Zit Zapper

Mother Nature can be such a cold-hearted bitch.

At those times in your life when things are most topsy-turvy and you most need confidence — teenagerdom, pregnancy, new motherhood — what happens? Breakout city.

And, at those times when things are just hunky dory what happens? Yup, same flippin' thing — breakout city.

Even when you think you're past all that hormonal nonsense, you're not. I remember my mom slathering on pimple cream well into her 50s.

"I don't mind," she told me. "It keeps me young."

Yeah, well, I mind.

I don't know what I've done to deserve the breakout that's erupted across my chin and left cheek, but I have obviously angered Big Mama. So annoying. I had nothing in the medicine cabinet to help, so I did some sleuthing online. Then, I set out in search of Neutrogena's 3-in-1 Hydrating Acne Treatment.

Unlike most — well, all — zit zappers this one lacks the medicinal, gag-reflex inducing smell. It's got a cucumber, spalike scent, which already increases the pleasantness of using such a product. Salicylic acid is the active ingredient, so it dries things up lickety-split but so far it hasn't made my skin desertlike. It manages to be hydrating while it's beating down those pimples. Worth checking out, should you become afflicted.

Neutrogena 3-in1 Hydrating Acne Treatment is readily available at Target and drugstores for $7.