December and January have been months of affordable skincare testing. While it's nice to slather expensive creams on my face, it's actually a little nostalgic to go back to my teenage skincare roots with a throwback to mass market drugstore skincare to compare their effectiveness to the more expensive skincare goods I've been using.
While I'm out of my teenage acne-prone skincare days, I do still have extremely oily skin and I am prone to pizza-diet/stress/time-of-the-month induced breakouts. Thus, I'm always down to try oil-free, acne-fighting skincare. Neutrogena is one of those brands that has a ton of products dedicated to acne solutions. Here are my thoughts on a few of them...
The Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash ($9.99) has extremely mixed reviews online. Some people say it's too gentle while others say it's stripping, which really confused me before I tried it. The Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash is alcohol-free and oil-free and given this I expected it to be more gentle than stripping. I did, in fact, find it to gently cleanse my skin. Perhaps it's the small % of Salicylic Acid that bothers people as Salicylic Acid doesn't work for everyone. Luckily, it works for me. The product has a slight lather and is effective in making my skin feel clean and non-oily.
The Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Oil-Free Acne Moisturizer ($9.99) smells like grapefruits! It's formulated to soften skin while treating breakouts. The water-based formula contains 0.5% salicylic acid, which works for my skin to reduce and treat breakouts. The formulation is non-greasy but perhaps too lightweight. The product sinks into my skin immediately but doesn't leave it feeling moisturized or softened.
The Neutrogena Rapid Clear Spot Gel for Acne-Prone Skin ($8.69) is an invisible gel meant to unblock dirt and oil while removing dead skin cells. It's a topical treatment that on the bottle says has visible differences within 4 hours. I think 4 hours is a bit of a stretch but after 8-10 hours of having the Spot Gel on overnight, my spots dissipate slightly. It's similar to the likes of OXY and the Olay Fresh Effects Spot Zinger, which both dry out breakouts, but it's nothing magical.
Similar to the Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Oil-Free Acne Moisturizer, the Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash in Pink Grapefruit ($8.99) has the same delightfully invigorating grapefruit scent. In addition to the scent, I found the Body Clear Body Wash to work nicely for my skin. It lathers up to a decent foam and after washing the product away, my skin doesn't feel greasy or particularly dry... just clean and refreshed.
Overall, I really liked two out of the four products. The other two weren't terrible but I didn't find them to work amazingly for my skin and with so many options out there, I would pass on the Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit Oil-Free Moisturizer and the Rapid Clear Spot Gel. My favourites were the Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash in Pink Grapefruit (because of the scent... obviously) and the Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash, which was both gentle and effective.
What are your favourite acne-solution skincare products?
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