Nexcare Acne Patch v. The Face Shop Intensive Blemish Clear Patch

They are both patches that you apply to acne. It's like you're putting your pimples in quarantine. =D Nexcare patches are designed to absorb pus out of pustule acne, while The Face Shop patches are for spot treatment. 

3M Nexcare Acne Care:

These patches absorb the pus from your pimple. I actually love this idea becaues I DO NOT pop my pimples and neither should you! Now you don't have to because this little patch sucks the pus outta your acne for you!

Direction:
Make sure the designated pimple area and your hand is clean and dry.  Place the patch over your acne and press down.  Remove the patch when it turns white.

Packaging:
-These are sold at various sizes and depending on the size of the patch, you get more or less product.  There's large patches for your forhead and cheeks and you only get 4 pieces i believe.  There are also small circular ones. I have 0.8cm ones and they came in a pack of 40.
-The patches are yellowish-clear, rubbery, and slightly thick.
-Each pack comes with a plastic tweezer so you don't contaminate the patches with your fingers.
-There's two sheets of protective film on the patches.

Product info:
-These patches act as sponges that absorb the secretions from your acne.
-I don't think there's any medication on these patches that actually treats your acne.  The ingredients are hydrocolloid and ethylene oxide
-It takes at least 5 hours for the patches to absorb.

Pro:
-It really works! Even sucked some white heads out!
-I don't have to wait for my pimples to pop themselves. (gross I know)
-Contains bacteria in one area.

Con:
-If you apply moisturizer to your face at night, you're going to have a hard time getting these bad boys to stick to your skin.
-It works better for larger pustule acne than smaller ones.
-They say you can wear these anytime, but I wouldn't cause you can see the sticker bulging from your face.
-Hard to find! You can buy them from sasa.com but they are always out of stock.

Price: ~$4-6 on sasa.com

Will I repurchase:
Yes

The Face Shop Intensive Blemish Clear Patch:

Direction:
Apply patch to clean, dry skin. Leave for 8-12 hours.

Packaging:
-Each pack comes with 5 sheets individually wrapped with 10 patches each.
-The patches are clear, about 0.5in in diameter and very thin.

Product Info:
-Patches are made with tea tree oil, salicylic acid, grape seed extract, and hyaluronic acid.
-Claimed to be an "intensive" spot treatment
-It takes 8-12 hours after application

Pro:
-Protects my acne from contamination
-Made my pimple less inflamed

Con:
-It's a rather expensive spot treatment if you have frequent pimples. A tube of drug store spot treatment may be less than $6 which you can probably use over 100 times but these patches only come in a pack of 50 for that price.
-The clear films are reflective so it is very obvious that you have something on your face.

Price: $6 at The Face Shop

Will I repurchase?:
Probably not. If you have occassional pimples than maybe you should try it out, but this can get expensive for my acne-prone skin.


Overall, these are super handy when it comes to those random huge pimples as they contain the bacteria and prevent further contamination. They're not too expensive so it wouldn't hurt to have them for emergency situations =).

I happened to grow a pimple on my nose the other day and documented the progress using both products.  With big bad ugly pimples, I typically use these two patches one after another; TFS first to calm the inflammation and then nexcare if it gets pus-sy.  

Please excuse my huge pores =( and let me know if there's a good product to treat it =)

Also excuse the different lighting. I took the pictures at different times of the day. I wish I could've taken these pictures with more consistent lighting so you guys can see the effect better. 

The nexcare patches even sucked out two white heads! 

In less than 24 hours, my huge Rudolph pimple became a little blemish. I can live with that =)