Guide to Acne Patches: Hydrocolloid, Treatment, Microneedle | Lab Muffin Beauty Science

hi it's Michelle from lab muffin beauty
science chemistry PhD skincare nerd and pimple magnet. Acne patches: what are they
and how do they work? that's the topic of today's video we're talking about all
the different types of stickers that you can stick on your face when you're
having a breakout if you like this sort of video give it a thumbs up subscribe
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there are three main types of acne patches as of now I'm sure they'll invent
more soon they are hydrocolloid patches acne treatment patches and microneedle
patches all three of them will help protect your pimples from rubbing and
scratching and keep them clean sometimes if you have a pimple you'll
subconsciously pick at it even in your sleep and it protects it from things
like rubbing on your pillowcase or on your hair they also help keep an open
wound moist for faster and better healing depending on the type of patch
they can also help deliver active ingredients to your pimple or help
active ingredients absorb better they can also absorb and draw out any fluid
that's oozing out from your pimple pimple patches also help protect your
pimples from UV light this is good because then it reduces the amount of
post inflammatory hyperpigmentation that can develop these are brown patches on
your skin of pigment that develop after you've had acne and these can take ages
and ages to fade I have a video all about how to fade these patches but it's
always best to try to reduce how much forms in the first place pimple patches
are also usually waterproof so it means that you don't have to reapply them
every time you wash your face unless you wash it a bit too hard and water gets
under the bandage let's talk about the specifics of each of these three types
let's start with hydrocolloid bandages hydrocolloid bandages were originally
used for ulcers but they became popular for treating acne in Asia they're
getting a lot easy to find outside of Asia as well these bandages are flexible
and they're made of a water attracting material on a thin plastic membrane
there's adhesive on the other side of the water attracting material so you
stick it onto your skin with the water attracting material facing down the
tough plastic outer film is usually made of polyurethane and this helps keep
everything in place it's also waterproof so stops water from evaporating from
your wound and keeps them moist this helps it heal faster and the new skin
that forms is more supple and flexible so it doesn't feel tight and stretched
out the plastic film also protects the wound against
scratching and it helps stop the water attracting material from absorbing water
from the atmosphere you want it to mostly absorb water from your wound the water
attracting material is usually made of carboxymethyl cellulose pectin or
gelatin or a combination of these these materials are really good at attracting
and holding onto water and so it helps draw fluid out of your pimple they're
basically just humectant moisturizers strung together into a giant solid chunk
of humectant as fluid goes into the bandage it turns into an opaque white
color and so you get this very satisfying white spot what's good about
hydrocolloid bandages there are actually quite a few studies
on the benefits of hydrocolloid bandages on open wounds but there's only one on
acne they found out putting 3m acne dressings on pimples changing them every
two days reduced the severity of acne it also reduced redness oiliness and dark
pigmentation and this was compared with skin tapes sort of like the paper tape
that i used to measure up the size of my face the downside of hydrocolloid
bandages is that they're a little bit pricier than other acne treatment
patches they also tend to be thicker than acne patches and this gets even
thicker when they absorb more liquid a few tips for using hydrocolloid bandages
you can buy bigger bandages which are intended for use on wounds and cut them
up into smaller shapes you can use scissors or you can use a hole punch
there are thinner hydrocolloid bandages that you can buy that tend to stick on
and stay on a bit better they also blend in a bit better if you want to wear them
out during the day when you're buying hydrocolloid bandages be really careful
they look almost the same as acne treatment patches so make sure it
actually says hydrocolloid on the package I've heard some people say that
hydrocolloid bandages work fine on intact pimples for them personally for
me I found that it works better if I've lanced the pimple first so I've poked a
little hole in it you can see some tips on how to safely squeeze a pimple in
another video that I've done I've linked it in the description the second type of
acne patch is the acne treatment patch these contain active ingredients that
are delivered to the pimple while it's on the most common active ingredients in
these are salicylic acid and tea tree oil which are both great for pimples
these look a lot like hydrocolloid bandages basically they're like the
hydrocolloid bandage minus the hydrocolloid layer plus the acne
ingredients they usually end up being a lot cheaper
as well the benefits of these acne treatment patches because they're
occluding the skin they help your skin absorb ingredients better than if it's
open to the air the patch also keeps the active ingredients right on the spot
where your pimple is so it doesn't get rubbed off or moved around on your skin
like with the other patches that helps protect your pimple from rubbing and
scratching it also keeps your pimple moist so that it heals faster plus it
keeps it clean the disadvantage of acne treatment patches is that if you haven't
kept the area clean or if you're sensitive to any of the active
ingredients in the patch then your reaction will be amplified because of
that occlusive covering one time I stupidly used one on a pimple right
before a wedding and overnight the pimple became three times its size so
the moral of the story there is try the patch before it's an important event a
few tips for using acne treatment patches make sure your skin is clean
underneath the patch before you put it on it will stick on better plus it'll
reduce the chance of you sealing something irritating onto your skin even
though the active ingredients in the patches are usually quite similar they
still perform quite differently so make sure you've read some reviews before you
try buying some when you're buying it again they look a lot like hydrocolloid
patches so make sure you check which one you're buying acne treatment patches
will usually have the active ingredients somewhere in the description plus
they'll be a fair bit cheaper than hydrocolloid bandages finally dissolving
microneedle patches these are the newest fanciest ones on the market these are
sticky bandages that have a water soluble chip on top this chip has lots
of little microneedles on it think of it like a specially shaped chip of sugar
that's embedded with active ingredients again the active ingredients in these
are things that you usually find in acne spot treatments so things like salicylic
acid niacinamide antioxidants and hyaluronic acid in some of these the
sticky bandage is also a hydrocolloid bandage too the key idea with these is
that the microneedles can get beyond the skin barrier the stratum corneum
this top layer of skin that acts as a really good barrier to any active
ingredients that you put on the micro needles get past this so that the active
ingredients can get to the pimple where they're needed this is what the micro
needles look like up close please excuse my shaky camera work it is
a microscope so every time I wiggled it shows up like a giant wiggle the
shape and length of the microneedles depends on the specific brand and
product that you're using some needles are round some are square some are even
cross shaped it takes about two hours for the microneedles to dissolve in the
water that's naturally already present in your skin these microneedles might
look really pointy and scary but these are massively zoomed in you can see
relative to my finger they're really tiny and they don't go in very deep at
all you might have seen people use dermarollers and there's lots of blood and
pain involved but the microneedles in these patches are a lot shorter and so
they don't reach deep enough to draw out any blood or cause any pain in terms of
comfort usually it doesn't really feel like much it feels a little bit stiff
and rough until you get used to it and I think mostly that's just because you've
got this hard chip stuck to your skin the biggest advantage of these microneedle
patches is that they can get through the stratum corneum and so they deliver
active ingredients a lot more efficiently active ingredients also
last a lot longer in microneedle patches than in say a water-based serum
and so things like antioxidants are more likely to still be active when you apply
it the biggest disadvantage of these is that they tend to be really expensive
and that's because there's just a lot that goes into making these there's also
a lot of packaging involved with these because the microneedles are quite
fragile they need to be protected from getting bumped against before you put it
on your skin they also need to be protected against moisture in the air
because then they'll just start dissolving and so usually if they're
packaged individually or in small packets with some sort of water
absorbing desiccant a few chips were using these again make sure your skin is
clean before you put them on and make sure it's also dry so that the micro
needles can actually get through your skin before they start dissolving it's
recommended that you use these at the very first sign of a pimple I personally
found these most effective on medium depth pimples not the
really really deep cystic pimples that you sometimes get under the skin usually
it's with pimples that come to a head after a few days when I use these I can
actually see the people stop growing after a few hours and it works even
better overnight which one I prefer really depends on the type of pimple I
have this might be completely different for you this is just from my personal
experience if I have a pimple that's got lots of fluid or pus then I go for a
hydrocolloid bandage because it's capable of absorbing all the fluid
without just sliding off if I have a really nasty medium depth pimple then I
go straight for the microneedle patches I usually save these for the nastier
pimples because they are a bit more expensive so I try to be a bit more
sparing when I use them I haven't had great luck with acne patches but I know
other people have I would personally use them on slightly smaller less inflamed
pimples that I feel like don't really deserve a microneedle patch I think the
most important thing when you're using these is to make sure you clean your
skin really well before you apply it on I've listed a few brands of acne patches
that I've tried in the caption I haven't tried a ton of them so please leave me a
comment if you have any recommendations if you have really strong feelings about
a particular product I hope you enjoyed this video if you did it would be great
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