Possibly, but it has not been proven. A 2023 review of alcohol and skin disease in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology reports that several cross-sectional studies in Europe and Asia found people who drink have a higher rate of acne than people who do not, but other studies found no link, so alcohol is considered a possible risk factor rather than an established cause.
The pattern differs by age. In one large study from China, acne was more common among teenage and young-adult drinkers (about 41%) than non-drinkers, while adults over 25 had nearly the same rate whether they drank heavily (5.5%), moderately (5.8%), or not at all (5.5%). Researchers do not yet know how alcohol might raise acne risk; one idea is that some skin microbes convert alcohol into acetaldehyde, a toxic compound that may irritate the skin.
Image: a glass of beer on a wooden table, by Chenspec, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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