This affordable breakout-eliminating spray is more necessary that my expensive serums — Here’s why you should add it to your skincare routine

Published Feb 9, 2025 11:00 pm ET


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As someone who loves skincare, I have the unfortunate habit of sitting at my desk with my hands cupping my chin, adjusting my glasses a lot and just generally having my hands in my face. So it’s not a surprise when I get breakouts on my skin. The solution to this problem might seem obvious, but keeping my hands off my face without a full face of makeup is a challenge. Enter: hypochlorous acid, the key ingredient in Magic Molecule’s skin spray. I started using it over a month ago, and it has smoothed out my skin and eliminated pesky bumps I had. If you’re also someone who gets breakouts occasionally, or even bacterial or hormonal acne that stubbornly pops up, this spray might be the missing product in your skincare routine.

Magic Molecule Skin Spray, $32

Amazon

If you’ve haven’t heard of this very-viral skincare ingredient yet, know that hypochlorous acid is a natural disinfectant (it’s just made of water and salt) and can be the solution to healing your skin barrier and even help with acne, eczema, rashes and 50 other skin concerns. It’s free of alcohol, sulfates, parabens, oil and fragrances. It’s also safe to use every day, even multiple times a day.

The Magic Molecule skin spray is just about everything short of magic for someone who dealt with persistent acne for almost two decades. Even hormonal pimples aren’t showing up like they used to. I also like to spray it when I get cuts, scrapes and bug bites to reduce redness and irritation. It’s a one-bottle solution to a number of everyday skin concerns, making it very affordable and space-saving for my bathroom cabinet. I like that it comes in a 2-ounce travel size (which I have found lasts about a month with daily use) and a full-size 8-ounce bottle.

I noticed a definite difference after about two days of using the spray, where the dryness and bumpy texture around the perimeter of my face had cleared up, something that even serums dedicated to acne weren’t able to achieve. The antibacterial properties of Magic Molecule make it a great cleanser if you’re outdoors and as a quick mist after exercising, too.

Hypochlorous acid is a skincare and body care ingredient made for even the most sensitive of skin. If you’ve been searching for a skincare product that’s affordable, you might want to try out this skincare spray that’s been taking over the internet.

Lauren Wilrich

Lauren Wilrich

Author McClatchy Commerce

Lauren is a Commerce Updates Editor at McClatchy. She is based in Houston, Texas, and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Dallas. Lauren has written for women’s accessories and home goods brands and has edited commerce content for numerous publications with a focus on home and kitchen gadgets, health, and beauty verticals. When she’s not editing, she can be found enjoying Houston’s restaurant scene and attempting DIY arts and crafting projects.

Abby Kass

Abby Kass

Editor McClatchy Commerce

Abby Kass is a Commerce Content Editor at McClatchy covering kids/babies, pets, beauty, and more. With more than seven years experience writing and editing shopping content, Abby has a strong understanding of how important commerce content really is and its important value to readers. She loves browsing online and finding innovative, unique, and just down-right cool products. Before McClatchy, Abby started her career working for Parents Magazine where she fell in love with writing about products. She then spent six years at BuzzFeed falling deeper into the shopping world writing more than 1,500 product roundups and reviews. She sees shopping as a sport and has worked hard at mastering it in order to help make people’s lives easier as they find cool and useful products.