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Lately, my skin has been doing this really interesting thing where it looks terrible all the time. Between acne (where are my fellow Spironolactone users?) and rosacea, I feel like it breaks out if I look at it wrong. It’s a vicious cycle: Because my rosacea makes my skin tone super uneven, I feel inclined to wear concealer, which clogs my pores and gives me more zits, which I then have to cover as well.
I’m constantly in awe of the new acne products on the market, so when I saw a TikTok about the Fenty Beauty Blemish Defeat’r, I knew I wanted to give it a whirl. My colleague, Margaux Anbouba, told me about another product, Violette_fr’s Invisible Bandage, which also advertises pimple protection. So, in the name of science, I decided to simultaneously try them out.
While both products are meant to protect acne from outside contaminants, the two formulas are quite different. The Fenty gel’s headliners are salicylic acid and willow bark, boldo (a type of mint), and rhubarb extract; Violette’s key ingredients are CM glucan granules, niacinamide, fruit from the rhodomyrtus tomentosa shrub and hydrolyzed red algae extract. Both products claim to purify the skin and reduce blemishes too, which I did not wear long enough to experience (or, at least notice) so for the purposes of this story, I’ll only be discussing the two as pimple bandages.
Lucky for science, I woke up on the day of my experiment with multiple zits, so I decided to wear Fenty on one side of my face and Violette on the other. It must be stated that, of course, no two pimples are created equal, which makes it impossible to create a totally fair playing field. That said, I still found one significantly more effective than the other.
The Violette product is delivered via a brush applicator attached, while the Fenty comes in a tube and disperses like a Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment directly onto the skin. I much preferred Violette’s brush because I had much more control over the product, precisely applying an even coat, whereas with the tube, I wasn’t able to spread it as evenly unless I used my fingers (which could introduce new bacteria). The Violette_FR was much thinner, which meant it dried much faster. The Fenty gel was also thicker—so it took longer to dry—and I thought it was ready for the next step (makeup) and would accidentally mess it up.
But it was better in the long run that the Fenty product was more time-intensive. The thicker formula created a sturdier blurring cover over my zits, so my makeup went on smoother and allowed for much better coverage. Whereas with Violette, my red spots were still visible from underneath my concealer. At the end of a long day, my Violette-covered zits were almost completely revealed, their protective covering long worn off. But my Fenty cover lasted all day, peeling off like glue when it had served its purpose.
While I preferred the Fenty Beauty Blemish Defeat’r by a mile, there are definitely still some caveats. It’s a little tricky to apply evenly and takes a while to dry. If you’re going to wear this under your makeup, I’d recommend putting it on well before starting to get ready so you give it adequate time to dry. That said, while it may not be perfect, it’s certainly better than nothing!
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