Until recently I’d never even looked at those stickers
you can buy to put on spots. The idea seems so gimmicky
(and expensive). My approach to spots has always been
patience, concealment, and, at exactly the right moment,
careful and merciless extraction in near-surgical
conditions. But then, being in my prime, I don’t get spots,
or perhaps I don’t get spots because I am pernickety
about exfoliation. Or maybe it’s both. But anyway: it
turns out that spot treatments have moved on and that,
to my surprise, those stickers actually work.
I tried them on a resident guinea pig with three spots: two normal spots and one of
those nightmare spots that is just a bump, ie no extraction possible. I went for ZitSticka
Killa Kit, partly because the company has been doing this for years and partly because
I like the name — it’s a sticker and you put it on zits. The concept is simple: the sticker
contains hyaluronic gel to soften and pierce the skin that the blemish is under. Once that
has happened, the spot, as unaware of its fate as a hen being watched by a fox, is attacked
by the sticker’s “microdart technology”, which in English means that it is targeted at its
epicentre by ingredients that spots hate, such as hyaluronic acid, salicylic acid and niacina-
mide (the technology was conceived in Korea; Korean products tend not to mess about).
You also get swab-like wipes to clean the area before putting on the sticker. ZitSticka says
that its microdarts are longer and more stable than the competition’s.
And who am I to doubt this, because they really work. I have to say I wasn’t expecting
them to, especially on the bump-spot. Now, you have to get in there early, the earlier the
better — I’m not sure there would be much point in using them on an ancient or even
historic spot, should you have such a thing. But at the first sign of a spot-spot or a bump-
spot, whack one of these on, go to bed, and it will be either completely gone or vastly
diminished by the morning. Apparently they can work in as little as two hours, which is
useful if you have an emergency, but otherwise I think just sleep in them for extra effec-
tiveness and keep the area clean. The stickers don’t like water, so keep them away from it.
Would I use them on normal spots? No — it’s slightly taking a sledgehammer to crack
a nut, and a pack of eight stickers costs £27, so you don’t want to be scattering them
about willy-nilly (they’re brilliant in an emergency, though, like for a special date or a
wedding day). But when it comes to the foul bump-spots, for which there are tradition-
ally no truly effective remedies, these were a revelation. I repeat: get in there early, keep
them on overnight, and maybe repeat the next night if the bump feels like a throbbing
subcutaneous Vesuvius. My guinea pig’s bump took one go to be felled, which was
amazing and made me feel really sorry for everyone who was of spot age before these
mini-miracle stickers existed. ■ @indiaknightIndia Knight
INDIA LOVES
BUY After years (literally) of looking, I have finally found the ceiling spotlight LEDs that
make your kitchen look cosy and candlelit, rather than like a revolting bright white oper-
ating theatre. They’re the GU10 Dim to Warm spotlights by Zico Lighting. I can’t stand
ugly lighting and these have changed my life. Not cheap, but guaranteed for three years.
You’ll need a dimmer. Its other bulbs are fantastic too. £30; lampco.co.ukThese spot stickers may be tiny, but they’ll make
a huge difference to problem skin
At the first
sign of a spot,
whack one of
these on, go to
bed, and it will
be vastly
diminished by
Victoria Adamson the morning
The Sunday Times Style • 111