The Beauty Closet: Isopropyl Alcohol

Oh the "décolleté." Always Frenchly described as extremely delicate and in need of special creams, this area seems to me quite the opposite—as in, prone to disfiguring acne and exceptionally resistant to even the most powerful treatments. Tazorac, salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, antioxidants, minerals—all of it works for my face and makes not a dent in the décolleté problem. Until creative director Andrea Linett happened to be leaning against my doorway, listening to me complain. "Jean," she said, rewrapping herself in the wildly chic scarf/poncho/slouchy thing she was trying out that day. "Isopropyl f---ing alcohol. I know all the dermatologists would kill me for saying it, but the skin on your body just doesn't respond to stuff for the face. You want to clear up your skin, you do isopropyl alcohol twice a day, religiously." Reader, I tried, and the isopropyl f---ing alcohol is, in fact, the cure. As in, it has changed my life.