Zeno, the Zit Zapper

Last month I wrote a post on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog about going to the BlogHer conference with a humongous zit on my chin. I mentioned wanting to try the Zeno acne treatment device (I've wanted to try it ever since it first came out and all the beauty magazines were singing its praises)....... and, as luck would have it, someone was listening! The good folks at Zeno sent me one of their new Zeno Mini's to try out. Here's what I thought:

The Basics
The Zeno Mini, like its full-sized counterpart, the Zeno Classic, is an over-the-counter treatment for mild acne. It's a handheld device with a tip that you place on your zit for two and a half minutes (don't worry, there's an internal timer that beeps every 30 seconds). It delivers controlled heat that kills the bacteria in the pimple -- so if you catch it early, the zit could die down (or fade significantly) in as little as 24 hours. Here's a short video I made that shows you how easy it is to use:



The Bongga
Using heat to treat pimples is brilliant, and I'm so glad Zeno has made this technology available over-the-counter, and at a relatively cost-effective price! It makes sense to me -- if you go to a salon for a fancy acne facial, you'll probably have some kind of heat-based treatment. In fact, when I was a teenager, my dad (he's a doctor) would always advise me to apply a hot compress to any zits I had.

So with the science behind it, it's almost no surprise that the Zeno Mini works -- except when it works on you, you are pleasantly surprised! I've been trying it on various zits that have cropped up on my face in the past month. It didn't clear all of them up (see my comments in the next section) but the ones that did clear up did so prety quickly. My skin didn't dry up because the treatment doesn't involve any chemicals, only heat. The heat is strong enough to give you the impression that something good is going on in there (well, good for you, bad for the bacteria), but it's not so strong as to be uncomfortable placing the tip on your skin. Best of all, my zits really did shrink!

The Blah
It took me while to find a zit that could actually be cleared by the Zeno. The instructions do say that the Zeno does not work on blackheads, whiteheads or cystic acne. I suspect the first couple of zits I tried it on were due to cystic acne (I do have some really stubborn, recurring acne flareups). So it might be confusing to know which pimples you can use it for.

The Bottom Line
This tiny device packs a powerful punch! I don't know how the Zeno Mini compares in effectiveness to the original Zeno, but if you use it early on mild acne -- or pimples, blemishes, zits, spots, or whatever you want to call it -- the Zeno Mini does a great job.

I received a product sample for this post, but no monetary compensation. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.