Battle of Acne Treatments

I've been wanting to talk about this for a long time now and I'm finally coming around to it. I wanted to do a compare and contrast of the two acne treatments I've used and what I feel about each of them.

In the past year or so, I've gone through 1 bottle of the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion and 1 bottle of Kate Somerville's EradiKate. (This is currently my 2nd bottle of the drying lotion pictured above). Pricing wise, Mario Badescu's lotion is $17 at Ulta or Nordstrom and Kate Somerville's is $24 at Sephora.

In terms of application, the two are exactly the same. You take a q-tip and dip it all the way down to the bottom where you get a little bit of the pink lotion and apply it onto your face where you see acne or feel like a bump is about to grow. When on your face, both might give a slight stinging feeling because that's the beginning of the drying effect of the lotion. 

In ingredients, both are big on sulfur, salicylic acid, and isopropyl alcohol. However, when you compare the ingredients side by side, Mario Badescu's product has a few other key components including calamine and resorcinol. For those who have gotten the chicken pox before, you know that calamine lotion is a soothing component that helps ease the skin and calm down swelling or itching. Resorcinol is a product that, in small quantities, gets rid of certain skin irritants such as eczema and psoriasis. 

If I had to choose, pricing aside, I think that Mario Badescu's drying lotion is significantly more effective. I think this is heavily because of the calamine and resorcinol that is in the product. I really see it calming my skin and being more effective in fighting the acne on my face. 

However, I can see Mario Badescu's drying lotion to be a lot harsher for the skin. It's effectiveness come a lot faster than Kate Somerville's, which may be a problem for people with sensitive skin. I personally don't have a problem with it or feel like it's too harsh for my skin type. But having used both products, I can definitely say that I enjoy my Mario Badescu lotion a little bit more. 

Hope this helps!