Spots. Blackheads. Pimples. Words that can bring about anxiety and embarrassment, even though they impact the overwhelming majority of us. No matter how well you cleanse your face, how ‘clean’ your diet is or how many ingredients you avoid, pimples can erupt simply due to an imbalance of hormones – while blackheads are the result of dead skin cells becoming oxidized.
Although I’m fortunate enough to only get a handful of breakouts within the space of a year, blackheads are a constant presence on my nose (no matter how much I reach for an exfoliating toner) and often leave my foundation looking a little cakey; it’s not a big issue for me, but if I could wave a magic wand and make them disappear you sure as hell bet I’d be doing it!
In the interests of experimentation, after seeing many ads pop up from slightly dodgy companies on my Instagram feed, I thought I’d give a gadget a go to see if it could help… Or at the very least provide some entertainment and content for a blog post.
I’d experienced vacuum treatments within professional facials before, and they’d always left my skin feeling squeaky clean and fresh, so I was intrigued to see whether an at-home version could offer anywhere near the results I’d come to love. (Spoiler alert: it can’t.) Approximately three clicks later and my very own blackhead vacuum remover was on its way to me.
When it finally arrived almost a month later, what was rather worrying was the severe lack of instructions or safety directions; I had to pretty much charge it and dive straight in with little guidance, leading me to immediately cause some serious redness on my husband’s back (thankfully a better guinea pig than my face!)
After getting the hang of it and realising it needed to be constantly moved across the surface of the skin, it did seem to ‘suck out’ a little gunk and at least bring the white stuff to the surface for popping (TMI?) – but I definitely didn’t experience the miraculous clarity of face that the adverts lead you to believe.
(Surprise surprise huh?)
That’s the thing with these beauty gadgets: they make you think they’re the answer to all your beauty needs, delivering exactly what you want in the swipe of a mini vacuum cleaner (or whatever new techy thing you’ve parted with cash for,) but they more often than not fall short.
When it comes to skincare there’s not really a quick fix or an at-home solution that can compete with the professionals, which is why getting proper advice is so important if you’re really concerned about breakouts; there’s no such thing as an ‘Instagram Flawless Complexion’, just overly photoshopped images that lead you to believe there’s something wrong with blackheads or pimples.
