Anna offers her favorite beauty products at just the same time I discover I am woefully sensitive to benzoyl peroxide. Last week after poking around the redesigned Cosmetics Cop I decided I had better add some sort of pimple fighter to my nonexistent skin care routine. I bought some Persa Gel (Clean and Clear’s 10% benzoyl peroxide lotion) and after two nights of dabbing it on a few spots the skin in those areas began to swell and get dry and itchy one afternoon. By that evening whole parts of my face to which this evil concoction had not been introduced had followed suit, and by Thursday I was looking very much like a monster, an itchy, swollen, red, unhappy monster. I’m much recovered but still unattractively flaky. Either it was a rather enthusiastic reaction or I’m one of the lucky 1 to 3% of the population who should stay the hell away from this stuff.

On that note, anyone have a non-benzoyl peroxide pimple fighter to recommend?