We’ve all woken up to discover mountainous, inflamed, angry pimples that have sprouted up seemingly out of nowhere. In an ideal world, you would probably just let them be — go about your life and allow the swelling and redness subside peacefully on its own.
If you’re anything like me, though, you likely see a pimple on your face, and immediately have an uncontrollable urge to pick, prod, and squeeze every pimple until something comes out. I probably don’t have to tell you how bad picking is for your skin, but in case you forgot, here’s my finger-wagging reminder: not only will it make your pimple more swollen, angry, and inflamed, but it can leave behind scarring that can take weeks, if not months, to heal.
But I do understand the need to do something proactive when breakouts appear. Which is why I’ve developed a little pimple busting routine that helps me ensure I’m safely reducing the size, pain, and redness of my pimples without touching them incessantly.
You know that moment when you see a tiny little spot starting to brew and you think to yourself “are you absolutely nothing or are you going to grow into a day-ruining, painful, lump?” This mask from Golde is what I reach for in these instances. It’s packed with good-for-your-complexion ingredients like antibacterial chlorophyll, detoxifying spirulina, and soothing and healing marshmallow root, all of which work together to stop pimples in their tracks. And the mask doesn’t just work wonders on pimples — as soon as you wash it off, you’ll notice a beautiful, healthy glow to your skin. Apply this on clean skin, leave it on for about ten minutes, wash, then follow up with your favorite moisturizer.
These little treatment sticks from Dr. Oracle are some of my favorite products to reach for when I’m dealing with whiteheads, or consistent breakouts. They’re long Q-tips dipped in exfoliating lactic acid, glycolic ccid, wintergreen leaf extract and antibacterial tea tree oil, which all work together to remove pore clogging dead skin cells and reduce the size, redness, and swelling of your breakouts. These sticks help me shorten the lifespan and general angriness of my painful spots. After I cleanse my skin, I rub the Q-tip head all over the broken-out area, let it sit for a minute or two, then lock it in with moisturizer.
The morning after I use my treatment sticks, I’ll slap a few of these cute patches from Starface on my biggest whiteheads, the ones I’m most likely to pick at. Not only are they adorable, but they also help suck out any oils and pus from the spot, so the zit inevitably looks smaller and flatter by the time you remove it.
There are times where I have a zit so big and so angry, even my trusty Dr. Oracle sticks aren’t a match for them. And in those cases, my No. 1, go-to treatment is actually ice. These little ice wands are perfect for rapidly decreasing the swelling, pain, and redness of a cystic spot without fearing that you’ll burn your skin. I leave it on for about ten minutes, alternating one minute on, one minute off.
After I ice, I put on this microneedle infused pimple patch: the combination is really my key to keeping cystic spots at bay. These patches are a two step process: first, you wipe down the zit with a sanitizer wipe soaked in antibacterial and anti-inflammatory salicylic acid and tea tree oil. Then you slap on the pimple patch, which is infused with healing and brightening niacinamide and hydrating hyaluronic acid, and has tiny little (painless!) microneedle. The combination effectively flattens and calms the zit. No matter how big or angry my zits are, they always look a whole lot smaller in the morning after I’ve used these stickers, especially if I’ve iced beforehand.
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