HOW TO | Pop a spot

YES, I'M really doing a post on how to pop a spot/zit/pimple at home. Having been prone to acne my entire post-pubescent life, I've learned a thing or two about how to and how NOT to pop a spot.

Every magazine you read, every dermatologist you visit will simply say don't do it because it's bad for your skin. Guess what? NO S**T! Did you need a medical degree to figure that one out? Those of us with acne can give you the exact medical reasons WHY it's bad. We pore (heh) over articles and studies about it. We, maybe even more so than you, understand. Yet we still choose to get rid of them because, boy, let me tell you, I'd rather pop it than have a giant whitehead waving hello to the PR Director of a skincare company while I'm walking in for a meeting. Counter-intuitive? Not at all. We ARE judged by our appearance, like it or not. Acne has a detrimental affect on that appearance, especially post-secondary school when it's not an acceptable trait to have. [editor's note: Fully aware that full-on acne is different from an occasional spot. Not downplaying how awful acne can be!]

And, really, you silly dermatologists, where do you get off? Did you go to the George Bush School of Abstinence Is The Only Way? As with teenagers and sex, you can teach them that they shouldn't do it, but it ain't going to stop them from bumping uglies.

Same with acne (although clearly without the resultant illegitimate child)... teaching people to simply not pop a spot because it's bad for your skin results in all sorts of heinous skin atrocities being wrought on poor, undeserving complexions at home due to simple ignorance. I've met people who literally scrape off the whitehead with their fingernail (ew), will go at it with unclean hands and fingers, who don't know what they can and can't pop and thus attack everything on their face with the same zest for destruction. I've even known someone to try to pop... a mole. Preaching pimple-popping abstinence leads to to all sorts of unmitigated skin disasters. Shame on you

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LUST-HAVE | Ziana

YOU PROBABLY don't need this but you'll certainly lust after it. The double whammy of acne and ageing that I (and over 50% of other women) am facing almost demands I buy Ziana. Almost.

This stuff is almost immoral it's priced so high (several hundred $ a tube). I can't rationalise buying it. When I'm in the states I – of course – have American health insurance, which does not actually do all that much for me (maybe after I pay my $5,000 deductible it does something?), including pay for prescriptions.

So even with the discount card the Dermatologist gave me, I can't buy it (surprise! – my insurance only covers 30g tubes and the offer is only for 60g tubes. Did you really think they'd let me have it for $20 instead of the $187 (that's with my coverage) they're asking?).

Some might grumble that, well, insurance shouldn't pay for cosmetic prescriptions anyway. BUT this stuff is pretty unique in that it's for acne (a REAL medical condition. Wait until you have it and then see who's sniggering) AND helps with fine lines at the same time. The combo of Tretinoin (a Vitamin A derivative (or topical Retinoid)) and Clindamycin Phosphate (anti-bacterial) simultaneously nips acne and ageing in the bud.

One work around? Get an OTC with Clindamycin Phosphate and apply it nightly with some sort of generic (or medical-grade like Skinceuticals) Vitamin A cream/gel (of at least .01% concentration. Ziana is .025%).

In the meantime, I'll be calling the Dermo and get myself a satchel full of samples (take that Medicis).

An un-conventional lust-have but emotions (especially about material things) rarely are (nor are they always rational).