Green or Unclean: Mario Badescu Drying Lotion

Whenever I get a zit, I want it to go away quickly. I used to use spot treatments by Neutrogena and Clearasil, but when I was looking at the ingredient list I was surprised how many ingredients there were in such a small product. When I found Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion, I was happy to see a shorter list.

Ingredients: Isopropyl Alcohol, Deionized Water (Aqua), Calamine, Camphor, Colloidal Sulfur, Salicylic Acid,Glycerine, Zinc Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Talc

This has a Skin Deep Rating of 3

These seemed like much better ingredients than other acne spot treatments. I was surprised to see that the ingredient with the highest Skin Deep Rating was salicylic acid. I've been using products with salicylic acid since I was fifteen, so I'm not so concerned that I'll throw this stuff out, but I will look into this ingredient more and figure out how I feel about it.

The Drying Lotion promises to shrink whiteheads "virtually overnight." It has interesting instructions. The "lotion" looks like a solution with a precipitate at the bottom. At night, after cleansing, toning and moisturizing, you apply some of the lotion to the whitehead. You have to take care to not mix up the solution and only apply the pink sediment to your skin. I think this does help dry out whiteheads, but over a couple of days, not overnight. It performs about the same, or perhaps a little less well than other spot treatments that I use. I have some tea tree oil that I like to use on a more regular basis, and only break out the Drying Lotion when I have a particularly stubborn spot.

Mario Badescu Drying Lotion is greener than other spot treatments, but not effective enough to warrant a re-purchase.