Although the things asian skincare has done for me are wonderful and I'm a lifelong fan of asian cosmetics, the fact is, pimples still happen.





Warning: this post will contain discussion of disgusting things, but no graphic photos.





I am in my early 30's and I dread looking at the mirror and seeing wrinkles and blemishes side-by-side, because dammit, acne is supposed to be for teens and wrinkles are supposed for be for adults and they shouldn't be meeting in the middle! I am currently following a skincare routine that heavily features AHAs (and BHAs to a lesser degree while I await a package with a strong BHA product) and while all this acid goodness is definitely helping to shift my facial texture away from pebbly chicken skin, it's also causing purging.***





I wouldn't say that it's hit a stage where the term 'pizza face' comes to mind, but horrifying things are surfacing from deep within my skin and if you've ever had the kind of blemish that comes from a long-formed blackhead trying to surface, you'll know that they a. take forever to heal, b. they're huge and raised when they come to a head, c. they don't drain well, so even if you extract them they just refill and grow like some sort of B-movie monster, and d. they HURT, making it nearly impossible to keep your hands off them unless you're really paying attention.









There are days I want to rock this look. would a pocket square pull it off?

Worse, you can't cover them, because no matter how skillful your application or how vast your array of concealers is, there's this huge bump on your face, catching every shift of light and screaming "EYEBALLS OF EVERYONE SHE TALKS TO! PLEASE DRIFT AWKWARDLY OVER HERE AND MAKE MY HOST SUPER SELF CONSCIOUS! AWWW YEAH, SUCCESS!!"





Not only that, but makeup tends to make them worse and things just spiral out of control, unless you are willing to walk around with a naked blemish slathered in acne treatments for a few days. Or rock a paper bag for a while. I wish this look was more socially accepted.





Well, thanks to hydrocolloid bandages, I can now wake up with even the most monstrous zit tamed to a surface flat enough for concealer, and protect sore blemishes from my unconscious urge to scratch the irritating thing on my face.









Details:



This week's review is of two types of hydrocolloid bandages specifically designed for acne from Taiwan: 3M Nexcare Acne Stickers Combo packs, one regular, and one for oily skin. Read on for full details of their zit-flattening/healing magic!

Full Product Name : 3M Nexcare Acne Dressing Pimple Stickers Patch Combo + 3M Nexcare Acne Dressing Pimple Stickers Patch Combo & Oily Skin



Purpose : Circular hydrocolloid bandages that you apply over an open blemish, and it literally sucks the contents out while blocking airborne contamination and also your itchy fingers.

Texture : They're small circles with a thickness noticeable enough for my husband to say "why do you have a sticker on your face?" and provoke a really awkward conversation. Call me a romantic, but I really don't want to discuss the finer points of pus extraction with my spouse. Definitely not something you can cover with makeup.

Quantity : Both have assorted sizes, the regular type comes with 36 stickers and the 'oily skin' type comes with 31.

Availability : I purchased mine from ebay ( : I purchased mine from ebay ( regular and oily ) as this particular product is the Asian version and according to reviews, much better than the US version (3M Nexcare is actually a US brand) available locally. I believe they are on Amazon as well.

Price : Sadly they are quite expensive, $6.15 for the 36 pc regular ($0.17 per sticker) and $6.30 for the 31 pc oily skin ($0.20 per sticker) so I tend to use them only on those blemishes that I can tell are going to turn into weeks-long behemoths. They're still cheaper than the US version ($7.99 and only available as an add-on shipping item) but since I tend to use them 1-4 at a time, I go through them fairly quickly.

Rating : 4.5/5, because 90% of the time they succeed in preventing Mt. Vesuvius from fully erupting on my face, but sometimes there's no stopping it.

Repurchase : Hell yes. I have ordered some similar ones from Innisfree and will be testing those, but I've also tried the Lioele A.C. Trouble Patch which was completely useless, but that's because there was no awesome hydrocolloid action.

Full Review :