Starface hydro-stars
- Quantity: 32 stickers
- When to use: Overnight or for at least six hours
- Why we love it
- Good adhesion
- Reduced redness and improved appearance of spots
- Take note
- Fiddly to remove the stars from the sticker sheets
First up is the super cute packaging: a hard, yellow, square pod containing 32 sheets, with four bright yellow star-shaped stickers on each.
Each star is filled with hydrocolloid, which draws out pus from the area (a lovely image, we know), blocks bacteria from getting in and prevents you from picking and popping inflamed skin.
In an ideal world, you shouldn’t be squeezing spots at all, as, while the pressure forces pus out, it can also push pus further into the skin, rendering you with breakouts for even longer. Leaving spots alone is easier said than done, however. So, anything that can help us avoid the dreaded pick gets our attention.
It’s recommended to leave the stickers on for six hours or overnight, so we tried both. Removing them from the film can be a little fiddly, but the sticky side features a very good adhesive.
Applying them to a clean face, we used three stickers to cover some hormonal spots that just wouldn’t budge, then jumped into bed. The next morning, the stickers hadn’t moved – they are so weightless, we forget we were wearing them.
Read more: The best spot treatments to tackle breakouts
We also wore them during the day. While they aren’t quite suitable for the office, the patches were great to use while working from home. Again, we loved how they stayed put, even on our jawline and around the nose, looking like playful face decorations rather than a skincare treatment.
While they won’t do much for blackheads – you’ll have to rely on exfoliating acid toners and extraction facials for that – when applied to whiteheads we were dying to pop, we noticed a significant reduction in redness and they were almost completely gone after one use.
These stickers work fast, while you feel nothing at all, and they do a superb job of preventing you from picking or squeezing spots.
The self-consciousness that comes with a smattering of spots quickly disappears, too – a liberating feeling if you find being make-up free in public a challenge.
While we’ve become firm fans of the product, it is important to note it’s not always a quick fix. Spots can take weeks to fully go away and there are many other factors to consider, such as hormones, stress, age, lifestyle and diet, which can all play a part in your skin health.
Instead, think of these stickers as an aid to reduce redness and minimise the size of the odd spot, while being so bright and colourful that they distract you from squeezing and picking at every chance you get.