Hydrocolloid bandages are about the closest thing you can get to a vacuum for acne. And people all over TikTok are proving just that. They’re sticking the gel-textured strips all over their faces where they are experiencing breakouts. Over time, the bandages go from clear to speckled with white spots where they’ve sucked the nastiness out of your skin. It’s simultaneously gross and great. After a couple of hours, you peel the bandage off to reveal flat, zit-free skin — no dryness included. They are that effective.
If you aren’t into the idea of basically making a sheet mask out of hydrocolloid bandages for your whole face, pimple patches are composed of the same material — just a bit thinner and sometimes infused with blemish-busting ingredients, like salicylic acid and tea tree oil. The tiny circles can be placed right over your problem spots in a much more concentrated, low-key manner.
Personally, I love hydrocolloid bandages because they keep me from picking at my face — a bad habit that I’m slightly ashamed to admit having. However, Elizabeth Tanzi, the founder and director of Capital Laser & Skin Care and associate clinical professor in the department of dermatology at the George Washington University Medical Center, backs me up on this. Compared to standard spot treatments, “hydrocolloid bandages have the added benefit of blocking you from picking the pimple… and that’s a good thing,” she tells Allure. Why? “Picking a pimple increases the inflammation and can slow the healing process down,” Tanzi adds.
Read the full story on allure.com
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