Welcome to Klog Chat, a series where we ask you to tell us how you do skin care and beauty. This week we want to know: What weird acne-fighting treatments have you tried?
Hi Klog readers, Sarah here. Despite the fact that I have an entire section of my medicine cabinet devoted to acne-fighting products like pimple patches, drying lotion, tea tree sticks, and clearing masks, every time I get a doozy of a breakout, I find myself trawling through Reddit posts in search of faster, better, stronger solutions. Lately, the site’s skin care junkies have been buzzing about diaper cream as a cystic acne treatment and I am intrigued.
One Reddit-er in particular shared that the cream made her stubborn spots quickly come to a head, which she was then able to extract with a pimple patch.
It turns out, applying diaper cream on a pimple isn’t as weird at it sounds. Diaper cream contains zinc oxide, which is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. It’s also found in popular acne treatments like the Kate Somerville EradiKate spot treatment to help soak up excess oil.
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I don’t have diaper cream readily available so I’ve yet to give the remedy a try, but I have employed some other out-of-the-box methods (apologies to my derm!).
I’ve applied steeped black and green tea bags on hormonal zits to take down the redness. Caffeine constricts blood vessels and both teas have anti-inflammatory properties. If you’ve got a zit that’s so inflamed, it’s conspicuous even with concealer over it and you have the time to sit there with a tea bag on your face, it’s definitely a good trick. I’ve heard eye drops offer similar redness-reducing effects.
Before I discovered pimple patches, I would also apply toothpaste on zits to help dry them out overnight. It worked for me occasionally, although I did make the mistake of using a bright blue toothpaste once and I woke up with a blue-stained pimple that didn’t return to its normal hue for a few days.
Because I know I’m far from the only one who has experimented with at-home breakout-busting remedies, I’d love to hear about what’s actually worked for you and any hilarious DIY fails.