5 Best Ways to Tackle a Zit
You wake up ready to slay the day and look in the mirror to realize there is a massive pimple on your face…the audacity. They can be unforgiving, painful, and just straight up annoying. Learn how to tackle your zit with these 5 tips!
1. WAY TO TACKLE A ZIT – Do Not Pick
Squeezing or messing around with your pimple does more harm than good. Squeezing your pimple pushes the bacteria further into the skin, creating more inflammation, making it larger.
Squeezing can also leave you with a dark mark after your pimple is gone and potential scarring. I understand the urge to touch it, but keep your hands-off ma’am.
If you feel the urge to pick, keep in mind that prevention is cheaper than treatment. Acne scars are not an easy fix. The only thing that can show improvement in them is lasers. This can cost you up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars, depending on how much treatment you need.
So think about that the next time you want to attack your face.
2. WAY TO TACKLE A ZIT - Treatment Products
Salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide products can help by calming inflammation down.
Salicylic acid goes into the pore, clearing out debris and excess oil. It helps to keep skin clean and regulated. It is also anti-inflammatory and can help with redness. Salicylic acid cleansers or leave on toners are your friend.
Benzoyl Peroxide is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. It helps to reduce the bacteria within the pore that contributes to acne and the inflammation as well.
I would not use these actives together; as this can cause a lot of irritation.
Benzoyl peroxide works well with really inflamed painful acne lesions. Its only downfall is that it can be drying and irritating. Using a benzoyl peroxide wash can be beneficial and cause less irritation because of the short contact time.
Lather to the affected area, let it sit for a minute, then rinse and moisturize. My two favorites are PanOxyl and CeraVe.
3. WAY TO TACKLE A ZIT – Hydration
Essentially a pimple is a wound in the skin. When you cut yourself, the first thing you do is clean it, apply an ointment and a band-aid. Sort of the same thing goes for your pimple.
You want to make sure if you are sweating or out all day, you cleanse your face afterward. Keeping this area free of sweat, dirt, and makeup from the day will help speed up the healing process.
After you cleanse and apply your treatment product, you want to follow up with a moisturizer.
Using a basic moisturizer will help coat the wound to help it heal better. When your skin is hydrated, your skin cells can move around more easily to help speed up the healing process. Give those little skin cells a hand, why dontcha?
4. WAY TO TACKLE A ZIT – Cold Compress
Using a cold compress can help minimize the inflammation and calm the skin. You want to make sure you cover the cold compress with a paper towel; extreme temperatures are not suitable for the skin.
Do this every day after you cleanse your face for about 3 minutes. It will not only help the inflammation but feel relaxing.
5. WAY TO TACKLE A ZIT – See Your Derm
If you wake up with a monster cyst on your face, call your dermatologist to squeeze you in. They can inject the cyst with a steroid shot to drastically improve the inflammation and help it heal without a scar.
If you know you have an event coming up or you’re meeting Johnny Fiddlesticks for cocktails the next day, this can help a lot.
Note that this is only for large painful cyst-like lesions. Don’t walk in your dermatologist office with a measly little pimple…Ain’t, nobody, got time for that.
Hopefully, this was helpful, and you can benefit from some of these tips. Be gentle and kind to your skin and yourself.
With Love,
Nicole
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