Like most people, I have a long, complicated history with pimples. I've never struggled with aggressive acne, per se, but in high school and middle school, every zit that popped up caused me so much stress that you would have thought otherwise. I was mesmerized by Proactiv commercials. At the grocery store, I would throw a wildly overpriced tube of spot cream in my mom's cart. "Why do you need this?" my mom would ask. "Just look at me," I would reply in anguish, lifting up my heavily side-swept bangs and revealing at most two to five pimples. Pimples were stressful then, and they're stressful now. My breakouts now are less often and certainly less distressing, but I don't exactly want them to stick around any longer than is necessary. Enter Peach Slice's Acne Spot Dots: my $3.50 lifesaver.
After spending $15 here and there for well over the last decade of my life on acne creams and spot treatments, let me tell you that these dots are the best thing that's ever happened to my stressed-out face. And full disclosure, they're sort of addictive — so much so that even my boyfriend is hooked. So how did these little guys actually work? According to the brand's website, the stickers "absorb" pimples, and "the sticker-like hydrocolloid acts as a protective cover over the treated area to keep you from picking and quickly and effectively helps reduce inflammation so the blemish becomes visibly smaller in less than one day."
The stickers come in a sheets with a total of 30 circular stickers in each $3.50 pack — more than enough to last you a month. For less than five bucks, that's a pretty amazing deal, and certainly feels better than using toothpaste to cure blemishes. Conveniently, the stickers range in size from teensy tiny to big enough to cover even your most monstrous pimple. You can barely even see them when they're on your skin, which is just a bonus. And, as gross as it sounds, when you take them off you can see what the stickers have absorbed on the adhesive. Yes, I will admit that that is almost the most satisfying part of these bad boys.
But the second best part of these? They work. The stickers reduce redness and inflammation more noticeably than any other spot treatment I've ever tried. Whether this is because it prevents you from picking at them, the ingredients of the patches, or a combination of both, I don't know. And, honestly, I don't care. It works. I wear these when I get home from work, in the morning while I get ready, and always when I sleep at night. Another hack? If you're dealing with a pimple on your chest or back, wear one of the dots during the day under your clothes to let it work it's magic.
Acne Spot Dots, $3.50, Peach Slices
Like I said, they're pretty much magic. Whenever someone asks me for a tip to better deal with acne, I name these dots. They're not going to cure or prevent acne, necessarily, and it's not as if you'll wake up overnight with a 100 percent clear face — but they get me closer than anything else I've ever tried for way, way less money.
And don't just trust me. Check out the reviews from people on the Peace Slices website. "Put these on some acne spots in the morning. They were so small and clear you could barely see the. So I went out and ran errands. Also when I took them in the evening the acne spots were greatly reduced in size. Great product," one customer writes. Another customer mentions the spots helped with their cystic acne.
These little stickers are the real deal. And, as someone who has tried far less practical things for far more than $3.50, I can tell you that it's worth giving these a whirl — no matter how skeptical of spot treatments you are. Plus, they are way more practical for covering up acne than, say, using your bangs as a curtain.
