Adult acne is no fun. Well, that’s a massive understatement. Adult acne can be embarrassing, painful and all around self-esteem crushing. But, whether you suffer from hormonal outbreaks or round-the-clock pimple pop-ups, here’s some major relief for acne sufferers everywhere.
The panacea? One Cosmo writer found it buried in Reddit, and the revelations will amaze you. “Meet Short Contact Therapy (SCT), a method of using a potentially irritating product, like retinoids, as a quick, wash-off mask to give you the same overnight benefits, but without the irritation,” author Chloe Metzger explains in her post. “And if my newly pristine skin says anything (it does), SCT really works.”
The advantage to retinoids seem to be in its ability to penetrate deep within your skin and help shield off acne from even forming in the first place. (Retinoids are also the wrinkle-fighter of choice in many anti-aging creams).
How to get rid of acne fast
Instead of applying retinoids and leaving them on overnight as many common products suggest, you should apply them for a much shorter window: from 30 seconds to five minutes for this quick acne treatment, and use them once or twice a day on dry skin. According to the author “[you can get a] prescription for tazarotene gel [or] an over-the-counter retinoid Differin (a 0.1-percent adapalene gel you can get at chemists), which is about four-times weaker than tazarotene.” Metzger’s results were truly impressive; she claims her skin “has seriously never looked smoother,” and that a couple common complaints are no more. Her “random bumps and clogged pores” have completely “disappeared” from her T-zone.
So while it’s more work than slathering up your face and slipping into bed, it might just be the thing that takes your skin from dull to dreamy. Metzger says “the extra hassle and basic mental math was totally worth it” for the results she saw. You can thank us for the heads up later when you’re sporting flawless skin in your next beach or gym selfie.
