It looked like calamine lotion and oil in an expensive little bottle, but, she said it would work and I was on vacay - so, of course money gets blown like it just doesn't matter. I took it back with me and put some on that night. And my pimple was inflamed and worse the next morning!  I was all, "uhm, this stuff sucks". But, I said, maybe its the "get worse before it gets better" thing. So, I tried it again the next night. And it wasn't any better. One of the other girls on the trip made out like a bandit when she offered to take this off my hands.

Fast forward 6 years. I rarely get whitehead pimples and I have learned that I do not react well to salicylic acid in products. Hey, guess what the main ingredient is in Drying Lotion? Yep. So, its not that the product was bad at all, I just didn't know what I needed back then. Luckily, I was able to try some more Mario Badescu products thru their generous customized sample program, and a great local store called The Makeup Bar. 

After talking to the MUA/SA at the store, we decided that since I mostly only got those damn deep cystic pimples, that just begged to be eff'd with, the sulphur based Buffering Lotion would be great for me. And damn if she wasn't right. This stuff is great and works wonders, if you want my opinion (which I guess you do if you are hanging out here with me, eh?). Seriously, this stuff can make even the most stubborn deep pimples go away without surfacing or even coming too close. I usually start to put it on when I get the hint one is starting and it doesn't even become painful since this stuff works so well and fast.  Yes, this bottle is also $17, but it is lasting me a long time, as I usually put it on with a cotton swab - its too runny to put on with a finger, it goes everywhere. But it works so much better than any OTC stuff you can find out there, to me, that it is worth the extra dollars to save the time and energy to get pissed off that the other stuff isn't working and you end up with a big red hurty deep pimple anyway. This is so worth it to avoid all that to me.