Although I’ve spent a better part of my career writing about my skin care, I first became obsessed when I started getting hormonal breakouts at 14. I’ve burned through tubes of benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid gels—burning a few acne scars into my face in the process—and bottles of acne-relieving toners, all in an attempt to control the monthly cyst or two.
But because these products were so harsh on my sensitive skin—and did nothing for those under-the-skin monsters—I was forced to experiment. I spent more and more time scouring online for the best acne treatments out there. And that’s when I discovered acne patches late one night on an Amazon crawl, the medication-free pimple stickers that completely changed my complexion and perspective. Specifically, it was the reviewers who sold me on the NexCare Acne Absorbing Covers ($5, amazon.com), as they were heralded as particularly efficacious at treating cystic, hormonal acne that doesn’t normally respond to spot treatments—exactly the kind of zit that becomes my monthly nemesis and the kind that should never, ever be squeezed.
The instructions were simple: Clean the area, apply the patch, then wait. Once its color turns from clear to white, you take it off. NexCare recommends you leave the sticker on for several hours, but say they work best while you sleep. So I washed my face one night, slapped two on and hit the sack. The next morning, the stickers were white, as promised. You could literally see that they had worked like sponges to suck out the oil and gunk, leaving both zits far less inflamed with one practically disappearing. It was like magic, but not.
When I asked Joshua Zeichner, MD, the director of cosmetic and clinical dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, about acne patches, he explained that the majority of them (including my beloved NexCare patches) are made of hydrocolloid, and quite similar to topical wound treatments. “Hydrocolloid dressings are used in medicine for their ability to enhance wound healing—they can stick to the skin, form a protective seal over a wound, and absorb excess fluid,” he says. “These same properties make them useful for treating conditions like acne. Think of a pimple as a skin wound of sorts. Applying the hydrocolloid bandage over it can help protect and calm the inflamed skin, allowing it to heal.”
From then, I became an acne patch evangelist, preaching their incredible prowess to literally anyone who would listen. And although the NexCare stickers were my first love, I’ve since found a slew of different brands that have completely changed my skin care game. I don’t use over-drying lotions anymore, and the patches literally work overnight on about half of my pimples, maybe a few days for the big mamas.
Ready to try them yourself? Regardless of how big or angry your zit is, these are the eight different acne patches I’ve personally tested and will sing the gospel of.