Overnight acne treatments are like God's gift to man. As long as you remember to stick them on before going to bed, you can assume you're good for about six hours of treatment (is that enough? That's the most sleep I can manage in a night) without any sort of active engagement with your face.

As I see it, there are three types of treatments you can go with: drying lotions, stickers, and potatoes. The first two I can verify (and the third, I refer you to Matt Mazur, who swears taping a potato on top of a cyst works better than cortisone shots). Whether it's the pink Mario Badescu Drying Lotion with salicylic acid and calamine or Renée Rouleau Night Time Spot Lotion with camphor, sulfur, and zinc—dab on the chalky goop, let set, and sleep with a towel over your pillow (once dry, they tend to flake).

For a more fun option, there's stickers, which are also safer for your sheets. The Nexcare Acne Absorbing Covers are a standby (in cute shapes to boot), but then there are the Sarah Chapman Spot Stickers, which come in their own fancy-schmancy carrying case, which is so charming you'll be excited about the prospect of using them.

The only problem here is that they are 100 percent not sexy. Definitely not going to get you laid. But for one night, and for the sake of the zit, I think you can handle it. (Or if you've found one you can sleep in while still maintaining your allure, please share your secret in the comments.)

—Emily Ferber

Photographed by Tom Newton. To read more about acne treatments, click here.