Ah, pimples. The ultimate unwelcome guests. As this video from asapSCIENCE explains, whiteheads pop up when our pores—which are really just hair follicles—get clogged with dead skin cells and oils (nature’s moisturizer!). The healthy oil gets trapped under all this gunk, our immune system responds by sending blood to the area, and ta-da, a shiny bump is formed.

Washing your face helps prevent typical breakouts, but it doesn’t stop serious acne.There may be a cure in our future, though. Researchers realized that people with healthy skin still have acne-causing bacteria on their face—it’s just a slightly different strain. If scientists can figure out how to alter the bacteria on our skin to be the healthy strain, we may be looking at a legit cure for pimples. Go science!