This week Leonardo DiCaprio got “busted” laying down some serious coinage for a variety of skincare products, including eye creams, toner, face masks and anti-wrinkle potions, at the Blue Mercury boutique in Los Angeles. While his reps insisted that he bought them for a lady friend (Lindsay Lohan mayhaps?), what dude buys wrinkle creams for his girlfriend? And a fellow shopper claimed he was asking the salespeople an awful lot of questions about how the formulas worked. We’re not surprised—it’s not like guys are immune to the pressure to look young in Hollywood—and, like so many of us, Leo continues to grow older. Sigh. But, considering most dermatologists think the majority of cosmetic anti-wrinkle creams are total B.S., we think he could’ve saved himself and his fine lines a lot of money. I mean, has anyone here found a wrinkle cream that actually works? What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a mad beauty-product shopping spree? [Examiner]

We’ve been pretty fall fashion crazy around here lately, and while nothing beats slipping into some thick wool tights and soft, chubby cardigans, it’s also the time of year when it might be a good idea to switch up your beauty regimen a smidge, too. A few ideas, after the jump!

Want to get rid of a pimple fast? Wash the area with some acne cleanser, dab on a bit of organic toothpaste and leave overnight, rinse thoroughly the next morning. Voilà — no more pimple!

Something mysterious has been going on in my bathroom. My blue towels have big bleached splotches. For a while I couldn’t figure out why. Was there bleach tainting the bathroom door from which my towel rack hung? I even entertained the notion that my dog walker had killed someone in my apartment and then used bleach to clean my bathroom of all evidence and used my towels to towel things dry. (I have a wild imagination, I know. She’s really a sweet older lady.) But then I had a new theory and confirmed its accuracy with Erin. My newish acne-fighting face wash, which contains Benzoyl Peroxide, wasn’t rinsing off entirely and, when I went to towel-dry my face, the chemical zit-fighting goodness still left on my skin was bleaching my towels! So, my tip? When using face wash with Benzoyl Peroxide, dry your face with white towels. The end.

There are some things that you would think wouldn’t follow you into adulthood. Fear of the dark, a love for Disneyland, jelly sandals. One of the more annoying ones: acne. Seriously, isn’t that supposed to be one of those things that just scars your high school experience? Waking up to see new pimples when you’re in your 20s? Gah!

If you’re like me, you’ve been plagued with acne since a teenager, and while it’s not as severe as say, those scary Proactive commercials, it’s an issue that’s persisted into your adult years despite your attempts to solve the problem. Considering Accutane? Read on to find out about my experience.

We’ve already turned you on to the exploits of YouTube star GlowPinkStah and her makeup tutorials. Now get ready for 10 other beautifying YouTube vids. First up, an at-home eye moisturizer trick (that costs next to nothing) from a Ford model with zero eye-baggage. (Uh, she’s a model after all.) Click on for more beauty video genius.

I’m pretty dang obsessed with Rad Hourani for making lots of hard-edged, androgynous black clothes that look good on girls and boys. Yesterday, the show did not disappoint, but what I’m really here to talk about is how pitch-perfect the makeup was. The obvious go-to would be lots of dark liner or purple-stained lips but MAC makeup artist Hung Vanngo had a fresh idea—to contrast the rock star zippers and gorgeous metallic accents with the dewiest, most luminescent skin I’ve ever seen up close. Hung told me he wanted the skin to look healthy and here is his secret weapon: MAC Strobe Cream. It’s loaded with green tea and other antioxidants to perk up dull skin and contains all kinds of iridescent particles that reflect the light in a way that’s glowy—as opposed to Paris Hilton glittery (yuck)—and blinds anyone gazing upon your beautiful mug to any and all imperfections. In short, it’s the easiest way to fake perfect skin ever. Just use it as a primer, dab a bit of concealer around your nose and any problem areas, and you’re done. That’s it. Now get outta here.

Derms have been recommending this vibrating, rechargeable, pore-cleaning brush in magazine articles and during office appointments since the dinos roamed the earth. Seriously, even Wilma Flintstone keyed Betty Rubble into its gorgeous skin results way back when. I tried to block out all the talk and labeled the Clarisonic brush as nothing but hype—make that expensive hype, since a Clarisonic Brush costs around $200. I’m, sadly, not s**ting you. And mostly, up until about a month ago, the price was what held me back from proving all the hype wrong. But, in a moment of total insanity, I took my debit card to Sephora, snatched a Clarisonic kit off the shelf, paid super quick so I wouldn’t come to my senses and ran out. (But not before the register lady gushed about, what else, the Clarisonic brush. No, really, does Clarisonic pay off 90 percent of the retail and beauty industry?) Well, as I found out ...

Who doesn’t remember “The Nanny”? Since it ended, the star of the show Fran Drescher has commendably branched out to working tirelessly on behalf of women’s health issues, and now she’s extending her efforts to a new organic skincare line called FranBrand. Drescher personally worked with a chemist in California as well as organic manufacturers in Oregon to develop the products, which are free of parabens and carcinogens (aka bad chemicals you don’t want on your skin). Her line will be available November 10th exclusively via, what else? The Home Shopping Network. [StyleCaster]

We’re not quite sure where Amazonian white clay has been all our lives (oh, right, in South America), but now that we’ve met, never shall we part. If you have oily skin or even a troublesome T-zone, you dread these hazy mid-summer months when the humidity peaks and causes a minor catastrophe in the form of greasy skin, clogged pores, and the subsequent breakouts all over your face. Enter the new Kiehl’s Rare Earth Pore Minimizing Collection (in stores next month), which, frankly, has saved the day. If you want frilly, perfumey product, then move along, but we’ve been road-testing this combination, and it works. Really. First, you wash with their gently exfoliating Deep Pore Daily Cleanser, rinse with Refining Tonic to remove excess oil and re-balance PH-levels, then mattify with Pore Minimizing Lotion, which makes your skin look all perfectly porcelain doll-ish. And for those evenings when you need a more serious detox, bust out the big guns: Their Cleansing Masque contains signature ingredient Amazonian white clay (note: it’s fairly traded), along with natural, absorbent bentonite (clay) and soothing aloe vera. Basically, we haven’t come across a better hangover helper since discovering Bloody Marys back in college. [$20.50 - $28, Kiehl’s]

We’re giving five winners the entire collection—yup, all four products—but you have to work it if you want one. (PS: We truly recommend this for normal-tending-oily-to-full-on-oily-skin types.) The five best commenters from Friday, July 31 to Thursday, August 6 will win a set of their own. Click HERE to read the official rules.

As rational, educated women, we know in our heads that when it comes to the often outlandish promises skincare companies make, applying a so-called wrinkle cure will not actually erase lines from our face. As people bombarded with airbrushed images of perfect, supernaturally youthful skin and famous idols who fight each skin fold with a double dose of Botox, it’s safe to say that we’re warily interested in aging and the lack thereof. And when it comes to beauty products in general, is it really so crazy to ask for something that does what it promises? According to a Daily Mail report, we may be getting closer to true product efficacy and real, not just promised, miracles in a jar.

The obsession with staying youthful has led many to paralyze their faces with toxin and completely alter the face they were given. But the beauty industry offers an even more bizarre way to keep skin soft and supple. Beauty insiders are touting spermine, a powerful antioxidant found in human sperm, as the solution to diminish wrinkles and smooth skin. Bioforskning (yes, that’s the actual name), a Norwegian company, is now synthesizing the substance in laboratories and selling it. And stateside, some women are shelling out as much as $250 for a spermine facial at spas. They could keep their money and head to a college dorm, where, I’m sure, the occupants would be more than willing to give sperm facials for free. There’d probably be free beer, too. [NY Mag]

[Author’s Note: This DailyCandy story was an April Fool’s joke, which I fell for. Dammit!]

Finally, something hipster beards are good for: the five o’clock shadow exfoliation.

August Duben, owner and aesthetician at Spa Opilovat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn charges $125 for an exfoliating treatment in which he rubs his beard against a client’s skin. The catch is that August only performs this service on Mondays and Thursdays, when his stubble is at its stubbliest.

If some dude rubbing his chin against you for a Benjamin sounds dodgy, there’s always the $36 Bliss Lemon + Sage Body Scrub. After a couple beers, you could definitely get a hipster to rub his beard on you for free. [DailyCandy]

Is a pizza face staring back out at you from the mirror?  Your skin isn’t just freaking out because you fell asleep with makeup on—you could have a strain of drug-resistant super-acne on your hands.

I mean, your face.

Antibiotic acne meds were once the salvation of the spotted.  But just like the germs which develop a resistance to the widespread use of anti-bacterial hand lotions, the bacteria strain P. acnes bacterium is getting stronger and resisting the antibiotics commonly prescribed to kill it, dermatologists report.  Doctors are increasingly seeing drugs are no match for super-acne, says MSNBC.  In 2001, a French study found that 50 percent of samples of P. acnes bacterium were resistant to the acne antibiotic, Erythromycin.  Eeeeek!

But don’t let this news stress you into another nasty breakout: Doctors are changing tactics to fight the war on zits!  A derm may still prescribe antibiotics in conjunction with another medication to squelch La Resistance!, or prescribe antibiotics for a limited time, so the body can’t build up a resistance. [MSNBC]