Skin & Wellness

The Real Reason Seborrheic Keratoses Keep Coming Back — And Why Nobody Told You This Before

Published: April 15, 2026 | 3:33pm GMT
Beauty & Wellness
Words by Sandra Mitchell

THE MORNING I STARTED ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION

I started investigating this after I received an email from a reader.

She'd been managing seborrhoeic keratoses — the flat, cornflake-like or harder warty growths that cluster on the trunk, chest, neck, and back — for eleven years. In that time she'd had hundreds removed. Paid around £250 a session for private cryotherapy. Tried IPL. Tried wart treatment at home, freeze spray from Amazon, apple cider vinegar on a cotton pad held in place with a plaster.

"More arriving every day," she wrote. "I've been told it's just the nature of them. I want to understand if that's actually true or if there's something I'm missing."

It's a question I'd heard variations of before. But this time I decided to actually answer it.

What I found surprised me. Not because the answer was complicated.

Because it was simple, specific, and apparently nobody had told these women.

WHY YOU NEVER SEEM TO GET AHEAD

To understand why seborrhoeic keratoses keep returning, you first need to understand what they actually are.

They're not a pigmentation issue. They're not surface discolouration. They're not something that can be managed the same way as a dark spot or a patch of dry skin.

Seborrhoeic keratoses are physical growths — abnormal keratin buildup, the same protein that forms the outer layer of skin, accumulating and hardening into raised growths faster than the skin can shed it. That's what creates the flat cornflake-ish ones and the harder warty ones.

This distinction matters enormously — because it explains why virtually every available treatment only ever works temporarily.

Seborrhoeic keratoses develop a thickened, heavily keratinised surface. Most treatments deal with individual growths after they've already formed.

RYVANE takes a different approach, working on the hardened keratin buildup itself through sustained leave-on contact across multiple affected areas at once.

Why cryotherapy and cauterisation become a never-ending cycle:
Professional removal can destroy or remove individual growths. The problem is that it only deals with the ones treated during that appointment.

Remove six or eight.

Wait.

Notice another group.

Book again.

Pay again.

Repeat.

For someone dealing with dozens across the back, chest or neck, even successful removal can become a constant game of catch-up.

Why creams and most topicals barely touch them:
Most skincare is formulated for ordinary dryness, rough texture or normal skin turnover.

But a seborrhoeic keratosis has a dense, heavily keratinised surface.

A cream can make the surrounding skin feel smoother while doing very little to the hardened buildup itself. And products that are quickly absorbed, wiped away or rinsed off have another limitation:

contact time.

The harder the buildup, the more important sustained contact becomes.

Why IPL can help but still become difficult to keep pace with:
IPL can treat larger areas than removing individual growths one by one, which is why some people find it more practical.

But repeated professional sessions can quickly become expensive and inconvenient when you're dealing with dozens of growths across multiple areas.

You're still booking appointments and paying repeatedly to deal with what is already there.

The practical limitation across all three is the same:

none gives someone with fifty, eighty or a hundred seborrhoeic keratoses a simple way to work across all those areas consistently at home.

And that's why, when I asked five women who'd been managing this for years to describe their experience with treatment, I kept hearing almost the same story.

Margaret, 62, Kent:

"I noticed the first ones on my back maybe six years ago. One. I wasn't worried. Then there were five. Then ten. Then I stopped counting. I've been getting groups cauterised off every winter. Hundreds of pounds per area. I sit through the sessions, wait for the white marks to fade, feel relieved for a few weeks. Then I look down and find more than I started with. My dermatologist looked at my skin and said, 'You do have a lot. It's likely hormonal or genetic. We can remove the ones that bother you most but there's really no way to stop new ones appearing.' I've been hearing that for six years."

Linda, 55, Yorkshire:
"I can look at my left side alone and count close to a hundred. My back must have several hundred more. They start small and flesh-coloured — easy to dismiss. Then they darken, get raised, and spread to places the previous ones never reached. Every time I shower and catch a glimpse in the mirror, there are more. I've tried wart remover from the pharmacy. The fumes were so bad I could feel them in my lungs through a mask. The ones I managed to treat? Gone for a few weeks. Then back. Sometimes darker than before."

Patricia, 58, Essex:
"I'd had them removed. Hundreds removed. And hundreds still there. Every session felt like progress. Then I'd look down and realise I'd spent hundreds of pounds to temporarily remove things that were just going to come back while new ones arrived in the meantime. I went back to my dermatologist after three sessions in eighteen months. She nodded and said, 'They do tend to recur. It's just the nature of them.' I sat in my car and just — stared. I'd traded one visible problem for white marks. And now I was being told that was the best available answer."

Carol, 61, Surrey:
"I just wanted to get ahead of all of them at once. Not spot treat one or two and watch ten more appear while I was dealing with those. I read every thread. Saw every suggestion. Dermaplaning. Chemical peels. IPL. Creams that claimed to help. I tried retinol. Then tretinoin on the small new ones on my neck, hoping to at least stop them getting bigger and darker. My skin got drier. More sensitive. The small ones looked marginally better. The hundreds on my back, sides, and trunk looked exactly the same. I was always behind."

Susan, 64, Hampshire:
"The thing nobody prepares you for isn't the appearance of the first one. It's the feeling that once they start, nothing stops them. Like your skin has switched something on that you can't switch back off. I've gotten groups removed and felt relieved for a few weeks. Then looked down and counted eleven new ones where the old ones used to be. Doctors say, 'Wow, you do have a lot. Did you spend a lot of time in the sun?' I have hundreds on areas that have never seen the sun in my life."

Sound familiar?
RYVANE is the leave-on keratin-softening formula these women found after years of losing ground.

RYVANE Smooth & Even Glycolic Body Stick

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What strikes me across all five accounts isn't the frustration — though that's palpable — it's the resignation. Every one of these women has done the sensible things. They've been to dermatologists. They've tried professional treatment. They've researched and experimented and spent money and been consistent. And every one of them has arrived at the same conclusion their doctor gave them.

It's just the nature of them.

I wanted to know if that conclusion was actually the end of the story — or just the end of what professional removal could offer.

THE QUESTION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING

The reason "it's just the nature of them" feels so final is because it's answering the wrong question.

The question these women have been asking, and the question cryotherapy, IPL, and home removal methods have been answering, is: how do I remove what's already here?

That's not the question that matters. The question that matters is: what are these growths physically made of, and what actually works on that structure across all of them at once?

The answer comes down to two things nobody mentions in the standard dermatologist conversation.

The keratin structure of each individual growth.

Seborrhoeic keratoses develop a thickened, heavily keratinised surface. Not surface discolouration. Not ordinary rough skin. A physically dense, compacted structure.

Which means products formulated for normal skin turnover are working against something fundamentally different from the skin around it. The surrounding skin may get smoother. The growth stays hard.

The keratin-softening sequence.

This is the piece almost nobody in the skincare conversation names explicitly. Instead of simply exfoliating the surface harder, the structure needs to be approached in sequence.

First, the hardened keratin has to be softened. Then the compacted surface buildup has to be broken down. Then the compacted buildup underneath has to be loosened so it can gradually shed.

And all of that requires sustained contact.

A wash disappears almost immediately. A pad gets wiped across the surface and is gone. Many creams spread into the surrounding skin before spending meaningful time against the hardened growth itself.

So the problem isn't simply finding a stronger exfoliant.

It's not the wrong chemistry. It's the wrong delivery.

It's getting the right sequence against the hardened keratin, and keeping it there long enough to work.

That's the distinction that eventually led these women away from another removal session, another generic cream, or another home experiment.

And toward a very different kind of leave-on formula.

THE DISCOVERY

After months of the same conversations — dermatologist visits, home experiments, forum posts ending in "it's just the nature of them" — each of the five women I spoke to eventually found their way to the same product through different routes.

A friend noticed one morning at a book club. A neighbour mentioned it getting into a dress. A sister-in-law who worked in a dermatology practice suggested looking at leave-on keratolytic formulas specifically. A forum post at 11PM that finally explained why softening the hardened keratin first, then exfoliating it in sustained contact, was different from simply rubbing another cream over the surface.

What they all arrived at was RYVANE.

The specific formulation:

5% urea — softens and hydrates the thickened keratin first, making the hardened buildup easier for the exfoliating acids to work on.

7% glycolic acid — exfoliates the hardened surface buildup and helps loosen the bonds between accumulated keratinised cells. It's working directly on the thickened surface of the growth, rather than simply smoothing the surrounding skin.

1% salicylic acid — works through the keratinised buildup, helping loosen compacted cells underneath so they can shed instead of remaining tightly packed together.

10% shea butter — supports and conditions the surrounding skin while the exfoliating ingredients do their work. For skin that's already been through repeated freezing, scraping, acids and home experiments, that matters.

Softening first.

Breaking down the hardened surface.

Loosening the compacted buildup underneath.

And supporting the surrounding skin throughout.

The format is a leave-on stick. One swipe across the affected area. Left on the skin — not rinsed, not wiped away.

That's the contact-time piece.

"The reason I kept dismissing topicals," Carol told me, "was because nothing ever stayed on long enough to do anything. A serum disappears. A wash is gone immediately. This stays. And when something designed to soften and exfoliate that hardened buildup stays in contact with those growths consistently — the results were different from anything I'd tried."

The women I spoke to each found their way to this product through different routes. What they all reported was the same.

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Or keep reading — what happened next.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS

None of the five women I spoke to described overnight transformation. What they described was more specific, more honest, and — I'd argue — more persuasive than any dramatic before/after story.

Margaret: "Day five, I ran my finger over the flatter ones on my chest. Different. Less raised. I did it again just to check. Day seven, I compared a photo to one I'd taken two weeks earlier. The flatter ones had visibly reduced. Not gone. But different in a way nothing had managed before. Week three, I wore a lower cut top. The ones across my chest that had always made me reach for a higher neckline first. I didn't think about it until I was already out the door."

Linda: "Day ten, I caught myself not doing the morning check automatically. First time in as long as I could remember. The harder warty ones on my neck were still there at two weeks but the edges had softened. Less defined. And the new ones appearing — smaller than the ones I'd been dealing with for years. Flatter from the start. That was new."

Patricia: "Two months in, new ones still arrive. That's just the nature of them. But they don't get the chance to build up the way they used to. I catch them earlier. Keep them flatter. Manage all of them consistently rather than waiting until I have enough to justify another dermatologist appointment. I'm not cured. I never expected to be. But for the first time I feel like I'm actually keeping pace with them."

Carol: "The flat ones are basically gone. The harder ones are flatter. New ones are still appearing but they're smaller than they used to get. I haven't booked a dermatologist appointment in four months. That's the part that surprised me most."

Susan: "Someone close to me noticed the ones on my chest had changed before I told them anything. They'd seen my skin for years. That was when I knew something had actually shifted."

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Olivia R. 2d ago

•••

My daughter kept telling me to try this and I kept putting it off because I'd already spent so much on removal that never lasted.

I have the flat ones AND the harder raised ones across my back and neck, honestly thought nothing would touch the raised ones. The flat ones started changing within the first week but the raised ones surprised me too. Edges got softer, less defined, just gradually less noticeable.

New ones still appear but smaller than what I used to get. Booked a massage last week without thinking about it first. That hasn't happened in years.

🥰

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Megan Tate 17h ago

•••

I'd had cryotherapy three times and kept watching them come back alongside white marks where they used to be. My dermatologist told me it was just the nature of them.

Found this through a Facebook group and figured the 60 day guarantee meant nothing to lose. Genuinely wish I'd found this before spending hundreds on sessions that never held.

Two months in and I'm actually keeping pace for the first time. Not a cure. New ones still arrive, but they stay smaller and flatter and I'm not counting new ones every morning anymore.

🥰

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Michelle K. 18h ago

•••

Want to be honest because I was sceptical, new ones do still appear, this doesn't stop that. But they come up smaller and flatter than before, and the existing ones have genuinely reduced.

Six weeks every other day. The ones on my chest that always made me reach for a higher neckline are barely there now.

My husband noticed before I told him anything.

🥰

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WHAT THE INGREDIENT SCIENCE SAYS

Glycolic acid's ability to dissolve keratin bonds is not a marketing claim — it's established chemistry.

Clinical research published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment found that glycolic acid at therapeutic concentrations significantly improved keratin-related skin conditions, with measurable surface changes across consistent use over several weeks.

But RYVANE doesn't rely on those two acids alone.

5% urea comes first. It softens and hydrates the thickened keratin, making the hardened buildup easier for the exfoliating acids to work through.

That's what turns this from simple surface exfoliation into a sequence.

First, soften the hardened keratin.

Then break down the surface buildup.

Then loosen the compacted keratin underneath.

And because RYVANE is a leave-on formula, that entire sequence remains in sustained contact instead of being rinsed or wiped away moments later.

That's the mechanism ordinary creams, washes and mild exfoliating products miss.

The 10% shea butter serves a different purpose. Skin that's already been through repeated freezing, scraping, acids and home experiments can become dry and irritated.

Shea butter conditions the surrounding skin while the keratin-softening ingredients do their work, making the formula more practical for consistent use.

And the 60-day money-back guarantee changes the risk completely.

Instead of paying hundreds of pounds for another removal session, you have 60 days to use RYVANE consistently across the affected areas and decide for yourself whether anything is actually changing.

If you don't see results, you get your money back.

THE HONEST ANSWER TO "IT'S JUST THE NATURE OF THEM"

That four-word sentence is true, to a point.

New seborrhoeic keratoses will always appear. The skin's tendency to produce them doesn't have an off switch. No topical product — RYVANE included — changes that underlying biology.

What the sentence leaves out is this: the size and height of existing ones, how much hardened keratin is allowed to accumulate, and the consistency with which they're being addressed across the full affected area — all of these can be changed.

Not cured. Changed.

The women I spoke to didn't stop getting new ones.

They stopped losing ground.

There's a significant difference between "it's just the nature of them" as a reason to stop trying and "it's just the nature of them" as an honest framing for what consistent, mechanism-appropriate management can actually deliver.

For anyone who has been given the first version and told that's the whole story — it isn't.

IF THIS IS YOUR SITUATION

If you've been getting groups removed and finding more alongside them before they've healed. If you've heard "it's just the nature of them" and accepted it because you didn't have another option. If you've been trying to spot treat one while ten more appear in the background.

RYVANE Smooth & Even Glycolic Body Stick is available with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

That's long enough to watch the flat cornflake-ish ones reduce, feel the harder raised ones soften at the edges, and notice new ones appearing smaller and flatter than they used to get.

Track it yourself. Notice when you stop doing the automatic morning check. Notice when you reach for a lower neckline without thinking about what's underneath it. Notice when a new one appears and stays smaller than anything you've dealt with before.

It won't stop the nature of this condition. But it's the first approach that addresses what's actually forming each growth — across all of them simultaneously — rather than treating them one at a time while more appear in the background.

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60 days to try it. Full refund if you don't see results.