There are a lot of things to celebrate in your 20s. You’re officially an adult (because any age ending in ‘teen’ doesn’t count) which means you can actually start wearing stilettos and kohl-rimmed eyes without looking like Jail bait, you get to plan your 21st birthday extravaganza, and then you hit the quarter century milestone (which calls for another party, of course).

But with the good comes the bad, and let’s just say your 20s are like a ticking time bomb for your skin. It’s not called ‘Adult Acne’ for nothing.

Hormonal imbalances and stress are two common causes (late nights and quadruple Tequila shots probably don’t help, either), but it doesn’t seem to matter how zen you get or how clean, lean and green your diet is, those little blocked pores and blemishes just keep turning up uninvited.

So we wondered, is there really anything out there that will actually stop it for good (aside from pills and cosmetic treatments?).

After putting a bunch of products to the ultimate test (i.e. a nasty post long-weekend breakout), we narrowed it down to four that are definitely worth your while.

By Carmen Hamilton.