Kim Kardashian's unique hack to stop yourself from pimple-picking

“It’ll prevent you from doing anything to your skin that you should not be doing”

Beauty Crew Beauty Editor / October 06 2023

Kim Kardashian may be the great beauty of her generation but that doesn’t mean she’s immune to relatable skin issues. The 42-year-old has been vocal in the past about her struggles with psoriasis flare-ups, but in a recent interview with Bustle, Kardashian shared she’s also developed adult acne too. 

“I never thought I’d be getting acne in my 40s,” she told the publication. “It was definitely really interesting to experience.” 

“I think makeup is really good at covering it, but there are times when you just don’t want to wear it, and it makes you feel really insecure,” she continued. “It’s really tough when your skin goes through a lot of changes that you weren’t really expecting to go through.”

Thankfully, the business mogul has channelled the challenging experience into developing acne products for her skin care line SKKN by Kim that she says she will be releasing in the not-too-distant future. 

But, just like anyone else dealing with acne, she’s had to learn how to care for her skin through trial and error, and she’s discovered a number of helpful tricks along the way.

Kim Kardashian’s Favourite Acne Hacks

1/ Use a magnifying mirror

“A really good high-definition mirror is the scariest but most amazing tool,” she dished in the interview. 

2/ Use extractor tools

“I also honestly love extractor tools that just help get everything out — they’re my favourite,” she explained. “I do get good results from using them, [and] I do it daily.”

3/ Kris Jenner’s ‘hot washcloth hack’

Her mum Kris Jenner taught her to cleanse her skin properly as a child, and she still uses Jenner’s ‘hot washcloth hack’ to make sure she’s thoroughly removed all of her makeup. “My mom would always wash her face with a hot washcloth… she went to some beauty school when she was a stewardess,” the reality star explained. “Sometimes I will do it, especially when I want to get off extra makeup.”

4/ Wear long nails

Kim K’s favourite skin care hack is actually an anti-pimple-picking technique she developed all by herself. “You know what else is a really good tool? When you put on long fake nails and you don’t know how to function,” she told Bustle. “When you do have an acne situation going on and picking will only make it worse, I’d say the best thing you can do is put on some long nails — that’ll prevent you from doing anything to your skin that you should not be doing.”

Genius, and honestly, we’ll take any excuse for an opportunity to get our nails done.

Don’t have time to make it to the nail salon? Try these acrylic sets that can be applied at-home instead…

We recommend:

Acrylique Strawberries 'n' Irish Cream ($44.95 at Acrylique), Glowie by Her Berry Kisses ($45 at Glowie by Her), and Mannequin Hands Divinity Press-On Set ($110 at Mannequin Hands). 

Acrylique Strawberries 'n' Irish Cream

Glowie by Her Berry Kisses

Mannequin Hands Divinity Press-On Set

Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).