Fact: Hundreds of beauty products launch every season. Other fact: Zero per cent of humans have time to try each one. In our If You Only Buy One series, we do the deep digging and test-driving to declare the top beauty products out there.

Until the age of 27, my skin and I got along swimmingly. There was no prom-ruining pimple or mid-term-induced breakout. My teenage complexion was, well, uneventful. So as my 30s crept closer, I never expected to find myself in the throes of acne. Yet here I was, battling the mean, red, cystic sort, where balls of fire push up against your skin, threatening to rip it open and annihilating any ounce of confidence you once had.

I don’t really remember how or when it started, but suddenly my jawline became this raw, jagged terrain. I’d wake up every morning running my fingers along it, hoping to find its topography had magically smoothed overnight. It hadn’t. So would begin the daily struggle of trying to cover it up. The thick slicks of concealer, the layers of caked-on powder…How dirty and suffocating it all felt. How I was convinced it was the only thing people could see when they talked to me. How I wished no one would ever again talk to me…

“I was battling the mean, red, cystic sort, where balls of fire push up against your skin, threatening to rip it open and annihilating any ounce of confidence you once had.”

Acne is no stroll in the park for anybody, but when your job is to dole out beauty advice, you feel like a massive failure. One particular incident involved me trying out a facial, a part of the gig I used to relish but now feared more than sun damage (the beauty editor’s kryptonite). As the aesthetician peered through her magnifying lens, I braced myself for her verdict, but nothing could have prepared me for her tactless bedside manner. “Oh my God, have you seen your skin? You have sooo many pimples.” Yes, lady, I have seen my skin. It’s on my freaking face. I am intimately familiar with every whitehead, bump and acne scar. I obsess about them every day and dream about them at night. I have seen my skin. I got up and left before she even smeared the first cream.

I tried everything. I punished the pimples with acids and peels, convinced they deserved to suffer as much as they had made me. My face got angrier, my hope bleaker. Because the acne was located along my jaw, I knew it was most likely hormonal, so I begged my doctor to put me on a different birth control pill. She handed me a prescription for a controversial high-estrogen pill that had been found to clear skin. I marched over to the drugstore, feeling like I’d finally found a way out, but the pharmacist refused to cede my remedy. “I see in your file that you’re prone to migraines, and this pill has been linked to blood clots. It’s too dangerous.”

Like a straight-up addict fiending for a hit, I tried to bargain with her, lying about how my migraines were way better now. She didn’t budge (thank God!) but did suggest I try a different, gentler pill instead. My expectations were lower than my self-esteem, but wouldn’t you know it, it actually worked. One by one, the evil volcanoes shrivelled and departed. It was over. I was free.

These days, I get small blemishes now and then, but they’re nothing like before. Still, the lingering PTSD makes me scramble for a solution at the first sight of a congested pore. And because my two-year stint with acne made me a spot-treatment connoisseur, I know exactly what potion to dab depending on the make and model of an invader. Here, I present to you my tried-and-tested guide to the best zit-zappers on the planet.

Photography by Oana Cazan

 

If you only buy one spot treatment, go for…

Yes, it smells a bit like sulfur (one of its star ingredients), and it’s bubblegum pink so you can only use it before bed or during hermit days, but it’s truly miraculous. And I’m not the only one who says so. Kylie Jenner, Lucy Hale and Lili Reinhart have all raved about its wizardly pimple-ousting powers.

 

Mario Badescu Drying Lotion $20, sephora.com

 

More of the best spot treatments

If you’re on the go

Made to follow you everywhere, this handbag hero can be reapplied up to three times a day to shrink zits fast. The benzoyl peroxide formula is also invisible, so you can get on with your day.

Glossier Zit Stick, $17, glossier.com

 

If you’re a serial popper

Hands off the face, people! While picking at blemishes can be tempting, it often prolongs the healing time. Help yourself resist by covering culprits with these salicylic-acid-infused stickers.

Peace Out Acne Healing Dots, $25 for 20 dots, peaceoutskincare.com

 

If you’re looking for cover

This little vial proves you can indeed have it all. The drying lotion/concealer hybrid treats breakouts (thank you, tea tree and sulfur) while instantly erasing them with stay-put pigments.

It Cosmetics Bye Bye Breakout Full Coverage Treatment Concealer, $38, itcosmetics.ca

 

If you’re the high-tech type

Blue light (known to target bacteria) and red light (great for curbing inflammation) come together to give blemishes the boot. All it takes is two minutes a day. Welcome to the future.

Neutrogena Light Therapy Acne Spot Treatment, $35, shoppersdrugmart.ca

 

If you want the big guns

In times of need, only two words that can provide real comfort: clinical strength. Boasting prescription-worthy results, this stuff is potent. Use it as directed and you’ll be in the clear before you know it.

Clinique Acne Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel, $35, clinique.ca

 

    More on Acne