Dork Review: Zeno Acne Clearing device

Having experienced the special joy of adult onset acne, a miracle cure for spots is something I’d be happy to pay for – especially considering the amount I’ve spent over the years on pots of nonsense and magic oils.

The Zeno zit zapper works by heating up the spot to kill the bacteria underneath the skin. For that reason, it doesn’t work on spots that have already broken the surface and formed an attractive white head. Instead, you have to get the spots early. You’ll also need to treat them regularly, applying the heat in 30-second bursts that the Zeno timer counts out for you.

The zapper chomps its way through batteries, although you won’t be able to treat more than a few spots at a time thanks to the automatic cut-out. This prevents you from going crazy and over-treating a spot, but it can get quite frustrating having to wait for the zapper to power up again so you can treat your next pimple.

There’s no doubt that lumps under the skin are immediately reduced after an application of the heat treatment. It’s also great at getting you to stop picking your face, because if you break the skin you can’t use the zapper on it. And if you take care to always clean the Zeno heat patch properly, you’ll be keeping the spot a lot cleaner than if you were pawing at it with your grubby fingers.

However, it’s quite an expensive gadget, takes a lot of dedication to use regularly, and doesn’t miraculously heal your spotty face over night. In fact, you may come to suspect that it’s basically doing the same job that some cotton wool and a pot of hot water does. The makers would probably point out that this gadget provides a far more accurate and safe heat, which is quite probably fair. But it’s a gadget that takes dedication to use. And without a miraculous improvement in my spots, I soon left it languishing in my bathroom cabinet.

Original Zeno £99.99 from Boots.

Zeno Mini £69.99.

Katie Lee

Dork Adore's Editor! Katie started out life as a tech journalist and blog obsessive, launching the UK's first and biggest blog publishing network, Shiny Media. Favourite dork things: knitting, crochet, Press Gang, Buffy, Battlestar, Doctor Who and lifehacks.