Cures without Creams: Review of Neutrogena Light Therapy Acne Spot Treatment Pen

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I admit I'm not much of a gadget or tech person. My computer is old, my phone is old, and when I'm home alone talking to something, it's a cat, not a smart device. I don't really do any type of beauty treatment that doesn't just involve smearing some kind of liquid or cream on my face. I've never lasered or needled anything. But hey, this is just a light, so after reading a positive review of it from Bad Outfit, Great Lipstick, I figured it wasn't beyond my capacity to understand and use. And it's only about $20, so not beyond my budget either.

With a consistent skincare routine that includes lots of moisture along with BHA and azelaic acid (review here), I'm lucky that I have very few breakouts these days. But I still have an average of one pimple, even if it's a small one, somewhere on my face at most times. Sometimes these are deep, cystic pimples (usually on my chin, usually around PMS time), and there's not a whole lot to be done about them, except to let the azelaic acid do its work and shorten their life span. Inflammatory zits--i.e. the scabby ones where the infection is near the surface of the skin--respond better to spot treatments. When they first appear, I usually dab on a little tea tree oil to kill some of the bacteria. If they are oozing or scabby, I'll use a hydrocolloid patch (review here) to absorb the goo and protect the surface. Both of those things help my inflammatory acne clear up more quickly.

This light pen fits into the same category. I've noticed absolutely no effect when I've tried it on cystic pimples, but it has definitely helped inflammatory pimples heal faster. That is exactly what it claims it will and will not do, so thumbs up.

There's not too much to explain in terms of how to use it. You just put a couple of batteries in it, cover the pimple with the light end of the pen, and hold the button for a couple of seconds to turn it on. It will beep to let you know when it comes on and goes off, but chances are you will be able to see the light out of the corner of your eye--it's very bright. Then you hold it in place for two minutes while you watch The Good Place, and it automatically shuts off when the time is up. You move it to the next spot and repeat as necessary. You're supposed to use it twice a day, but I usually forget and only use it once. Nonetheless, I'll find that if I use it before bed, my zit is less inflamed and starting to heal by morning. It's not an instant fix, but it does make a noticeable improvement.

As for the science behind how this thing actually works, here's how I understand it. The LED light has anti-microbial and anti-bacterial effects on the skin, and so, much like a topical cream or other treatment, it kills some of the infection in the pore and also calms down the redness and inflammation so that it looks and feels better. The blue light kills bacteria on the surface and the red light penetrates a little more to help with inflammation. You can see both colors in the photo below. Apparently a device like this isn't powerful enough to penetrate the skin enough to treat a cystic pimple, which is why it really only works for those inflammatory zits on surface. You can find more information here and here.

Also, the instructions say to use it on clean, dry skin. Sometimes I forget and apply moisturizer or something else, so then I don't use it. I'm just not sure what effect the light would have on the product. Any thoughts? Am I being too cautious? One (popular) article I read advised not using it on the same day/day after using a product that can cause photosensitivity, so I guess I would be careful about using it in conjunction with an AHA in particular. That said, there are no UV rays in these things, so again I'm not sure how much of a concern that should be.

Overall, I think this Neutrogena pen is a good option for spot treatment in addition to more holistic (not in the woo-sense of the word) skincare products. For me, it also helps to have an alternative to picking, in addition to the zit patches--or at least something to use after I've picked and I'm worried I've made things worse. I got my pen with a 20% off coupon from Ulta, but the cheapest I've seen it is $17 on Amazon.

Have you used any other skincare treatments that are not creams or other stuff slathered on your skin? What works? What's bullshit?

Review of Neutrogena Light Therapy Acne Spot Treatment Pen

The Ordinary's Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% for cystic acne, plus my skincare routine

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For some reason, after I moved to California back in December, I started to experience more breakouts than I'd had in a long time. They were worst on my chin, but also happened on my nose, cheeks, and forehead. I had a combination of inflammatory acne (the scabby, infected pores on the surface) and cystic acne (those deep, swollen, underground pimples)--the latter concentrated on my chin and upper lip. I don't know what caused my skin to react this way. Something hormonal? Climate? Different water? Since I couldn't prevent it, I decided to treat it.

I bought this tube of The Ordinary's Azelaic Acid (for some reason I spell azelaic wrong in a different way every single time) back in July when I made a small order from Well.ca and had it shipped to my sister in Canada. I mainly chose products based on what had the best reviews, because I was curious about the brand. In addition to this stuff, I ended up with their Caffeine Solution (reviewed here and passed on to a friend), Buffet (which I've finished and will review soon), and the Matrixyl + HA (which I'm currently using).

(I know there has been drama and bad publicity about Deciem, the parent company of The Ordinary, lately. I don't really know what to think of it, and since I bought this months before any of that happened, it wasn't a consideration. You can easily find out what's been going on with a Google search and make up your own mind.)

After I wrote my post about not having a use for The Ordinary's Vitamin C, I looked at this tube and kicked myself. Another brightening product? Really? Well, azelaic acid in fact has a number of functions, and perhaps what it's most often used for it to treat acne. For instance, it's typically part of the acne medication prescribed by Curology. Yet The Ordinary's description of the product on their US site doesn't mention anything about acne (though it does say it fights acne in Canada). They write, in in much more straightforward prose than is typical for them:

Found in grains, Azelaic Acid is produced naturally by yeast that lives on normal skin. It brightens the skin tone while visibly improving the evenness of skin texture and reducing the look of blemishes. It is a multi-functional support ingredient for all skin types and also acts as an effective antioxidant. This formula offers a very high 10% concentration of high-purity Azelaic Acid in a lightweight cream-gel system.

If it's often used for acne, why no mention of that here? I suspect it has to do with drug labeling laws. If a product claims to treat acne, then it's classified as a drug by the FDA and has to have "drug facts" and other information on its label. There are other regulations for products classified as drugs in the US as well. For instance, Paula's Choice sells two versions of its popular 2% BHA liquid with the exact same ingredients. One is labelled as an acne treatment and one isn't--the difference is in the labeling, not the product itself. (So buy whichever one you can find on sale.) Deciem, I assume, has chosen to avoid the extra burden of these regulations by simply not mentioning acne and relying on its unusually informed consumer base to know the properties of azelaic acid. (I don't fault them for going this route, although they might miss out on some potential customers.)

Fortunately, I read about azelaic acid for cystic acne somewhere (probably Reddit, but I can't find the exact post now) and was excited to find that I already had a tube of it in my hoard. According to Deciem, you only need to use a pea-sized amount each day, and they generally seem to advise applying it at night.

It's a fairly thick cream formula, and it dries in seconds, so you need to spread it quickly. I find it easier to use a patting motion than rubbing. It has a mildly unpleasant smell, kind of like the bedroom of a college boy with moderately-good hygiene, but it doesn't linger. I concentrate the product in the problem areas mentioned above, though as you will see in my skincare routine described below, the moisturizer I put on top probably causes it to be more evenly distributed across my face in the end. It's not gritty like The Ordinary's Vit C, and I don't feel any sensation at all on my skin when I apply it.

I decided to do a proper test of this product by applying it daily for a month without adding any other new products to my routine, limiting my use of strong actives like retinol for the first couple of weeks, and taking weekly photos of my skin. I wanted to keep going for at least a month, since my cystic acne breakouts tended to be worst the week before my period. I'm really glad I have documentation, because sometimes it can be hard to see progress without photographic evidence. When I took the last of the four photos below, I considered not even posting them, because I thought there hadn't been any real improvement over time. But I think the photos say otherwise. Left to right, weeks 1 (immediately before beginning azelaic acid) through 4 (all without any makeup):

The most dramatic improvement is, in fact, not really visible in these photos: the decrease in cystic pimples. I still get one or two during the week before my period (I'm actually in the second month of using the azelaic acid as I write this), but they are much smaller, less painful, and they disappear in just a few days instead of a couple of weeks (or more!). I just had one pop up a couple of days ago, and it's almost gone today.

The reason I thought there wasn't a visible improvement, despite being happy with the results, was that I still had an unusual amount of inflammatory acne on my chin. I've managed to get that under control too, though that's a topic for another post (spoiler: honey mask). I think you can see from the photos that even with remaining acne on my chin, nose, and forehead, the redness in those areas had decreased significantly with just the addition of the azelaic acid. Really, that should have been more obvious to me, because I've found myself needing to do less color correction/concealing (as described here) with continued azelaic acid use. (The one thing that's sticking around is that red scar/PIH/PIE mark in the middle of my top lip that was left behind by a cystic zit. If anyone has suggestions for fading it more quickly, I would be grateful.)

This is all very exciting for me! It's rare that I get such good results from a new product in this short a time. I thought I would list out my full skincare routine here, so that you can see where the azelaic acid fits in. As I've pointed out recently, you don't need to use nearly as many products as I do to have nice skin. I like to try new things and especially to review and blog about them, so I use more than I necessarily need. I haven't listed products I use sporadically like masks and oils. This is my daily routine.

Morning

Gentle cleanse (currently Paula's Choice Moisture Boost Cleanser or Simple Micellar Water)
Exfoliate with BHA (currently Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid)
Wait 5-10 minutes
Hydrating serum mixed with a couple of drops of niacinamide booster (currently The Ordinary Matrixyl 10% + HA and Paula's Choice 15% Niacinamide Booster)
Light Moisturizer (currently Clinique Moisturizing Gel)
Wait 10 minutes
Sunscreen (currently La Roche-Posay SPF 60 Fluid or Kinesys SPF 30)

Night

Double cleanse (currently Neutrogena Cleansing Oil and Simple Micellar Water)
Hydrating serum (currently Paula's Choice Redness Relief Serum)
Azelaic acid treatment (currently The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%)
Wait 5-10 minutes
Heavier moisturizer (currently Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion or Origins Night-a-Mins Cream or Paula's Choice Hydrating Treatment Mask)

I think I still have another month or two worth of this azelaic acid in my tube, and I'll probably replace it with the same thing when it's empty. It's been an excellent addition to my routine. Besides Deciem's website, it's available places like Sephora and Well.ca ($10 off $40 CAD with code brutallyhonestbeauty--anyone can make a coupon code). But do you know of any other good, non-prescription sources of azelaic acid out there? Paula's Choice sells it outside of North America (I assume not here because of some of those drug regulations discussed above), though I'm hoping that some recent social media posts they're written about azelaic acid mean they'll offer it here soon, too.

UPDATE: Paula's Choice Azelaic Acid Booster is now available in North America.

Has anyone else had good (or bad?) results with azelaic acid? Did you use a prescription product?

Zit Magic: Review of COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patches

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Things have been a little slow here on the ol' blargh. I'm going to try to post more frequently, but in case you haven't noticed, when I don't have time to write blog posts I tend to post more frequently on Instagram since I can put something up quickly on the bus or during my lunch break. Last week I posted a couple of new things I've been trying, which I'll review here more thoroughly eventually. (If you aren't an Instagram user, you can still view these posts in your browser.)

Today I am reviewing a type of product that will be nothing new at all to many of you--but I'm guessing there are still some people out there who, like me, are late to the game and haven't discovered these magical pimple patches yet. They are most definitely one of the best skin discoveries I've made in the past year. I had them sitting on my Amazon shopping list for a very long time before I finally got around to buying any, and I wish I'd tried them sooner.

The COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patches are thin, round, hydrocolloid bandages. They come in three sizes, and they look like this:

Lab Muffin has a great post explaining in detail how hydrocolloid patches work, but essentially what they do is absorb fluids. You stick one of these things on top of a pimple, and it sucks the goo out and dries it up. Sure, you could just squeeze your zits, but you risk doing damage to your skin that way, and there's also a good chance that they will just get infected again. These patches will not only soak up the crud, they will serve as a protective layer to prevent more bacteria from getting in there.

There are limitations to what they can do. Patches won't work very well on those deep, underground, cystic pimples that many of us get, especially on our chins. The fluid needs to be closer to the surface. Basically, my rule is that if it looks like I might possibly be able to squeeze it, I'll put a patch on it. If I definitely couldn't, I'll just dab some tea tree oil on the spot and see what happens.

Also, you need to have clean, dry skin before sticking a patch on, or it will absorb things other than your zit goo and/or not adhere properly. Besides, you don't want to cover up a dirty pimple and seal a bunch of bacteria in there. Because they have to be applied to freshly cleansed skin, it can be tricky to apply moisturizers or other products on top of them. If you rub everything around too much, your products can make their way underneath the patch and cause it to start lifting. I've found that if I just sort of pat products on the area of my face where I've stuck a patch, that problem is avoided.

I only use these things at night, but the COSRX patches are thin and translucent enough that you might be comfortable using them during the day. I'd just prefer not. I apply them as needed before bed, and they feel like nothing on my face. When I wake up in the morning, the patch has turned white and swelled up in the center where it has absorbed fluid. It's really disgustingly satisfying. My perverse fascination with these patches has all but replaced my perverse fascination with popping zits. So that's good.

After I remove the patch, the pimple usually feels pretty dry on the surface. Most of the time, it takes a couple of nights to clean out a zit completely, and then I'm just left with a red spot that takes the usual amount of time to fade. I don't know about you, but that's much faster than any spot treatment product I've used before.

There are other brands of acne patches out there, the most well known probably being Nexcare. I've also tried Nexcare's, and while they worked, there are a few things I prefer about the COSRX patches. For one, the COSRX version is more translucent and thinner. That means that they are not only less conspicuous, but they are less likely to come off during the night, since they don't have thick edges that rub against my pillow. I've read some reviews that said the Nexcare patches absorb more fluid than the COSRX patches, but I didn't notice any difference. Since they are close to the same price, you might want to try them both and see which you prefer.

Another option is just to buy a larger hydrocolloid bandage meant for healing blisters and cut it up to make your own patches. I haven't tried this method myself, but you might be able to save a little money that way, and they're easier to find in US drugstores than acne patches, which you might have to order online.

The first couple of packs of COSRX patches I bought were ordered from Amazon with Prime shipping for about $5 each. Once I decided that I was hooked, I sprung for 10 packs for $24, making each one significantly cheaper. They still have free shipping, but since they ship from Korea, they take a couple of weeks to get here. (You can also get them with Prime shipping for $29.)

If you've been curious about these patches, I totally encourage you to give them a shot! They are both effective and mesmerizingly gross, so you really can't lose.

This is the only product I've tried so far from the Korean brand COSRX. I've heard good things about other products, like their honey moisturizer, and I would love your recommendations if you're a fan of the brand.

By the way, if you want a chance to try these patches for free, I'm currently holding a giveaway on Instagram, which includes a pack of COSRX patches along with a whole bunch of makeup. You don't need an Instagram account to enter, but you can find the details here.

Serious Retinol: Review of Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment (with before and after photos)

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Enter here by December 21 for a chance to win this product!

Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment

When Paula's Choice initially came out with their Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment, I wasn't especially interested. I'd worked through two very generously-sized bottles of their retinol serum (reviewed here) without seeing any clear results at all. But then I read Lab Muffin's review of the new retinol treatment, and I decided to add a sample, in a 0.16 oz. pump bottle, to my next order. Cheap as I am, I was particularly interested in the value breakdown Lab Muffin provides, showing that this product is really competitively priced, at least in Australia. As I understand it, cosmetics are really fucking expensive in Australia, but her price analysis seems promising anyway. Unfortunately, I am not mathematically inclined, so I haven't calculated a similar comparison among U.S. products (but if you are, and you want to share, that would be really exciting). The price of the full-size bottle is $56, which is not exactly cheap, so it's nice to feel like I'm spending my money relatively wisely. Especially since it turns out that I really like this stuff, and I want to keep buying it. Though it's mainly marketed as anti-aging, I'd also recommend this stuff if you have problems with clogged pores and/or breakouts, like I do. (More on how to save some money on it at the end of the post.)

I do suggest trying the sample size if you think this might work for you, because I got 4-5 weeks of use out of it. Since you only use a "pea-sized" amount each time, and you have to gradually increase the frequency of use, the sample contains more than enough to decide if it's right for you. You can see the main claims Paula's Choice makes about this product's purpose on the bottle above, i.e. to improve skin's firmness, smooth wrinkles/lines, reduce dark spots, and refine pores.

One pump of Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment

During my initial testing period, I used the retinol treatment 2-4 times a week, as I adjusted to it and tried to determine what my skin could tolerate. I'm glad I read the Lab Muffin review first, because that meant I knew to expect peeling. And holy shit, the peeling. It's not painful, red peeling or anything, but I did lightly molt for the first few weeks I tested it. The peeling doesn't start immediately, at least for me - it would show up, reliably, 36-48 hours after I used the retinol. It can be controlled with lots of moisturizing, but unless your skin is super tough, do expect peeling. I recommend going slow when you start. Use only a small amount the first several times, or mix it half and half with moisturizer. That's what I did the second time around, after I got a full bottle and started the process over again, and the peeling was much less dramatic.

Another side effect that I noticed was that it seems to make my skin more sensitive to other products that I usually don't react to. Nothing major, but I sometimes notice a slight burning sensation when using my regular moisturizer or even things like liquid highlighters. Odd.

Anyway, results! I liked what was happening to my skin while I used this, but I wanted to be sure it was really the result of the retinol and not just a coincidence or something. I tend to be paranoid and to have a bad memory, which makes testing skincare products a pain in the ass. Luckily (?), the disruption of moving (twice), traveling, and housesitting in August interrupted my usual skin care routine and allowed me to sort things out. I packed up both this retinol treatment and the Paula's Choice 2% BHA liquid (also reviewed here) that I have been using for years, and I didn't have access to either of them for a couple of weeks. That, combined with stress, meant that my skin gave me a big old fuck you, and I ended up with a mess to straighten out.

I broke out really bad, I had seriously clogged pores, and my skin looked dull and just generally shitty. I started back in with just the BHA liquid for a week or two, and things improved noticeably. Definitely fewer blackhead and congestion. So, okay good, I haven't been wasting my money on that stuff all this time. Then I cracked open my new, big bottle of 1% retinol and an even greater improvement was noticeable immediately.

I don't really like using vague language like "brighter skin," or "radiant," or "luminous," or whatever, because I feel like a slippery ad man. What exactly do those adjectives really mean? They seem accurate, to some extent, for the results I get from this retinol treatment, but I'm going to try to be more specific. I think the main thing it does for my skin is keep my pores clearer than they would otherwise be, which in turn makes them appear smaller. Smaller pores make my skin, overall, look smoother, and that is the main thing that gives it a "radiant" appearance. For me, "refining pores" is the claim by Paula's Choice that I can really see when I use this.

I still get hormonal breakouts on my chin, but with this product they clear up more quickly and are less intense overall. When I stopped using it, those cystic zits came back with a vengeance and would not fuck off until I went back on the retinol. I'm not sure about overall firmness, but I don't (yet) have a lot of sag in my skin that I'm concerned about. I don't have many dark spots, but my freckles haven't really diminished, which is fine with me. I didn't think it was doing anything for lines until I looked at the following photos side by side. The first one is from May 2015, about 6 weeks before I started testing this retinol treatment, and the second is from the end of July, right as I was finishing up the sample. (I started to use it again toward the end of August.)

Before and after using Paula's Choice Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment for a month

It's hard to replicate lighting conditions exactly when taking photos like this months apart, and so the lighting is a bit harsher (at a more oblique angle) in the before photo. But I examined several different before and after photos taken on these same dates, and the comparison here is accurate. I think it's clear that I haven't added a filter or anything to the after photo, and I'm not wearing makeup (or anything but moisturizer) in either one. You can see that I still have a bit of hormonal chin acne and any freckles I had are still there in the after photo. The overall texture of my skin, however, is smoother, and that smile line between my mouth and nose is still there, but maybe slightly diminished. These subtle improvements add up to my skin generally just looking better.

In my current regimen, I use the Clinical 1% Retinol Treatment every third day, because that allows me to combine it with BHA liquid for optimal exfoliation with minimal peeling. You are not supposed to use BHA or AHA exfoliants at the same time as this retinol. So my routine goes something like this:

Day 1: one pump of retinol treatment in the evening on my entire face, except the eye area, since you're supposed to keep it away from there. I use a separate moisturizer around my eyes. I may or may not add extra moisturizer to the retinol, but it already contains things like glycerin and emollients, so it's usually moisturizing enough on its own for my combination-oily skin.

Day 2: light moisturizer and/or hydrating serum in the morning and evening. I find that using something with hyaluronic acid works well to prevent peeling. The Paula's Choice Antioxidant Concentrate Serum (reviewed here) worked - though I ran out a week ago and have been adding Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster to my regular Moisture Gel since then (also reviewed here - yes, I seem to be a Paula's Choice fangirl, but you already knew that).

Day 3: BHA liquid in the morning or evening, whenever I remember.

Day 4: return to Day 1 (and I use the same moisturizer as Day 2 on Days 1 and 3 as well, as needed).

My skin is looking good with this routine. It's not perfect - I still get the occasional blackhead or pimple, and I still have human skin with pores. But I'm getting a lot of good things from the combination; besides the retinol, there's vitamin C and peptides in the treatment, and then there is the BHA and the antioxidants and everything else in the other products. I'm not hating my face at the moment. My skin is the best it has been in quite some time.

So. I'm recommending something that costs $55. Maybe you have health insurance that covers other retinoids, and that is a more affordable route to go for this kind of thing. I don't, and if you don't either (or you want to try something a bit gentler), here are some options for buying it. I usually get things directly from the Paula's Choice website, because they have frequent sales and free shipping deals. Right now they have 20% any one item and free shipping on $50+. Soon they will probably have a sale on all of their "Clinical" products or all of their retinol products or something, and it will probably be 15-20% off. If you don't already have a Paula's Choice account, you can also get $10 off your first $15+ order by using someone's invite link (here's mine).

Another option, if you've already used your $10-off, is to buy Paula's Choice stuff from the Nordstrom website. Here's the 1% retinol. This is a good way to go if there isn't an appealing sale on the Paula's Choice site, because Nordstrom always has free shipping and free returns. You can also collect your rewards points, if that's a thing you do. Nordstrom doesn't have the sample size, however, which you can only get here from Paula's Choice, and I really recommend trying that out first. Either way, you should also shop through Ebates and get at least 3% cash back from Nordstrom or 5% from Paula's Choice (here's my previous post about Ebates in case you're not familiar). I think that about covers it as far as saving money on this shit goes.

Have you used retinol? Does it work for you? I assumed it didn't do anything for me, but it looks like I needed a higher concentration than I had tried in the past in order to get results.

Cheap and effective BHA exfoliant! Stridex Maximum Soft Touch Pads (from Lab Muffin)

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I've posted before about BHA/beta-hydroxy acid/salicylic acid. Quick summary: it works great not only for improving the texture and appearance of the skin and making it look smoother, but also for clearing blackheads and acne and soothing redness. Good stuff. But effective products containing BHAs have to have a certain pH level to really work. On my previous post, Emi from Project Swatch recommended the Stridex pads in the comments, and I was intrigued. The cheapest I've found them online is $3.49. But without knowing the pH, how could I tell if they would be as effective as the more expensive products I'd been using? Lab Muffin to the rescue! She tested the pads and found that the ones in the red package have both the right concentration (2%) of BHA and the right pH (below 4) to work well.

These are something worth trying not only for people dealing with acne, but for anyone who wants their skin to appear less dull, pores to be smaller, wrinkles to be less prominent, to reduce redness or hyperpigmentation . . . the list goes on. Just start out slow and make sure your skin can handle it. I've never had any irritation from BHA at all, but that's not the case for everyone. I'm definitely going to pick up a jar of this stuff when I run out of my Paula's Choice 2% BHA. The PC versions sells for $23 and works fantastically, I admit.

It's hard to compare the Stridex and the PC prices per unit, since the Stridex is measured in number of pads. On Amazon, the Stridex pads are described as 8 oz., but I don't know if that reflects the volume of liquid they contain (shipping weight is 8.8 oz., says Amazon). The PC BHA is 4 oz. and costs about 6 times as much. Either way, the Stridex is looking good in this comparison. I'll let you know my results once I've tried the Stridex pads myself, but since that will be a while, I wanted to give you the heads up. They come highly recommended by trustworthy sources, as you can see!

ETA: I just noticed that these have menthol in them. I hate skincare products that make my face tingly purely for the sake of making it tingly. Now I'm grumpy and I might just have to stick to the more expensive options after all.

Not all 100% Tea Tree Oil is equal, apparently

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I've posted about my love for pure tea tree oil as a spot treatment for zits before. I won't repeat everything I said there, but basically benzoyl peroxide never does anything for me (plus I can't manage to ever use it without bleaching the fuck out of all my towels and sheets). Tea tree oil, on the other hand, works. YMMV etc. That's just what works for me.

Anyway, in the winter I ran out of my Mason Naturals tea tree oil, and so I ordered a different brand from Amazon, since it was about a dollar cheaper at the time: Now Foods. Both of them say that they are 100% tea tree oil, so what's the difference? Honestly, I have no idea, but the Now Foods stuff didn't do shit. It says on the bottle that it's meant for "aromatherapy," whereas the Mason one says "pharmaceutical grade," but that doesn't seem very meaningful to me. I mean, 100% tea tree oil with nothing else in it should be the same thing either way, right?

Remember when I was complaining earlier this year about giant cystic pimples that would not fucking die? I couldn't figure out why tea tree oil had stopped working for me. But you know, the Now Foods version didn't have the same very slight tingle when I applied it, and it didn't do something that I actually found annoying about the Mason stuff - when I dab it near my mouth, but not too near, say a centimeter away or so, it would always migrate to my lips so I could taste it. Bleh. The Now Foods stuff didn't do that. These two things alone suggest that something different was going on. I thought maybe I was misremembering or imagining how well the previous bottle had worked on my acne, but eventually I got so fed up that I just ordered another bottle of Mason tea tree oil.

And what do you know? It fucking works. Used daily only directly on top of a zit, dabbed on with a q-tip, it will stop a pimple in its tracks and force it into retreat. So what I'm saying is that if you are considering trying tea tree oil for acne, you should try the Mason Naturals one. It's about $8 on Amazon right now, though the price fluctuates, and you might be able to find it cheaper if you shop around. I don't know what is in that Now Foods bottle, but it doesn't work the same. I've been using the remainder a few drops at a time in my garbage cans to freshen them up. Aromatherapy, I guess.

When Good Skin Goes Bad, Part II

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.
In my previous post, I began my quest to figure out why my skin has started to fuck with me. Click back there if you want to know exactly what I'm talking about, but in short, I'd been getting worse acne, blackheads, clogged and enlarged pores, fine lines/wrinkles, rough texture, etc., over a really short period of time, and it sucked. I mentioned that I had identified four possible causes for my skin's shittiness. To recap:

• Increased use of moisturizer to combat seasonal dryness.
• Discontinued use of BHA exfoliant.
• Increased consumption of delicious, delicious wheat.
• Use of battery-powered, rotating face brush for cleansing.

I started to address the second item on the list in Part I, and I'll return to it in a future post. For now, I thought I'd explain what the hell I was talking about with the other three. The thing about wheat probably sounds particularly weird.

First: moisturizer. I don't really think this was a major culprit. The moisturizers I was using didn't contain ingredients that differed much from anything I'd used successfully in the past. Plus, while this could, perhaps, explain an increase in clogged pores, it doesn't explain other problems, like lines/wrinkles.

At any rate, I've scaled way back on the moisturizing, simply because my skin seems to be adapting to the dryness and I don't need as much. That started before I took the other steps described below, and it didn't make much difference in my skin's condition.

Second: The wheat. Okay, here's the thing: my body just has a problem with wheat. I am not gluten-intolerant (I've been tested), but eating wheat does cause issues for me. The main problem is that it severely worsens the inflammation in my joints, which is pretty bad to begin with. I'm not imagining this. Wheat is inflammatory. Plus, I have tested whether or not it has a negative effect on me very extensively, like so: (1) I feel shitty (mainly joint pain in my hands, wrists, and arms - but there are other things too) so I stop eating wheat. (2) I feel dramatically better. (3) Wheat constantly taunts me with its seductive perfection and I begin to forget how shitty I felt when I was eating it. (4) I gradually start incorporating more and more wheat into my diet (bread! pizza! just a little pasta!) until . . . (5) I feel really shitty again. And repeat. And repeat and repeat and repeat. At this point it is abundantly clear that wheat hurts me.

So what does this have to do with my skin? I'm not completely positive, but I have a theory that isn't any more sophisticated than this: Wheat is aggravates inflammation (at least for me). Inflammation is bad for the skin (for example, an inflamed, clogged pore = a pimple). Therefore, inflammation caused by eating wheat makes my skin worse.

When Good Skin Goes Bad (or: All About Exfoliants), Part I

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
This is a detective story, but also a story about the decisions we make when we're broke. It's a long one, so I'll just jump right in. I've never had flawless skin - occasional breakout, etc. - but the last 6 weeks or so it seemed to be getting progressively worse. Not only worse acne, but rougher texture, bigger pores and lines - not a change I was pleased with. There's a photo below, hidden behind the jump for the squeamish. I mean, it's not nasty or anything, but it's also not pretty.

I felt like there had to be something behind this downturn, but these things are hard to figure out, especially when multiple factors had changed roughly the same period, i.e. late December-early January. What exactly was to blame for the mess? These are the possibilities I came up with:

• I'd been moisturizing a lot more, especially before bed. My skin was extra dry from the weather, combined with the horrible dry heat in my apartment. (I mentioned this frustrating change back in November.) Recently, my skin seems to have acclimatized and doesn't feel nearly as parched, so I've cut back on the moisturizing.
• I ran out of my BHA (beta hydroxy acid) exfoliant and didn't replace it, because I felt like it probably wasn't doing much of anything.
• I had been slowly and steadily adding more and more wheat to my diet, despite knowing that it fucks with my body. More on that later.
• I started using one of those battery-powered rotating face brush thingies. I started by using it 1-2 times a week, and then after a few weeks went up to about every second day when my skin kept getting worse.

I'm sure there are other things, but those changes seemed like the most worthwhile ones to consider. The best way to isolate the cause of a problem like this is, of course, to remove/change one suspect at a time and see if anything improves. That can be difficult if you're impatient, and especially if you don't make a connection immediately between skin problems and some kind of behavior. 

In this case, the first thing I decided to do was try some BHA again (mostly because it was simply the first thing that occurred to me). I'd thought that it hadn't been doing much for my skin, but I realized that maybe I was behaving like someone who stops taking their medication when they feel better, even though the medication is the thing that's actually making them feel better. (Or like people who abolish the VRA because it's effective.) I made the decision to try some BHA again at the end of January - and since it was the end of the month, funds were running low. At the same time, I was annoyed enough at my stupid fucking face that I wanted to do something about it immediately.

I had been using Paula's Choice CLEAR Extra Strength Acne Exfoliant. But that shit costs $23 a bottle, and I just didn't have it in my budget before payday. I started browsing Beautypedia to see if there was a decent, but cheaper, option available. I reasoned that if the Paula's Choice version had actually been working for me, then something else they recommended would be likely to work too. 

But holy shit, BHA exfoliants are not cheap, folks. Sure, there are lots of products out there with salicylic acid in them, which is what BHA is, but they're not all exfoliants. BHA has been shown not only to exfoliate the surface of the skin, but also the inside of pores, which is what makes it good for both anti-aging purposes and also acne. (AHA, on the other hand, only does the surface exfoliating, which means it's good if you are sensitive to BHA or have clear skin, but not what I personally needed.) Not every product with BHA will act as an exfoliant, however - it has to have the right pH. 

So I was pleased to find a $7 product that Beautypedia says will work as an exfoliant: Clean & Clear Advantage Oil Absorbing Treatment. You can read what they have to say about it here. Sweet, right? I didn't have to spend $23. If you actually break it down, though, the Clean & Clear option actually costs almost as much per unit as the Paula's Choice exfoliant. It's $7 for 1.5 oz. of the C&C stuff (i.e. $4.67 per oz.) and $23 for 4 oz. of the Paula's Choice product (i.e. $5.75 per oz.). There is a difference there, for sure, but it's not as huge as it seems when you initially consider the full price of each product. It's also important to consider that these two exfoliants are very different in terms of formulation. The C&C one is a cream, while the PC one is a clear liquid. I've found that to cover my entire face with the C&C product, I actually need to use significantly more than I would with the thinner PC liquid. The latter only requires a few drops on a cotton ball (maybe 4-5 drops max), which the C&C cream requires an amount between the size of a nickel and a quarter. (Since it's about the same thickness as shampoo or conditioner, just picture that when I describe it in terms of coins.)

Because of these differences, I think that in terms of actual cost per use, the two products are quite close. The Paula's Choice exfoliant might even come out as being the more economical of the two.

Despite that fact, I ultimately chose to buy the $7 tube instead of the $23 bottle. This is what people mean when they say that it is expensive to be poor. Not that I am claiming extreme poverty, but there are definitely months when I'm living paycheck to paycheck. Anyone who has been in that situation knows that you often have to choose something that has a lesser overall value, because it also represents a lesser immediate investment. These things end up being more expensive over time, but usually you can't do anything about that. I was going to get paid, so I could have waited, but I decided to go with the slightly cheaper immediate gratification and hope it would work as well as the more familiar, but more expensive, option.

Here are my results. First, take a look at my skin before:

Cheap sulfur mask for acne (from Makeup Withdrawal)

If, like me, benzoyl peroxide does nothing for your zits, and, unlike me, neither does tea tree oil, another option is sulfur. Skip the overpriced Mario Badescu shit, and try this $4 version that Makeup Withdrawal reviewed.

I'll stick with my tea tree oil, since it works great for me, but everyone's skin is different. You just have to figure out what works for you.

Don't Bother With ProActiv (from Slate)

Here's an excerpt from this article on why ProActiv is overpriced at best and a scam at worst:

Marcotte: I suspect a lot of people are wary of buying skin care products sold on TV, but they sign up for Proactiv because the ads do a good job of implying that it is better than anything else on the market for clearing up acne. Is it?

Romanowski: No. They use standard (effective) technology, but their products are not better than the stuff you could buy at Target or Wal-Mart. Anti-acne products are over-the-counter drugs regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Manufacturers are limited in the technologies and claims they can use.

Cheap and Natural: Tea Tree Oil for Acne

I know that benzoyl peroxide spots treatment are the industry standard for acne (things like Persagel, etc.), but for some reason they do nothing for me except bleach my pillowcases. Not only do they not get rid of zits, they don't even stop them from getting worse. I've tried a bunch of different brands.

If you have the same problem, you might want to give tea tree oil a try. It works wonders for me. Sometimes I can feel one of those great big subsurface pimples brewing, and if I get to it fast enough with the tea tree oil, it'll halt it in its tracks (mixed metaphors? whatever). And in the meantime it doesn't get any worse. It just gives up and fades away. So you can imagine that it also does well with more run of the mill crap. It also sort of dries up and heals the surface of gross oozing ones, so that I can put on my makeup or whatever without it being nasty.

Tea tree oil has anti-bacterial properties, so in principle it should work the same as benzoyl peroxide. But skin is weird, and everyone's responds differently to different things. I use this 100% tea tree oil, and just dip a Q-tip in it and dab it on the spots that need it once or twice a day. It has a strong medicinal smell, kind of like menthol or eucalyptus, but I don't mind it too much. Be careful if you have a zit too near your mouth and you use this, because it tends to migrate and tastes kind of nasty. Minor unpleasantness if you find it works for you, though. I've been using my bottle for about 4 months now, and I haven't even got through a 6th of it, so it's definitely cost effective at around $9 a bottle. I'd suggest making sure what you're buying is 100% tea tree oil, though, because otherwise it might not have enough potency to get the job done (for instance, this one from The Body Shop lists water and alcohol as the first ingredients. No.).

Disclosure: This post contains an affiliate link.

Cheap and Natural: Rosehip Oil

When I bought this stuff about a month ago, I actually forgot why. I mean, it was on my Amazon wishlist, so I knew I wanted it, but I couldn't remember what it was supposed to do. I just knew that I had read something once on some blog that convinced me I should try it.

Now, I don't give a shit about things being natural (or organic). Really, I'm not convinced that the things my skin really needs are likely to drop right off of trees. But rosehip oil has been clinically/scientifically tested, and it's a great emollient, antioxidant oil. It's supposed to boost moisture and smooth the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

What's your favorite concealer for occasional acne?

Here is a thank you in advance gift of a dancing bunny:

Clean Up: My Skincare Routine

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
By no means do I have perfect skin, but I’ve settled on a routine that keeps things under control most of the time. Some of the things I use are really cheap as fuck, others aren’t, but nothing is expensive as fuck. Note that I have oily skin that’s prone to breakouts and blackheads, but not extreme acne. So if you have a similar skin type, you might want to try some of this out. It might not work for you, but it works for me.