How to Squeeze a Blemish

While I don’t advocate squeezing your own blemishes, it is a reality that people will take matters into their own hands when they get up close to that mirror, so here is my expert advice for the safest way to do it without making it worse and creating further damage to the skin.

As I’ve always said, the issue isn’t really just the blemish itself because most blemishes (other than acne cysts) will come and go within a week or so, but the red, dark or purple mark leftover from picking can linger for months. So the goal is to get the infection out of the skin in the least invasive way.

Step #1 Assess the blemish. As almost always is the case, a blemish that has just appeared is not one that you should pick at. The reason is because if it’s a pustule-type blemish (the only squeezable kind where the whitehead comes to the surface) it usually takes at least 1- 2 days to get there. Picking a blemish before it’s “ripe” is an absolute no-no. If you do not see the whitehead on the very surface of the skin, do not touch it whatsoever as you can damage the surrounding tissue and make the infection worse than it already is. Do not proceed to step #2 until you see a visible whitehead on the very surface of the skin… Read more

What’s the Best Spot Treatment for Blemishes?

No one likes getting blemishes, and certainly once you get one, you want it to go away as fast as possible. Many companies make products designed to be used as spot treatments to dry up the blemish to ensure a quicker recovery. Knowing that not all skins are equal (which is why my line is based on nine skin types) certainly not all blemishes are equal either.

So which spot treatments are the best for your blemishes?

Here is my collection of acne spot treatments including what kind of blemish they should be used to treat.

Night Time Spot Lotion: Formulated for surface, pustular blemishes to dry out the infection for a fast recovery.

Read: Got a Blemish? How to Heal Blemishes Fast

Anti-Cyst Treatment: Used to treat cystic blemishes – those hard sore, “underground” blemishes that rarely surface and can linger for weeks.

Read: Is a Cortisone Shot The Only Option for Treating Acne Cysts?

Daytime Blemish Gel: For use under makeup to prevent dirt and debris from getting into blemish openings and impeding the recovery process. It creates an invisible seal to keep debris out, while using advanced acne-fighting ingredients to heal inflammation… Read more

Is a Cortisone Shot the Only Option for Treating Acne Cysts?

Of all the types of acne someone can get, cystic acne is both the most frustrating to treat and can be the most damaging to the skin.

What is cystic acne? Those hard, painful blemishes that develop deep within the skin, often appear on the chin or jaw line, and can linger for weeks.

Cystic acne, whether chronic or intermittent, is one of the most frustrating types of acne lesions to deal with.  What happens in cystic acne is not a pretty picture. It is typically triggered by a surge in hormones, such as occurs during a woman’s menstrual cycle. For some unknown reason, the skin’s oil glands become hypersensitive to this cascade of hormones, and react by overproducing sebum–so much, in fact, that the oil gland itself becomes engorged, swollen, and hardened with the excess. Unable to push the extra oil into the lining of the hair follicle (which leads to the surface of the skin via pores), the gland bursts underneath the skin. This causes acute inflammation and irritation, and leads to the redness and soreness of cystic acne. Because these lesions start so deep in the skin, scarring (red, dark and purple marks) is an all-too-common side effect.

Read: How Can I Fade My Acne Scars?

They are most often resistant to most topical acne treatments since products designed for treating acne generally work on the surface to dry out the bacteria – but in the case of cystic acne, the infection is not on the surface of the skin but rather down in the deeper layers. Have you ever used a drying spot treatment on a cyst to not only find that you’re still left with the sore bump on the skin, but now you have dry skin on top?… Read more

Does Toothpaste Get Rid of Blemishes?

Throughout the years in magazines and on line, you’ve probably heard this tip before: applying toothpaste as a spot treatment to blemishes can help it and make it go away faster. So I decided to investigate the ingredients and see for myself if this was really true.

Here are the ingredients in a tube of Aquafresh toothpaste:

PEG-8 – binding agent, stabilizer and emollient

Sorbitol – thickening and slip agent

Sodium Saccharin – gives flavoring

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate – cleansing agent… Read more

Night Time Spot Lotion Zaps Zits Fast!

Renée Rouleau Night Time Spot Lotion is formulated to reduce surface-infected blemishes overnight and was recently put to the test in the Spring issue of New Beauty Magazine. They studied the product and then gave it to two testers to try it on their own blemishes and the verdict came back that Night Time Spot Lotion “dries out pimples in next to no time!”… Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »