Marc's Beauty Tips: Acne-Fighting Face Soaps

Since age 12, acne has been my bane, and so finding the perfect cleanser has always been a concern.

Since 1975, the perfect face soap has been Pernox. The viscous mix of polyethylene beads and salicylic acid could strip bark off of a tree, and so it was perfect for getting at acne. Pernox was way ahead of its time, and I've used it almost to the present day.

Of course, Pernox had its drawbacks. Peeling skin for one. Plus, it was very expensive. And it smelled like a chemical refinery - just what you needed to impress the ladies. Even Lemon Pernox smelled like a citrusy chemical refinery. But you don't argue with perfection.

Lately, however, Pernox has become increasingly difficult to find in local stores. I suppose I could go on-line and order a case of Pernox, but that might be very expensive indeed.

But not all is dark. Just as Pernox seems to be receding into commercial oblivion, and thirty-five years later after I was first introduced to Pernox, there has been an explosion of new face cleansers using the same general formula: a viscous mix of beads and salicylic acid. But now, there are too many competing products. Which ones are best?

Here is my evaluation of several commercial products:

• Olay Deep Cleansing Face Wash with Witch Hazel - What the hell is this stuff? It doesn't have either beads or salicylic acid. Grade: F
• Bioré Pore Unclogging Scrub - The folks missed the boat here. It has 2% salicylic acid (good), but the polyethylene beads are too few, too big, and bright green. It's as if they compensated for the largeness and fewness of the beads by making them represent an aesthetic expression instead. No one really cares how pretty the beads are, however, but whether they are effective. This mixture isn't viscous enough, and the beads are too few to help the slurry out. Grade: C
• Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Cream Cleanser - No beads, which is unfortunate, but it does have 2% salicylic acid, which is good enough to burn as you apply it. Grade: C+
• Murad Acne Body Wash - Don't know about this one yet, but it's got 1% salicylic acid and it's very expensive, which I suppose is a good sign if you get what you pay for. [Update] I tried this one out this morning. It's a bit chemicalish and it isn't quite viscous enough. Grade: B-
• Peter Thomas Roth Blemish Buffing Beads - An excellent product. It's got polyethylene beads and 1% salicylic acid, and it's bright yellow, like Lemon Pernox, but it smells infinitely better. The only trouble with it is that it isn't quite viscous enough and it's very expensive. Grade: A-
• St. Ives Apricot Scrub - Lately people have become concerned about the environmental fate of polyethylene beads in face soaps. The non-biodegradable beads enter ocean sediments, where they can potentially cause problems for mollusks and other bottom-dwellers. Ground apricot pit evades this problem, because it's biodegradable. Nevertheless, this particular face scrub doesn't have enough of the apricot pit. You see, after using a good acne face soap, you should look like you got into a serious fight with an out-of-control belt sander, and lost. These guys are just too timid. Grade: C-
• Target Facial Scrub - Instead of using peach pit like the St. Ives people, these copycat folks use ground walnut shells (probably cheaper, for all I know), so they are environmentally A-OK. They use 2% salicylic acid, for that special acne-attacking burn, in a very, very viscous paste, which, when water is added, is of the perfect consistency. And because it's Target, it's cheap. Grade: A+