:Clear Skin Blog

Clear skin often comes with a price tag. The cost of acne treatments can vary from fairly affordable to downright expensive, and these expenses can easily go through the roof if you need to frequent a dermatologist and purchase prescription products. Even improving your diet can mean spending a few extra bucks at the grocery store. However, the real cost of clear skin treatments goes beyond simply the money spent on them. Consistently applying many of these products can mean lifestyle changes, and always costs you that one un-refundable value: time.

For some of you, the extra time it takes to apply a few creams and cleansers may seem minimal, but when you’re using these products 2-4 times per day, often requiring a trip to the bathroom every time, this can add up. Moreover, the fact is many people can become obsessive over such treatments, building up an overstuffed drawer full of (mostly unnecessary) skin care products, which can take over an hour each day to apply.

This is made worse by the fact that most companies like to sell their acne products as part of a “system”. Unfortunately, the “buy five products instead of one” approach virtually always has more to do with money than with results. Nearly all acne treatments rely on a small handful of active ingredients, and if you have one product that works, that’s all you need. In many cases, the multi-product approach can make treatments less effective, as the moisturizer that follows the benzoyl peroxide gel (for instance) often has a diluting effect on the drug. This is why with many systems such as Proactiv, a trip to popular acne message boards will show you that many people recommend only using a single step in the multi-step treatment.

Many of the new electronic acne clearing devices are equally guilty of ignoring the cost of time. Take portable acne laser treatments or heat-based devices such as Zeno. To be effective, many of these devices require you to apply them for 2-3 minutes per pimple, several times per day. You don’t need to be a mathematician to see how easily the time can add up if you’ve got a fair amount of pimples.

Compared to acne treatment “systems” and clear skin gadgets, spot treatments and internal treatments fare much better. Internal treatments that require you to mix a powder drink can still be inconvenient, but those that simply require you to take a few pills with a glass of water are probably the least time-consuming acne treatments around. Even if you are doing this several times per day (as vitamin B5 treatments require) the time it takes to basically drink a glass of water is still much less than what you would spend in front of the mirror with even most one-step topical treatments. Spot treatments are also fairly easy, as they typically use stronger concentrations of chemicals, requiring only a single application per day in most cases. Most people apply spot treatments before bed, and in this fashion they don’t provide much inconvenience.

So next time you’re in the market for an acne treatment, don’t forget to think about how much time consistently using a product may cost you. The fact is, many people also find it harder to stick with a treatment that is more time-demanding, so if you think that may be a problem for you, don’t waste money on a treatment system you’re unlikely to benefit from. It’s the ingredients, not the marketing language on the label, that makes the difference, and simple treatments that make clear use of a single proven active ingredient are usually best.