It doesn’t matter if you are rich and famous or not – acne does not discriminate. In fact, some very notable and beautiful celebrities have struggled with acne in the past, or even occasionally may show up on the red carpet with a blemish!  Of course, this is rare when they have any dermatologist they want at their disposal before major events, but we all know how newsworthy it is when one is photographed with a zit!

Take for example, poor Katie Holmes.  I’m not sure what it was on her face, but it was a blemish of some sort, although it may not have been acne but rather perhaps a cold sore of some type.  Boy, you would have thought that was international news that a celebrity actually had – gulp – a visible imperfection.  Or how about when you see nowadays a beautiful actor of actress on that great new high definition television, with a big plump zit on their forehead?

I recently was watching a TV series and saw a particular actress with a definite zit on her forehead.  You could tell the cameramen were advised to shoot around it and light it so that it was less noticeable, but when the light caught it just right, there was no mistaking it was a raging pimple.  But it’s not just the occasional zit that celebrities may struggle with.  Some of them have talked about how they suffered horrible hormonal acne in the past, in their teen years.

One successful celebrity has said that she suffered from acne when she was younger, and still has to watch her naturally oily skin even as a woman in her thirties.  That actress is Cameron Diaz. Vanessa Williams, who won a beauty queen title and went on to a successful singing career and is known as a great beauty, has suffered from acne since she was a teen.  There is a little bit of noticeable pitting in her face, but in general her face has recovered beautifully from her earlier acne struggles.  She is actually a spokeswoman for a major brand of acne treatments currently, which fits perfectly since she really did struggle with this skin condition as a youth, and may even still struggle with it today, although you’d never know by looking at her.

Another notable star, Victoria Beckham, and the lucky woman who snagged the highly desirable, gorgeous David Beckham, had acne when she was younger and her skin emerged unscathed, although you can tell she has naturally oily skin when you look at some of her photographs, so she may suffer a breakout or two here and there still.

Alicia Keyes, another woman with flawless skin today, had acne problems in the past.  Jessica Simpson has also said that she suffered from acne in her teens, but now keeps it under control as an adult.  By the way, she also happens to be a spokesperson for Proactive as well.  I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen her with a zit, but I’ll have to take her word for it.

What you have to remember with celebrities is that since they have an army of skin care specialists at their disposal if they so choose, if they happen to have a horrible acne breakout before an event where they will definitely be photographed, they can get this taken care of with a shot of cortisone, which usually makes a large, inflamed acne postule go down almost immediately, so don’t feel bad when they seem to have perfect skin all the time, it’s because they have the resources to look like that at all times, and it literally means their career sometimes to keep perfect skin all the time.

Now, onto the male celebrities.  There are actually a lot of male celebrities that have had acne in the past, and because their skin tends to show acne scarring and pitting a lot more for some reason, or maybe they just weren’t as cognizant of getting it corrected, you can tell that these men have acne scars now in their adulthood and probably had acne as teens.  One of the more noticeable ones is Ray Liotta.  His handsome face has acne pitting on the sides of his cheeks, and yet it somehow fits his features.

Another is James Woods, and Brad Pitt.  You wouldn’t know it to look at Brad unless you see a close up, but there is definitely some acne scarring going on there, although his face still looks irresistible to most women!  Teen idol Ricky Martin had struggled with acne, but his pretty face still looks great today, so it is hard to tell.  Most men are beginning to wriggle with discomfort as the tables continue to turn and the world is starting to pick apart their every body part just as they have with women. More men are becoming self conscious about their skin, especially the ones before the camera. 

I always appreciate when actresses and actors that are in the spotlight and admired by so many are honest about their imperfections. It makes the rest of us more realistic about our struggles with cosmetic imperfections. Furthermore, celebs spend an average of $100 000 EVERY YEAR on cosmetic tune-ups, from facials to line fillers to the best brow shapers, hair dressers, and so on. If we spent that on our appearance, we would also look like a million bucks, hands down.