Spots... those pesky little, sometimes even huge, under/on top of the skin blighters. Have somewhere nice to go for the week? Hi Hun! Sitting in all week in your dressing gown and greasy hair? Nowhere to be seen. Always popping up in the most inconvenient times and always a pain in the ass to try and tackle.
I, myself, have encountered a fair few spots in my time. I've been suffering with acne for around 12 years now and can guarantee you almost every two weeks, a new one suddenly takes up residency on my face. Sorry, but there is no available vacancies this week for you! They almost always pop up around 'that' time of the month or normally when I am stressed out, or actually instantly if I eat something that is high in dairy i.e. milk and cheese. So, you're probably wondering how I deal with my spots as it almost seems as though I know how to get rid of them in an instance. I'm sorry I don't. I am still looking for that holy grail product, but for now I am all for trialling and testing to see what works.
Back in December, I was lucky enough to win one of the 24 days a month advent calendar prizes from FeelUnique that they host every year around Christmas time. My prize included a skincare set from Skyn Iceland featuring masks, lip and eye products, spot treatments and more. There will be an entire post on the entire range of products I received after testing them, but for now I want to focus on the Skyn Iceland Blemish Dots with Willow Bark and Rich in Salicylic Acid.
I have been wanting to test out blemish dots for a while now, rather than using a typical spot gel/cream to actually see whether or not having a potential barrier to lock in the spot fighting product would make the process of reducing my spot(s) a lot quicker. I also found the whole concept of using a small amount of material that contained product that would adhere to the skin interesting, as I have found a lot in the past products similar to blemish dots didn't stay on longer than 15 minutes for someone like me who tends to get very oily skin, so putting them to the test made the whole process a lot more fun.
In my little stash of products, I received 1 sheet of 12 blemish dots, which if purchased alone would include 4 sheets of 12 dots and be priced around £17.50. A bit pricey personally I feel to keep on top with, especially if you're someone like me who tends to get spots on a regular basis. But, if you are finding that spots aren't a regular occurrence then maybe these could be a holy grail product for you. Also, with each set comes 6 larger blemish dots and 6 smaller blemish dots, making it easy for you to pinpoint the right size for your blemish and also lessens the wastage of product depending on the size of the blemish you have.
Each set also comes in a sealed, easy to rip open packaging, similar to how a blackhead strip would. Personally, I do find this a bit unhygienic for this type of product, especially since once you've ripped open the set you then potentially have the strip of blemish dots either lying around on their own or contained within their original packaging but rather than sealed is open until you use that entire set of dots up. So, I would have liked if each dot came individually packaged that way I know nothing is going to contaminate each blemish dot and then clog my pores around the blemish I want to use it on.
The product is free of harsh chemicals, parabens, PEGS, formaldehyde, silicones, sulfate detergents, fragrance and dye and are also 100% vegan friendly. To use them it is recommended that you apply the patch directly onto the blemish (I personally washed my face beforehand as I didn't want any dead skin cells or anything that could clog my pores sitting under a contained area) and then gently press until the dot adheres to the skin, leaving it on for several hours or overnight for the best results.
I have been wanting to test out blemish dots for a while now, rather than using a typical spot gel/cream to actually see whether or not having a potential barrier to lock in the spot fighting product would make the process of reducing my spot(s) a lot quicker. I also found the whole concept of using a small amount of material that contained product that would adhere to the skin interesting, as I have found a lot in the past products similar to blemish dots didn't stay on longer than 15 minutes for someone like me who tends to get very oily skin, so putting them to the test made the whole process a lot more fun.
In my little stash of products, I received 1 sheet of 12 blemish dots, which if purchased alone would include 4 sheets of 12 dots and be priced around £17.50. A bit pricey personally I feel to keep on top with, especially if you're someone like me who tends to get spots on a regular basis. But, if you are finding that spots aren't a regular occurrence then maybe these could be a holy grail product for you. Also, with each set comes 6 larger blemish dots and 6 smaller blemish dots, making it easy for you to pinpoint the right size for your blemish and also lessens the wastage of product depending on the size of the blemish you have.
Each set also comes in a sealed, easy to rip open packaging, similar to how a blackhead strip would. Personally, I do find this a bit unhygienic for this type of product, especially since once you've ripped open the set you then potentially have the strip of blemish dots either lying around on their own or contained within their original packaging but rather than sealed is open until you use that entire set of dots up. So, I would have liked if each dot came individually packaged that way I know nothing is going to contaminate each blemish dot and then clog my pores around the blemish I want to use it on.
BEFORE
When it came to testing out the product, as mentioned above, I was a bit iffy to the fact my strip would be out in the open, pretty much ready for any bacteria to come and make a home on. But after the sheer shock and potential bad thoughts of more clogged pores and spots, I began to proceed with testing out the product.
As you can see above, the infected area I am mostly focusing on is pretty raised, inflammed and one of those spots which is going to take a while to reduce and then even longer to control the redness and scarring (I'd also just like to point out that we are looking at the raised area closest to you in the photo and not the area behind it - I unfortunately have a rather large mole that sits on the side of my face and this particular spot decided to appear just near it). This spot had just reared its rather unwanted self a few days before testing out the product, but I thought it would be the perfect time to test it out and therefore put the blemish dots to the test for a week.
During the time of testing out the blemish dots I also received another unwanted visitor just a few inches away from the spot I am focusing on in this post. I did try out the blemish dots on that area too as that blemish actually produced a white head within a few hours of appearing, unlike the other one which even after a week still hasn't produced a whitehead and I also wanted to see whether or not it would add enough pressure to the whitehead to make it pop or just reduce it even a little bit. Unfortunately, it did not help reduce the whitehead and I did have to turn to using my spot/blackhead removal tool.
I used a variety of the smaller and larger blemish dots, ensuring that the larger ones were used when it was at its most painful that way it had enough room to breath and do its thing whilst also at the same time not cause me any discomfort. (Note: the patches sit rather comfortably on the skin and even stay put whilst sleeping!) The smaller ones were then used when it had started to reduce over the days and I could lock it down tighter to try and help it reduce more quickly. Both sizes were kept on for around 6 hours per day.
AFTER
After around a week of using the blemish dots, about one a day, I ended up using 8 of the 12 blemish dots, minus one for the whitehead I mentioned previously, so essentially 7, in order to get this final result. Both pictures have been taken in the same position at the same time of day on the same camera (Olympus Pen E-PL8) and as you can see after a week of using them, my spot has reduced very well, whereas if I hadn't used the blemish dots this would still be very inflammed. The redness has pretty much all disappeared from the salicyclic acid that was in each dot which is used to help reduce redness and it has also caused a slight bit of flaking, which I think is essentially the spot healing and being ready to go through its last healing process before it has officially gone.
Overall, the process of using these blemish dots I found to be very easy and quick with no difficulty, besides the fact sometimes you forget they are there due to them blending into the skin so well, so are great if you need to pop out and run some errands but don't want to wear makeup but battle any pesky spots at the same time. They also stay put whilst you sleep which was a bonus for me, as I ended up having an afternoon nap at one point and I tend to move a lot in my sleep and found when I woke up it was still in place, with no movement at all. As for how the product worked, I feel it worked very well for more under the skin, angry spots more so than those little ones that come and go very easily, so essentially I would use these dots for those, but overall I am very happy with how they performed and I'm hoping by the end of this spots little vacation on my face it won't have left any scarring!
Have you tried out blemish dots before? What are your thoughts?
This product was received in a giveaway. I have not been asked to review these products and all opinions are my own.
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