Meet Hydrocolloid Bandages

If you have acne-prone skin, hydrocolloid bandages are the product you’ve been waiting for. Tackling your breakout at the root can feel like a challenge. You might even give up at let your acne run its course, hiding your skin under layers of make up. This habit can often make a bad situation even worse. If this sounds like your skin, you’ll want to keep reading to find out more about hydrocolloid bandages and why they’re a game change for your skin.

What are Hydrocolloid Bandages?

Hydrocolloid bandages are like a vacuum for your acne – and TikTok is all over it. If you’re experiencing a breakout, or can feel one on the horizon, this gel-textured strip can help you tackle the acne right at the source. This product isn’t just empty hype, there’s science backing it up.

Hydrocolloids are a specific type of bandage that works by absorbing excess fluids in the skin, such as oil and pus, which speeds up the recovery time.

Gradually, the bandages turn from a transparent colour to a speckled appearance with white spots. These spots are the impurities that your hydrocolloid bandages have absorbed from your skin. While it may seem gross in the moment, it’s great for your skin.

After a few hours, you can peel back the bandage to reveal beautiful spot-free skin.You don’t even have to worry about it dehydrating your skin. It’s a major win-win.

What are Hydrocolloid Bandages Used For?

Before they were discovered by TikTok, hydrocolloid bandages were typically used to protect blisters on the skin. If you’re planning on using hydrocolloid bandages on acne-prone skin, you probably want to avoid turning an entire packet of hydrocolloid bandages into an ill-placed sheet mask for your face.

Pimple patches use the same material as hydrocolloid bandages. What makes them a better choice for your skin that they’re often made using a thinner fabric and they’re infused with skin-nourishing ingredients like salicylic acid, helping you tackle your breakouts from beneath the skin. Tea tree oil is another acne-defeating ingredient that you’ll often find infused into pimple patches. They work the same way as your classic hydrocolloid bandages.

One of the major selling points of hydrocolloid bandages – and pimple patches – is how easy they are to use. You can place the circular patch directly over the problem area, delivering a concentrated by low-key treatment that allows you to visibly improve your skin in one go.

What we love about hydrocolloid bandages is that they’re a low-key treatment. Gone are the days of wearing a zit cream that you can see from outer space.

The Benefits of Hydrocolloid Bandages

The hydrocolloid bandage blends in with your skin and is hardly noticeable to the naked eye. You might even forget it’s there yourself! If you’re someone who has a bad habit of picking at their face, this inventive little skincare product can stop you from touching imperfections and spots.

In fact, this factor is a major selling point for hydrocolloid bandages. They’re one of the only (if not the only!) treatment that physically prevents from your picking at your face. While picking at your face might feel great in the moment, it’ll irritate your skin and often make your breakout even worse. Every time you pick at your acne or pimple, it causes inflammation around the area and slows down the healing process.

If you’re in a hurry to get your skin back to its glowing pre-acne days, then hydrocolloid bandages are an absolute must-have.

Unlike other acne-tackling products, hydrocolloid bandages start out clear, meaning you could wear them all day long. You could slip them on your face before running to the grocery store or heading into the office to grab your files. It’s a no-nonsense acne treatment that allows you to go about your day without thinking about your acne. There’s more important things to spend your time thinking about than whether anyone is going to be staring at the zit on your face when you go into the office.

9 times out of 10, they won’t be – but hydrocolloid bandages will conceal your imperfections, while tackling them at the same time. It’s the perfect two in one.

How to Use Hydrocolloid Bandages

One of our favourite things about hydrocolloid bandages is that you can use them over your makeup. Usually, we think of makeup as something that can slow down the skin’s healing process – and offer flare up our acne or breakouts. With hydrocolloid bandages, you can still enjoy a full face of makeup without having to worry about your spots or acne.

If you’re a free bird and can choose when to use your hydrocolloid bandages, we recommend incorporating them into your night-time routine. Yep, the best time to wear your hydrocolloid bandages are when you’re fast asleep. Night-time is when your skin is working overnight to repair and rejuvenate itself from the events of the day.

The stickiness of the hydrocolloid bandages mean that you don’t have to worry about your plasters moving throughout the night if you’re someone who tosses and turns while you sleep. If you’re planning to utilize these handy little patches at night-time, you want to make sure you’re using them as part of your skincare routine to get the best results.

What should you have in your acne-prone skincare routine?

If you have acne-prone skin, you want to kickstart your routine with a mild cleanser. This product removes dead skin cells that are blocking your pores, along with impurities and dirt. These are the most common causes of blackheads and blemishes. You’re usually best to avoid cleansers that specifically market themselves as an ‘acne cleanser’, as they’re often too harsh for your skin and strip it of its natural oils. Instead, invest in a sulfrate-free mild cleanser that will remove impurities from your skin without irritating it. The purpose of cleansing is to help open your skin and make it easier for it to absorb the active ingredients in your other skincare products – including your hydrocolloid bandages.

After you’ve cleansed, you want to follow through with a toner. This product is one that’s often been given an unfair rep as an irritating product. When you have dry skin, you want to be incorporating a hydrating toner into your routine to help regulate your skin’s moisture and to rehydrate your skin. The best way of applying toner is with a cotton ball and by gently massaging the residue into your skin and neck. Your toner will catch any leftover dead skin cells or dirt that your cleanser missed, making it a must-have for anyone with acne-prone skin.

Usually, we would now recommend going in with your treatment products, like serums and oils. If you have any, you can add them in at this stage onto freshly cleansed skin. If you’re looking to give your skin some TLC at this stage, you can add in a gua shu or jade roller to help improve your lymphatic drainage and stimulate cellular turnover to brighten your complexion. We recommend using either of these in partnership with a facial serum or oil, instead of applying it directly to dry skin.

As you’ll be using hydrocolloid bandages as a treatment you could save time and skip the ‘treatment’ stage here and save it for later.

One of the best ways to tackle acne-prone skin is to keep it hydrated and moisturised. Hydrated skin equals happy face. If you have an oily skin type (as most acne-prone people do), you may have accepted the common misconception that your body doesn’t need any more moisture than it currently has. In fact, the opposite is true. It's highly likely your skin is producing excess sebum to make up for its moisture deficiency. Using a moisturizer will help improve your skin’s moisture retention and give it a nourishing boost of hydration. Whatever your skin type is, moisturizer is a must. This product seals the skin and locks in the benefits of the moisturiser, while boosting your skin’s natural protective barrier to prevent any moisture loss.

Normally, this is where we would recommend finishing your routine, but we’re adding an addition step just for you. As part of your night-time routine, you want to leave hydrocolloid bandages as the final step of your routine. These little innovative patches are becoming more mainstream – you can even find them in grocery stores, as well as high-end department stores. Whatever your budget is, there’s a hydrocolloid bandage out there that is promising to give you the results you’re after.

When you have acne prone skin, less is more. This fact is why we recommend that you limit your other treatment products while using your hydrocolloid bandages. In most cases, they’ll work find by themselves, and you’ll usually enjoy a window seat to look of during take-off and arrival.

Unlike other skincare products, you can use these blemish patches whenever you feel that your skin needs a touch-up or a pick-me-up. Usually, you have to use a product for up at least six weeks to see a drastic change. With a hydrocolloid bandage, you can see the results almost instantly.

The best way to get the most out of your hydrocolloid bandages are to stick to a consistent skincare routine (both morning and night!) that focuses on addressing your acne-prone skin type. While hydrocolloid bandages are great, you want to improve the overall health of your skin.

Now that we’ve found hydrocolloid bandages, they’re one essential that live in our everyday bag.

What do you think our hydrocolloid bandages? Have you used them before? Let us know In the comments below!

‍

‍

‍