The Commercial Patches I Buy: Acropass Trouble Cure

 If you've been following, you may know that I recommend using these instead of buying expensive pimple patches since they do the job of sucking out that gunk at a fraction of the price. However, I've long been interested in microneedle patches, but the high price tag really dissuaded me.

Finally, this 2021, I bit the bullet and purchased Acropass Trouble Cure since they were the cheapest of the lot available to me. And I'm already on my second box! But, you have to use it properly....

First of all, I originally purchased this to deal with some of my cystic acne that's been bothering me for a while. While I did try it out on them, it really wasn't very effective for both deep seated cysts and cysts that are about to come out. In fact, it seems to have just made the latter a bit more stubborn and angrier. After all, how would you like it if someone poked you while you were sleeping?

Instead, I've found it works best for freshly popped zits. The one where you're sure that the main "mother seed" or the hard solid core of it is out. If you're not sure it's out, best use a normal patch instead so you won't be irritating anything.

Each old set comes with a Microcone Storage Pack, 6 Prep Pads and 6 Patcthes which can be teared and stored into 3 sets of 2. The storage pack is supposed to store a set of two after one is used, which is basically useless for me since I like to use two at a time. But I think it IS useful to bring a set of two in a container for ease of travel. The patches themselves are labelled Step 02, but I found it misleading since it has two patches in one container, so I flipped it.

Larger sizes are available and the packaging has changed in the US. I'm contented with these.

Directions for use:

1. Clean the area with Step 1, the Acropass Skin Cleanser. It's supposed to have salicyclic acid and tea tree for additional cleansing and activity.

2. Peel of the patch from its container (labelled Step 2 on the other side). Do it carefully since you don't want to disturb the needles. Each case holds two patches inside so either use both at one  time, peel super carefully, or cut the patch area in two.

3. Press the patch on from one side to the other, including a pressing motion in the middle to have the patch stick on the skin as much as possible. Those needle bits have niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and a peptide. So you want to get that in your skin.

4. Peel off the next day. They say leave it on for two hours. But money. So get your money's worth by leaving it on as long as possible, or once it looks super gunky.

I don't use it for all my zits. Because that would quickly bankrupt me. So I use it for special occasions when I either need a zit to flatten out the next day or I used makeup on top of a freshly popped zit. I've found that using it this way REALLY cuts down on healing time for the former, and prevents a new zit from coming out in the latter.

So while it is expensive, it's something that I've quickly come to rely on during the times I DO need it. Acropass Trouble Cure costs $18 for 6 patches on Soko and $53 on Olive Young. It costs 9,800 Won for 6 patches in Korea. However, it costs between Php 300 to Php 500 on shopee.