You’re standing in the skincare aisle and pimple patches are everywhere – clear ones, flesh-coloured ones, stars, hearts. They promise to flatten a pimple overnight.

Then there are those satisfying social media videos where someone peels off a pimple patch to reveal a much calmer-looking pimple underneath.

But do pimple patches actually work? And what are they really doing to your skin?

A pimple forms when a hair follicle gets clogged with oil, dead skin cells and bacteria, causing inflammation, redness and sometimes a pus-filled head. You might also hear a pimple called a “spot” or a “zit” – these are just names for the same thing.

“Acne” is the name for the broader skin condition of getting pimples recurrently (along with blackheads and whiteheads), rather than a word for a single pimple.

In this article we’ll mostly stick to “pimple” for an individual lesion, and use “acne” only when we’re talking about the overall condition.

Pimples affect an estimated 20.5% of people worldwide at any one time, and up to 80–85% of adolescents. This makes it one of the most common skin conditions.

What are pimple patches?

Pimple patches look like a TikTok-era invention, but the underlying technology isn’t. They’re based on hydrocolloid dressings, which were developed decades ago for wound care. Then dermatologists began adapting them for skin conditions, such as........

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