Justin Bieber Is Obsessed With These $11 Pimple Patches

If Justin Bieber has never tugged at your heartstrings with his lyrics, perhaps his vulnerability will make you a Belieber. The singer has recently been wearing Starface Pimple Patches everywhere, including the streets of L.A. and on his Instagram Stories. While we don’t want to write yet another article about a celebrity being “brave" for simply existing, there are some points you can take from Bieber’s embrace of his acne.

In November, Bieber took a stroll through Los Angeles wearing a crew neck sweater, windbreaker, blue jeans, and a baseball cap. Sure, this sounds like a typical celebrity-off-duty outfit, but Bieber added his own flair with a smattering of the Starface Black Star Pimple Patches ($13). He also showed his support of the brand by wearing the Starface Party Pack Pimple Patches ($11) and Starface XL Big Star Pimple Patches ($13) on his Stories, with the caption, “got a facial and I think my skin is purging, lucky for these Starface pimple patches.”

If you need a refresher, Starface is an acne-positive brand that specializes in hydrocolloid pimple patches to heal and protect breakouts. Instead of the translucent pimple patches on the market, Starface’s patches come in vibrant colors and funky shapes to help people celebrate, not conceal, their skin.

Here’s the thing, though: despite what brands like Starface, influencers, and even the media says about embracing these so-called “flaws,” we still live in a culture that pushes the idea of perfection. (Case in point: skincare marketing is still full of phrases like “banish breakouts,” “blur imperfections,” or “Botox in a bottle.") And while a quick scroll through my Instagram feed or TikTok FYP shows plenty of people wearing Starface’s pimple patches in the comfort of their own homes, most of them still stick with inconspicuous acne treatments when headed out the door in an effort to promote the idea that they do, in fact, have flawless skin.

The truth is nobody is born with "perfect" skin—perfection doesn’t even exist, everyone has at least one thing about their complexion they’d like to improve. When looking at celebrities who do have clear complexions, remember that they have a stable of dermatologists, plastic surgeons, estheticians, and makeup artists at their beck and call. Now, am I making a case against celebrities, or anyone, using these services? Absolutely not, because it’s everyone’s prerogative to do whatever they want. What I do want to emphasize is that the idea of a perfect complexion is a myth, one that negatively effects ordinary people, making them believe that anything other than clear, taught, dewy skin should be hidden away.

That's why Bieber's approach to acne care is so refreshing. Even with his Rolodex of professionals (and a wife with a skincare brand) who can guide him to a blemish-free complexion, Bieber still has acne—and that’s fine. As celebrity esthetician, Krystin Smith says eloquently in her Instagram caption about Justin's patches, "To me, it reinforces the fact that there is no such thing as a 'miracle in a bottle' product line regardless of what celeb or influencer creates/endorses it." Acne is a normal part of having skin, and by wearing Starface’s pimple patches, Bieber proves that you too can wear your acne proudly, and you can even look cool while doing it.