We have all had those days where we have a Mt. Vesuvius on our face somewhere ready to erupt...snowy cap and all. Some days, we show restraint and don't squeeze the crap out of it. Other days, you can't stop staring at it until you show that zit who's boss by squeezing it until you tear or rip off some skin. Before I got my skin under control, this was the story of my life every 1-2 weeks.....with a new enemy popping up that needed to be destroyed.
I have four different ideas for this:
1. Pop it--but if you do, do it the right way. I'll talk about this more later.
2. Cover it up with a good concealing treatment. This means it treats the zit while it covers it at the same time: GENIUS right??
3. Cover it up with a good concealer. This does not involve treatment, but everyone handles their skin in different ways. You can treat the zit before covering it up in two steps, it just depends on what your preference is.
4. Use a good overnight spot treatment. A good strong one will make you look ugly at night, but will make that zit look better in the morning!
Needless to say, I have tried lots of zit products (drugstore, prescription, and high end brands). My results ranged from useless to YESSSSS!
I'll start with the less invasive method first, to the most invasive (which involves popping!).
#3: Cover up. I can't tell you how many concealers I've tried trying to cover up a zit. Most of them looked cakey or just aggravated my pimple (made the snowy cap even bigger). So I felt like I had to pick the lesser of the two evils and go with cakey. Either way, I always felt like people were staring/talking to it. That was until I met my concealer friend by Make Up For Ever. Their "Full Cover" concealer is the best!!! The only concealer that I found that does not leave me cakey, doesn't aggravate the zit at all, and covers it well. Now that I have found you I will never let you go Full Cover! I know people that use this all over their face for coverage (under eyes, around the nose), so it's really a good multi-purpose item that's good to have in your make-up bag. I would recommend going to Sephora and trying the product out yourself before purchasing, just to confirm it works for you. I understand we all have different skin types...but I have sensitive skin, prone to breakouts, so I figure if it works for me, it hopefully works for you. =) It retails for $30 but it lasts forever. If you know of a less expensive line that doesn't aggravate pimples and has good coverage, let me know! *Image taken from Sephora.com
#2: Concealing treatment. I discovered Dermalogica's Concealing Spot Treatment three years ago. Since then, I've turned several of my friends on to this and they all love it. I have always looked for something that would not only treat my zit, but give it some coverage as well, but I could never find anything that worked for me. One day I found this at a Planet Beauty, decided to give it a try and never looked back. I'm on my third bottle of this stuff. Shake well, squeeze the dropper inside the bottle, then put a small drop on your finger. Using a different finger, dab a small amount on your face and pat it in. Keep building the coverage until you get the coverage you want that is well blended. I find I can build up to 3-4x until I'm happy with the coverage with no signs of caking. There is one down side to this product though....the main zit fighting ingredient is sulfur and zinc oxide. If you've ever smelled sulfur, you know it has a smell. Something like a burnt match or eggs that have gone slightly bad. It's not an overwhelming scent, but know that there is one. I don't mind it because I think people can only smell it if they get REALLY close to your face. I like that this is both covering and treating the pimple. It's not going to make the pimple go away, so you'll need a good night time treatment for that.
#4: Overnight treatment. I have tried 2 that I really like...the first one is Sonya Dakar's Drying Potion. After you're done doing your skin care routine at night, dab a little bit of this on the offending zit. The next morning it should look smaller. Make sure you cap this tightly after use, or it will dry out on you. The second one is the Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion. This one has the same premise, except you have to use a Q-tip to get into the bottle, dip it into the pink part, and dab that on your pimple. Either way, your not going to look cute before bed, which is the only con to these products. Otherwise, I love them!
#1: Popping a pimple. Ok, just a disclaimer, I'm not endorsing this method!! Popping can cause scarring, worsen the pimple if it's not done right and hurt. BUT I also understand that if you see a white cap on a big pimple, it's gotta go. Here's how I learned to do this...
Step 1: Cleanse your face.
Step 2: Put a warm cloth over the zit for 5 minutes to loosen up the dirt/pus inside.
Step 3: Using a sterile needle, puncture the zit (if you do this right, it should go in smoothly and not hurt). As for sterile needles, I bought a box of those glucose check needles. Make sure you get the ones that don't require you to push on a button for the needle to come out. You can find this at any drug store. Get the one that is just a small needle with a lid on it. These needles are sterile and better than using a sewing needle you find at home (do you know how many millions of germs live on a tip of a needle?? It's gross. I saw a picture in my microbiology book. SHUDDER.).
Step 4: Get a clean tissue and wrap your index fingers around the tips so when you squeeze the areas around your zit, your skin and nails don't touch the pimple (again, lots of bacteria on your skin and nails). Push down on both sides of the zit to push the stuff that's inside, out.
Step 5: Once you get the root of the zit out, wash the area with water. Then apply a thin layer of neosporin to prevent the area from getting infected.
**If you did this correctly, the next day the area should be nice and flat, and a little pink. The discoloration will go away over time (depends on how long your skin takes to heal). I mess this up about 30% of the time....so don't feel bad if you can't get it every time.
These are my emergency pimple fixes! If you have any questions on any of this, feel free to message me or leave a comment and I'll make sure I get back to you as soon as I can.
Happy Thursday!
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