Maskne treatment patches work for acne, pimples and even blackheads and whiteheads removal. Nola Hour was kind enough to send me some maskne and acne patches last month to try. I am guessing maybe they saw how bad my skin was in my recent Rare Beauty video that they needed to do something about it, Lol. Nonetheless it was nice of them and so I put these acne treatment stickers to a 4-weekly test.

Hydrocolloid Patches for Acne Spot Treatment

I was sent their Hydrocolloid Clear Patches as well as their Micro-Needle Acne Patches, both of which are for maskne (acne spot treatment) caused by wearing face masks. It is true that my pimples got worse around my jaw and chin ever since the regular using of face masks; previously if I were ever to have breakouts, they are usually on my temples and forehead where the areas at the T-zone are most oily.

What is acne caused by, other than Face Masks?

Gua sha was what is triggering my acne to have caused by detoxification in my case. Diet, lifestyle, hygiene and hormones aside, when our bodies go through detoxing, toxins are purged in the process and the skin may experience pimple or acne spate in the beginning phase. Gua sha involves lymphatic drainage massage that helps with circulation in the body by flushing out toxins, so under such circumstances, the acne usually pop up at random spots; i.e. can be all over the face, neck or even back. Furthermore, wearing face masks didn’t help with ventilation around the chin and jaw area, therefore encouraging even more bacteria to infect nearby sites.

So what I did was to stick on the Hydrocolloid Clear Patch stickers on to my zits for 8 hours while working from home (Mon, Wed, Fri), alternating with applying their Micro-Needle Acne Patch stickers overnight on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays) over a period of four weeks. Below are the the results at the end of each week (Left to right: Week 1 through Week 4).

The pus-filled zit on my cheekbone in the Week 1 photo managed to pop and heal quite fast within a week as seen in the Week 2 photo. By then a new one developed below it and there was no stopping on other areas too. A new one emerged before an existing one heals. By the end of the one-month period, the proliferation started to wean.

Nola’s Hydrocolloid Clear Patches for Recovering Acne Treatment

Nola’s Hydrocolloid Clear Patch comes in a pack of 41 mini round patches (29 x 10mm dia., 12 x 12mm dia. sized stickers), and their Micro-Needle Acne Patch comes with 9 x 14mm dia. mini round stickers. The hydrocolloid ones are smooth and more adhesive; they can even extract out my white heads! So be very careful with it when you have enlarged open comedones as you may want to peel them off very gently to prevent risking any gaping holes. Be sure to target these patches at semi-dried pimples, i.e., acne that are already recovering; because Hydrocolloid turns gelatinous after sometime by absorbing moisture. A wet dressing that stays too long may impede the healing process, however hydrocolloid is able to provide just the right amount of moist environment to protect the skin from scarring during the drying out of the wound. The ingredients used include Hydrocolloid, Centella Asiatica extract (Cica), Tea Tree leaf oil, Niacinamide, etc.

Nola’s Micro-Needle Acne Patches for Maskne Treatment

According to NolaHour, the micro-needles patches are meant for cystic acne treatment – acne that are deeper-rooted and infectious, as well as early-stage acne treatment. These patches ledge onto the affected spots with those micro-darts as seen in the photo above, and then you let them work their magic overnight as they deliver the anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial nutrients to heal those areas. The ingredients these patches contain include Calendula, Trehalose, Witch Hazel, Camellia leaf extract, Licorice Root extract, Tea Tree leaf oil, Salicylic Acid, etc.

I was sure purging caused my cystic acne to develop because they had been around for weeks, with new ones kept popping up; some even became slightly inflamed. On the other hand, the frequent mask-wearing caused white heads to aggravate. And since I have both types of acne, I used both patches alternately as mentioned earlier. As seen in my progressive photos above, these patches did help calm the inflammation and flatten those bumpy ones to a good extent. The stickers adhere well throughout, just make sure there’s no contact with water.

NolaHour is based in South Korea, the same country where their products are made in. You may purchase these acne patches from their NolaHour Singapore Shopee online store here. The Hydrocolloid Clear Patch retails at SGD$14.49 and the Micro-Needle Acne Patch retails for SGD$10.50 at the time of this post.

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