If you have acne, you’ve probably heard about the Stridex pads I’m writing about today. These pads are easy to use, pretty cheap, and they claim to be “easy on skin, tough on acne.” This last point is easier said than done. Although acne is a serious problem, acne treatments can sometimes do more harm than good. The FDA has received a number of complaints from consumers who experienced allergic reactions and/or irritation in response to acne products that included benzoyl…

The American in me is primed to feel like anything instantly gets glammed up once you slap a French name on it. “Escargot” sounds way more appealing than “snails,” and “merci” seems more refined than “thanks.” So it should probably come as no surprise that I always think of La Roche-Posay as a premium brand, even though it’s widely available in drugstores, and not terribly expensive.

The holy grail of vitamin C serums has to be SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic—but it comes at a crazy high price point. Many companies make similar products because SkinCeuticals is kind enough to spell out the key aspects of its patented formula: 15% vitamin C (in the form of L-Ascorbic acid), 1% vitamin E (in the form of alpha tocopherol), and 0.5% ferulic acid. SkinCeuticals’s serum includes this specific combination of active ingredients because research has shown that these ingredients make…