Ask A Pro: Properly Treating A Pimple

Inflammation is our bodies way of signaling that something is in “dis-ease” and needs to be attended to. For example, when you get a scratch and don’t properly clean it right away, you will notice the outside edges getting red and puffy. That is your bodies signal to you, it’s inflamed. When you feel the pre-breakout-bump what is happening inside your follicle is causing the skin to inflame, a warning sign that there is imbalance.

The imbalance is in your follicle, your bacteria that live there and have a very important function (see The Epidermis Explained blog for more on that). Those bacteria are irritating your follicle wall by eating Tri-Glycerides and leaving behind Fatty Acids, the components that make up our skin’s oil. This “over eating” that is happening can be caused by many reasons, so here is just a short list of some common reasons why:

1. Your skin’s surface is impaired, causing the ecosystem of bacteria, dead skin and oil to be off. This can result in your skin’s natural “flora and fauna" to travel down the follicle for nourishment.

2. Friction, maybe you don’t change your pillowcase very often, or you have been on the phone more recently transferring dirt and oil to your skin’s surface. Constant touching, irritation from clothing and more can push dirt and debris down into your follicles.

3. Stress. This is a touchy one as to treat it truly means we all need to find our own ways to manage our days and our thoughts. Stress though, can lead to an internal chemical reaction that actually makes your skin oil stickier and sweeter, which is all around bad news for a breakout. Or good news for the bacteria as they love sticky, sweet oil and therefore become abundant, which leads to a pustule, which in the end is bad news.

4. Poor skin care routine, this can lead to many issues, including a breakout. If you are using the wrong product your skin will let you know, either with redness, irritation, or flaking to name a few.

5. Over exfoliation or hydration. These are kind of two ends of a spectrum, over-exfoliating can cause your skin to dry which can trigger your oil production, which in the wrong skin type and right conditions can lead to breakout. Whereas overly hydrating the skin can cause the skin to purge, thus leading to blackheads that if not removed can turn into a pustule.

6. Diet and lifestyle choices, again, a touchy one as it might shed light onto things you don’t think are related (*cough *cough alcohol). For example, the center of your eyebrows and the middle of your chin are parts of your face that are associated with the Kidneys and the Intestines. As these can be detox, waste and purge warehouses, it’s no surprise that an imbalance there can manifest on your skin. Eating late at night, right before bed, lots of sauces and dairy rich foods, alcohol consumption and even eating out too often can all result in a breakout in these areas as well.

These are just a few, and maybe the more common reasons for breakout. There is also a genetic factor and a hormonal imbalance factor but that calls for a whole other blog! Understanding what could be causing your breakout can help you not just treat it, but hopefully minimized future breakouts.

So you feel a bump deep under your skin, and you know it’s going to be a pimple and just want to get all that gross stuff out of your skin, right? Wrong-ish! Yes, it might very well be a pustule in the making, but attacking it won’t help, you need to treat this stage a little differently.

What is happening is the inflammation from acne-causing bacteria making your follicle wall swell, a sign of a problem to address.

8 Steps To Preventing A Pimple:

1. Gently cleanse the skin with a foamy cleanser, if you have one with actives in it like Glycolic or Salicylic now is the time to use

2. Tone the skin with skin-feeding ingredients like the Cucumber Hydration Toner to help normalize surface bacteria. Apple Cider Vinegar works as well

3. Apply a warm compress to the skin. Can be easily made with hot water and a clean face towel, press into skin for 1-2 minutes. You don’t want to leave it on the skin for too long, just enough to help open up the follicle.

4. Apply a Vitamin C Serum to the skin, Vitamin C is a skin healer and can help speed up healing time of a breakout.

5. Apply a clay based or charcoal mask to the pustule. I really like FarmHouse Fresh masks if you do not have a favorite. Leave on for 10-15 minutes and rinse off with warm water.

6. Apply an exfoliating serum or spot treatment to the skin where the breakout is starting.

7. Apply moisturizer and, if during the daytime, SPF.

8. Now don’t touch the area at all until cleansing again before bed or, if you did this process at night, when you wake up!

Most of the battle is going to be in not touching your face, and trying to not squeeze whatever you think is still in there. I want to encourage you to be strong and resist the pick! Leave it alone! Just trust that the prep routine you just did for it is enough to get you through today.

If it ruptures naturally during one of the steps, use clean q-tips dipped in either a toner or witch hazel, wipe and then re-wipe with a freshly dipped q-tip. Continue from step 4. However, picking and digging creates way more problems than any kind of help.

There is nothing in there to dig out, I promise you. If you keep digging, you will cause damage to the skin and possibly scarring. Trust the process, trust your skincare and let your skin do its job.

The next step if it goes down in size: continue following steps #1-4 daily, discontinue step #5 unless you feel it needs to be drawn out some more, follow with steps #6-8 nightly until it heals completely. This could take a week, just be patient and think more calming than aggressive.

But what if it didn’t go down in size? Or even worse, becomes one of those giant, gross white pustules??

9 Steps to Treating A Pimple: