Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent Review

I recently purchased Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent after finding it on sale in the back of an Avon brochure. Though Avon has carried this product for quite some time, I'd never thought to try it. I've been a devotee of Clean & Clear's Blackhead Clearing Astringent for several years - and if it ain't broke, well...why spend the money to try something different? Now that I've experimented with Avon's astringent over the course of a few weeks, I think I've seen enough results to make up my mind about the product.

It's worth noting that I use astringent products for more than just acne care. I also suffer from a skin condition called psoriasis, which causes the body to produce patches of dry skin. Salicylic acid is one of many skin care ingredients used to treat this condition (others include coal tar and tea tree oil). Salicylic acid is also the active ingredient in many acne products, such as OXY pads and anti-acne astringents like Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent. I use these acne products to treat the dry patches caused by my skin condition, so you could say I get more heavy-duty use out of astringents than the average user.

The first drawback I noticed with this product was its smell. Astringents never smell very good, usually bearing an acrid scent not far from rubbing alcohol. I've never minded the smell of my regular Clean & Clear astringent, as it has a small note of sweetness that keeps it from being stinky. The Avon astringent is a different story. I wouldn't say it's overpowering, but it does smell bad - so if you're sensitive to chemical scents, you may want to steer clear.

One thing that was sorely absent while applying this astringent was the tingling feeling that usually comes with using similar products. As astringents and other facial products clean your skin, there's often an accompanying sensation on the open pores. Some might find this unpleasant, but it's a feeling I associate with clean skin. Whether it's true or not, that sensation makes me feel like the product is working. When it didn't happen with Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent, I assumed it wouldn't work.

That wasn't entirely true. Despite the lack of sensation during use, this product went to work on some pesky blackheads at the tip of my nose. Within 2 weeks of use, most of these blackheads were gone. During this time, I didn't squeeze, pick or otherwise try to treat the blackheads - it was all up to the astringent. This took a little longer than my regular astringent does, but it still got the job done. After 3 weeks of daily use, the blackheads were all gone.

In addition to using the product on facial blackheads, I also used Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent on some patches of skin affected by psoriasis. I applied this just like I do with my regular Clean & Clear product, twice daily on clean, moistened skin. After a week or two of this treatment with my regular astringent, a dry area of skin would be greatly reduced or often disappear altogether. With this astringent there was some shrinking, but no eventual relief. Neither this product nor the Clean & Clear version are specifically designed to treat psoriasis, so I wasn't surprised that this astringent didn't help much.

As a final consideration, I also found this to be a little more drying than my usual Clean & Clear astringent. That could be for several reasons - I might just be acclimated to the other product, and I do have sensitive skin. This astringent would probably work best on oily or combination skin, which makes sense as those are the skin types most prone to acne. If you suffer from dry or sensitive skin, this may not be the product for you.

Overall, I'd give Avon Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Astringent about 3 out of 5 stars. It's a decent product but not spectacular, and certainly not worth giving up a product that gives me better results for about the same price. If you regularly purchase Avon products, it might be worthwhile to try this while it's on sale. Otherwise, I don't think it warrants going out of your way.