest skin going, her recent snap brought us all back to reality. She shared a selfie of her face covered in pimple cream on her Instagram Stories, with the caption, "My skin is not happy."

In an interview with Stylist, the Grammy winner spoke about her go-to night time products, insisting that she's "quite methodical" when it comes to her skincare routine.

"I wash my make-up off every night with a rosehip cleansing oil by Pai, then use a cream cleanser and apply a probiotic serum and face cream by Esse,” she said.

Image: @dualipa/Instagram 

Brooklyn Decker.

Brooklyn Decker and BFF Chrissy Teigen have breakout wars on Instagram - and honestly, it's the kinda content we're all here for.

In an interview with TODAY she said that for "almost 20 years, I was fighting acne and any product I used dried my skin out. But pregnancy fixed my skin, which is strange."

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Lucy Hale.

Pretty Little Liars actress Lucy Hale has opened up about her acne struggles numerous times. In an interview with People she said, "There were days when I was filming Pretty Little Liars where I didn't want to go to work because my skin was so bad."

The actress also said that the crew had a few tricks for the days where she had bad breakouts, saying: "They had to especially light for me at times because I would break out. There were a lot of tricks going on there."

On her Instagram Stories, Hale showed off dabs of spot cream, captioning the pic, “When your skin is PISSED off at u”. 

Image: @lucyhale/Instagram 

Taylor Hill.

Victoria's Secret model Taylor Hill is another celebrity who regularly posts filter-free shots on Instagram - breakouts and all. And her fans are here for this kind of transparency.

In an interview with Allure, Hill said, "I struggle with acne and I've struggled for a long time, probably since I was 15, because of makeup, travel, and hormones.” 

"I'm a human being,” she said. "I'm a girl and it's not easy being a woman. We go through a lot, and I think it's cool to just make sure people know that."

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Olivia Culpo.

While we could be fooled into thinking Olivia Culpo hasn't had a bad skin day in her life, in an interview with Women's Health, the model talked about her experience with cystic acne.

"I used to get cystic acne, and I hated trying to cover it up - and it can hurt! Once I started being regimented about my skincare that cleared up."

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Rihanna.

Rihanna proved that breakouts and bad skin days happen to everyone, discussing her relationship with acne in a recent media conference with Refinery 29.

She said, "Whether it's starting with acne when I was a teenager, and then the acne treatments that led me to really blotchy skin and stripped my skin of all the good stuff that I already had in it, it was a tough journey to get it back here."

Image: Getty 

Lorde.

In a hilarious video series, New Zealand singer Lorde called out the most annoying things people say to acne sufferers, opening up about the issue on Instagram Stories.

"People are still like, you know what worked for me? Moisturising! Coconut oil. The secret is coconut oil,” she revealed. 

However, she said the worst comments are the ones when people just think you're dirty. "Do you wash your face? It's like, yes I wash my face. I'm just genetically cursed," she said.

So. Damn. Good.

This article was originally published in December 2020 and has since been updated with new information. 

Feature image: Getty

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