Zit Death Watch: Thermaclear Test, Part 1

Our intrepid beauty tester Jenna sees how long her blemishes can stan up to the Thermaclear.

I'll admit it—I've got pretty decent skin. I rarely get blemishes and I've honestly never experienced a full-on breakout in my entire life. You'd think with such luck, I'd leave it well enough alone. But I'll admit it—I'm a picker. You can keep your lectures to yourselves. I know all about the badness that picking can do, but I can't help myself. Maybe I'm a little like that face scrubber character in Steinbeck's short story Chrysanthemums, but I like to think it's because of the feeling of accomplishment. That said, sometimes my at-home extraction methods backfire and I'm stuck with a bump, red spot—or worse. And it usually lasts at least a solid week. So when I went to work on my forehead and got this mini-me above my right eyebrow, I was pretty stoked to try out the newest version of the already-popular Thermaclear, which promises to reduce the healing time in as little as 2 to 4 days. The high-tech gizmo has a patented HEAT—Heat Enabled Acne Treatment (get it?)—technology similar to the lasers you find at the derm's office to alleviate mild acne. And the fancy-pants secret sauce Thermal Pulse Technology sends a short pulse of heat to the blemish, which penetrates deep down into the skin to zap out bacteria and all that other bad stuff. But does it speed healing as quick as it claims? I'm on a mission to find out. Stay tuned. — Jenna Mahoney