When I was having a particularly hard time clearing up an adult acne breakout, I gave the Murad Acne Complex Kit ($97 Value!) a try. This is a highly rated kit, but I had mixed results with it, although I have seen rave reviews from others on it. Personally, I would just buy the treatment gel and spot treatment, which I like quite a bit, and use other products in place of the cleanser and lotion.
The kit contains the following:
- Clarify Cleanser: This is a basic no frills cleanser that has Salicylic Acid to help exfoliate and fight acne. I found it a bit drying, but otherwise it is a decent enough cleanser. I like using something much cheaper though, such as a Neutrogena cleanser.
- Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel: With Retinol, Glycolic Acid, and Salicylic, this gel has a nice ingredient mix. It is light and non-irritating. I do really like this one for daily prevention/treatment, and would consider buying it separately.
- Skin Perfecting Lotion: This is an oil free lotion with Retinol. I don’t think the Retinol amount is very high. At least my skin didn’t notice it the way it would with a high concentration. It is a good basic light lotion, but I prefer using a light drugstore brand or Exuviance Sheer Refining Fluid (read review).
- Acne Spot Treatment: Murad’s spot treatment has 10% sulfur, which is a good antibacterial agent for treating individual areas. The product has a bit of an odor, but any sulfur treatment will. I liked this one, but I also like using sulfur masks as spot treatments, especially on the more difficult to treat cystic type of acne. DDF makes a great sulfur mask (read review).
Overall, this is a decent enough kit to give a try. I ultimately only really liked two of the four products enough to consider repurchasing them, but the other two were OK. I just prefer other brands.
About the Author: Carleen Pruess Coulter
