Neutrogena's new 6-item adult acne collection was co-designed by renowned dermatologists, including Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali and Dr. Muneeb Shah
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/joey-king-neutrogena-evenly-clear-021026-58d579869aa544488f65d2e7283424c9.jpg "Joey King for Neutrogena's Evenly Clear.")
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NEED TO KNOW
- Joey King opens up about struggling with acne from a young age due to heavy on-set makeup
- The actress is the new global face of Neutrogena’s Evenly Clear collection, designed to treat adult acne
- King shares how harsh products and skin picking worsened her breakouts before adopting a dermatologist-backed routine
Joey King is opening up about her acne journey.
The actress, 26, has been named the global face of Neutrogena’s Evenly Clear collection, which focuses on treating adult acne.
The brand-new collection is co-designed by dermatologists including the brand’s global innovation partners Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali and Dr. Muneeb Shah, who are the brains behind some of the biggest brands in beauty now.
King, who has been on TV and in movies since the age of six, tells PEOPLE that on set is where her skin issues began.
“I spend so much time there, and there's so much product being used on me, that I started experiencing acne when I was a lot younger,” she explains.
At times, King responded to breakouts with drastic measures. Not only would she use harsh products, a common occurrence for acne sufferers, she’d often resort to scrubbing her face “to death” to make pimples go away.
“I would think, ‘How do you get rid of them? Scrub them, I guess,” and would do so until she started bleeding, which she eventually realized is not the best way “to go about handling acne.”
“I really struggled with picking at my skin when it gets bad,” she continued. “I’d have to sit on my hands. And, I’ve poked the living hell out of calcified pimples,” she recalls.
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But now, “I've just learned to be so much gentler and smarter about what my skin needs,” she says. And today, she’s grateful for this collection.
“I feel like it's amazing that Neutrogena created this line for adult acne. It's super-helpful for me in my busy routine, because it's so easy to use and is so easy to tailor to my needs.”
While there are six products in the line — a salicylic acid cleanser, exfoliant and gel moisturizer, plus a benzoyl peroxide mask, retinoid treatment and hypochlorous acid clarifying spray — she leans mostly on the cleanser and gel moisturizer.
“The facial cleanser gently exfoliates without stripping, which is something that I really needed to learn how to do. And the gel moisturizer is super lightweight, absorbs really quickly, and treats acne while it hydrates your face, so you don’t have to choose between the two anymore, which is a real gift.”
On the set of the campaign, King got to chat with Dr. Bhanusali, and ask him all her burning questions about living with adult acne. She’s lucky.
According to an article published in the National Library of Medicine, there are approximately 3.4 dermatologists per 100,000 people, meaning there aren’t nearly enough experts to treat those in need.
That’s why Dr. Bhanusali jumped at the chance to partner on this innovative project. He sees the collection as “an opportunity for people who might not be able to see dermatologists to at least have a chance of getting their skin to where it needs to be.”
To do that, he started by thinking about the needs of the people he can see.
“The biggest frustration I had in my office is seeing patients who are 25-plus, 30-plus and breaking out and they say, ‘What the heck do I use? I don't want to use the benzoyl peroxide that I used when I was 15. There has to be something better.’ And that’s not to say benzoyl peroxide is not a great ingredient, but when you're in your 30s and breaking out, you might not have super-oily skin, you might be hormonal. And so we wanted to go from scratch and build out to that patient.
His and Dr. Shah’s goal: build something efficacious, functional and that people are not going to dread using.
“I think sometimes people forget experience, because I think efficacy is obviously number one. But if you don't enjoy putting on the products and they don't fit into your life or lifestyle, you're just not going to use them. So that's why it was really important for us to really build unique formulas,” he explains.
“I think the way we built it is foundational,” Dr. Bhanusali continues. “Your foundation is going to be your cleanser and your moisturizer. Those are the grails.”
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Of the essential cleansing step, he begins, “People always say, ‘The eyes are the window to the soul.’ I think the cleanser is the window to the routine. Some people under-appreciate it, but cleansing your face every single night is one of the most important things you can do.”
Using “some proprietary technology that Neutrogena happened to have in the vault” as well as being intentional about the percentage of salicylic acid and type of exfoliator (they opted for gentler polyhydroxy acid), they created a product that target acne without compromising the skin’s barrier.
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For the moisturizer, Dr. Bhanusali and Dr. Shah needed to debunk a myth. “Most people think, ‘Because I have oily skin, I don't need a moisturizer. That's going to make it more oily.’ That's not true.”
So the task for them became, “How do we create an active moisturizer?” This one has salicylic acid to “decrease any residual oil production” as well as N-acetyl Glucosamine to “help lightly exfoliate and improve pigmentation.”
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"The benzoyl peroxide mask with bentonite and kaolin [clays], it's something you can do once or twice a week, if you're really oily,” he says.
Of the line’s retinoid, he shares, “I always say a retinoid is super-important, not just for acne. Retinoids have been shown to help with texture, tone, pores, scars, and aging. And I think an Adapalene 0.1% is the gold standard in terms of being the first retinoid to start with.”
If you haven’t heard of hypochlorous acid, it’s everywhere, and for good reason. “I tell pretty much everybody who comes to my office as a patient, ‘Go grab hypochlorous acid, throw it in your bag, and anytime you feel like you’ve been out all day long, sweating and stuff, just just spray it a couple of times.’ It takes a couple of seconds and it's going to be a bit better for your skin long-term,” Dr. Bhanusali explains.
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There was a time when King went to “great lengths” to conceal her acne. She’s learned whether her skin’s clear or congested, it’s what’s on the inside that matters most.
“I feel like there's no world in which your acne struggles, or any kind of struggles that are cosmetic, should prevent you from doing something that you really want to do, or doing something that will make you happy. Yes, it does affect your self-esteem and affect your confidence, but ultimately that light does shine from within.”
“Maybe I'm having a bad skin day, maybe I feel really insecure about it. It will get better, but what I have to offer inside, that is something that is everlasting, and I don't want my insecurities for the day to shadow an experience that I could be really grateful for in the future.”
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