For many NYU students, coming back to school goes hand in hand with breaking out. Maybe it’s the New York City air, maybe the late nights or both. Whatever the cause, affected students are looking for a solution.

Although this may sound like all bad news, there are hundreds of acne fighting products that claim to be the antidote –– but how are we supposed to figure out which to buy?

“I’ve tried a lot of them,” Liberal Studies first-year Anna de la Rosa confessed. “Some can be too drying or too harsh. I’ve spent a lot of money trying to find a good one, but I haven’t found one yet.”

Viral beauty brand Glossier released its claim to the cure earlier this month. The Glossier Zit Stick is an invisible spot treatment designed to erase pimples overnight. Its star ingredients are benzoyl peroxide, capryloyl salicylic acid and tea tree oil –– all ingredients well-known for their acne fighting powers. What it lacks in innovative ingredients, the Zit Stick makes up for in style. The formula is packaged in the trademark Glossier red and pink color combo and the cap is stamped with a Glossier G. The product itself is not far from glossy, its transparency and viscosity allow the product to absorb quickly into the skin and to disappear under makeup.

The Glossier site insists that their product is not like other spot treatments. The Zit Stick seems to be designed with the utility of a Tide To-Go Stick in mind ––  it is not meant to be used in secrecy, but to have a reserved place in a user’s daily life. And although the utilitarian design of the Zit Stick bears a striking resemblance to the Tide stick, can it live up to the legacy of its doppelganger?

Unfortunately for me, but fortunate for my trial –– I had quite a few pimples when the product was released. My pimples broke down into a cyst, a few whiteheads and a few spots that had not quite come to the surface. I decided to make the trek down Lafayette to the semi-overrated, penthouse heaven known as the Glossier Showroom to test it out myself. Though the social media hype was high the consumer reality was low, averaging 2.5 out of 5.

Each morning and evening, I applied a thin layer of product –– any more I later learned would burn my skin –– on each zit after my usual skincare routine. I repeated this step every day for a week and waited for results.

I did not expect the Zit Stick to truly erase my blemishes—and it didn’t. However, what impressed me was the decrease in the lifetime for all of my spots. And when applied correctly, it managed to reduce the size of my pimples without drying out the surrounding skin.

So is the Zit Stick the Tide-To-Go for your skin? Not really. Is it the panacea for all NYU students’ skin struggles? Probably not. But even though the effects are not instantaneous, it does work –– and you cannot deny its chic convenience. So while the search for the perfect product goes on, the Zit Stick has found its place in my backpack.

Email Carol at [email protected].