As someone who has struggled with breakouts her whole adult life (and still battling away at the grand old age of 37) I was fascinated by ZitSticka when they first launched, as I just really loved their refreshing approach to adult acne and all the joys that come with it: they promote a healthy attitude towards the whole thing, encouraging people to strive to just ease it up a bit, as opposed to hope for perfection, and to try and remove the stigma and negativity that still, annoyingly, surrounds those of us who suffer with breakouts after our teen years.
They have a huge range designed to address the various needs of breakout sufferers, such as supplements, cleansers, an SPF, sheet masks and of course, a range of stickers for fighting individual breakouts. I’m sure anyone who’s had a spot in the last few years is familiar with the concept of breakout patches, but where ZitSticka are different is that they have a collection designed to meet the needs of the various stages of a breakout:
KILLA – a kit containing pre-application wipes and microdart patches for early stage spots
GOO GETTER – a hydrocolloid patch for surface spots
HYPERFACE – another microdart patch, but this one is designed to help speed up the healing process
The patches are well-formulated with great ingredients that’ll assist in speeding up the life cycle of the spot. The GOO GETTER doesn’t contain microdarts, because the last thing you want to do to a surface spot is break it open so all the bacteria spills over. The microdarts on the other two patches are designed to lightly penetrate the surface level to deliver an intense punch of ingredients, before dissolving away. You are advised to keep the patch on for a minimum of a few hours, but ideally overnight.
I have tried the KILLA patches and I was really surprised by how quickly and effectively it took down a very angry, under-the-surface spot. Within hours it had drastically shrunk the size and had encourage the spot to the surface. I left my patch on for most of the day and I did keep touching it which unfortunately resulted in a bleed from the spot, so my advice would be to apply it and leave it alone! It’s a very discreet product that you wouldn’t notice unless you were really looking for it.
I really liked the microdarts in the KILLA patch as I feel this is what gives them the edge over other, similarly marketed products. You felt the darts once you placed the patch on the spot, but it isn’t painful, nor even uncomfortable, you can just feel them gently pressing on to the skin. I haven’t had any more deep spots recently (plenty of surface ones though, of course!) so I’ve only used it the once, but I’ll definitely be reaching for them again when I need them as they are really effective and impressively quick.
The PRESS REFRESH Soothing Sheet Masks are exactly as they sound, wonderfully soothing and packed full of fantastic, spot-fighting ingredients to gently attack breakouts, whilst calming inflammation and soothing any redness and sensitivity – basically everything your skin needs when it’s struggling with multiple breakouts.
The PRESS REFRESH masks come in two sections so you can get a really clean, tight fit to your face. I think this is a great idea and I wish more sheet masks came in two sections as the one-size-fits-all approach is very frustrating if you’re like me, with a long face and a generous nose! These masks are very comfortable to wear and I was happy to leave mine on for quite a while, doing its thing.
The sheet masks are £30 for 5 masks here – link. The KILLA KIT is £27 for a pack of 8 patches (and 8 wipes) here – link.
Disclosure: unpaid ad – PR
