karen-Please! make something for those nasties!!!

[ladycattat]

Hi Karen!
I am finding myself in the somewhat freakish position(for me) of having not 1, but 2 VERY painful cystic type zits along my left jawline. Not sure what the culprit is. Normally my skin is pretty darn clear, but I could feel these nasties just growing and growing under the skin. I was sure they had stuff in them, so of course I tried to squish them(bad, bad, me!) and now besides looking ugly as sin, they HURT!
I bought all the gumballs: AHA TONER, BHA TONER, PORE REDUCING TONER, OIL CONTROL SERUM, DHEA SERUM......will any of these work after the fact to reduce the pain and inflamation?
If not, could you put on your magic hat and concoct something to put on our facial owwies and boo-boos?

Oh, and BTW, the zits are on the opposite side of my face that I talk on my cell phone. (that was my first thought, as far as bacteria goes)
Thanks in advance!
laurie

[Rhys]

Don't squish em anymore! Ouch ouch ouch!

Try a warm compress, and if you have a little witch hazel, that might help a bit. Also, the oatmeal serum.

I don't think Karen has a dry-out serum up yet. Virgin coconut cream (a type of coconut oil, NOT the fractionated one, that's nasty) can help with spot-treatment, too.

I'd go with a warm compress, witch hazel, oil cleansing - or if you have coconut cream, try that. If you have lavender essential oil, you might try putting a few drops into a shot of vodka and spot-treating with that, but mostly I think the warm compress/witch hazel will help. And at night before you go to sleep, maybe splash a little of the AHA toner on them. Vitamin C helps with acne, too, and that's in the DMAE serum, the C-Peptide serum, and the just plain C serum.

Also change your pillowslip every night or two just in case it's the side you sleep on and there's any residual gunk, or fabric softener, or did you switch detergents recently? I don't get cystic acne, but I get a little bit of breakout under my chin on the side I sleep on once in a while if I'm not uber-fastidious about linens (hangs head in shame).

[karen]

I was going to say the opposite...ice it. Heat will make the bacteria keep growing- you want it to die. Cold tea bags are good too- especially green tea. BHA would be good, and if you run out a bit of aspirin mixed with water. Honey is also naturally anti-bacterial. Aspirin and honey mixed into a sticky salve and left on for a while can work wonders. I've seen people go either way with the VCO. I love it for pretty much anything- but can't use it on my face.

I'm working on something for the nasties...I haven't quite figured out the best mode of attack. I guess there's a couple of ways to do it- either a serum that would prevent them or some sort of spot treatment. One or the other or both...not sure yet. I've seen really good clinical data for a few different "alternative" treatments, and have been dousing myself with coconut oil to test them out.

Try cutting your Ultra Sheer in half with a little date bait or something- sometimes heavy concentrations of zinc can trigger people- it's pretty rare, but there's a lot of zinc in that powder.

[karen]

The Pore Refining probably wouldn't hurt either. The orange oil is naturally anti-bacterial. Rhys' suggestions are all good too.

[Ghost]

Thanks for doing this ladycatta

I got one on my right hand side upper cheek and like you I have been squich it too Thankfully its going down now but there is still alot of redness

Thanks for the tip karen and Rhys

[karen]

So I've been thinking about this some more...and it's not a super huge deal to whip up a new gumball to at least test the effectiveness of some things. Would you prefer a gel/serum type thing or a liquid? I'm thinking about niacinamide...at 4% it's as effective as topical antibiotics for acne. Technically at that concentration it's prescription, but 3.99% isn't It's a little "crusty"- so I'm thinking just something like a toner. I also worry that serum, on top of serum, on top of serum would get a little thick feeling after a while.

Does that sound okay, or would you prefer a gel for spot treatments?

[Anne]

I would looove a toner!
I agree with you, I already use two serums (oil control + Facelift or Green tea & Aloe), plus my moisturizer, it just seems to be enough!

[Rhys]

A spot treatment would be GREAT for those two spots I get on my back - you know - it's that place you can't quite reach unless you're sitting down just so and even then it's a bit of a stretch? That's where I get two zits that keep coming back, and it's tricky to put anything there - though if it was in toner form, I could put it on a cotton ball and do it that way.

[sewwies]

I'd love a spot treatment (I could be your number one tester at the moment lol...)!

Oo and Laurie my skins having a real freak at the moment and I've been using aspirin masks and leaving a dollop on just the really deep zits and it really does help!!

[Ghost]

Spot treatment fantastic

But I would like a gel so I can put it right on top of the nasty thing, instead of a toner. Maybe there's way you could do both if is not too much trouble. One spot treatment toner packaged like your other toner stuff and then have little spot gel thingy as well. I have a tea tree gel tube with a wand just like what the liquid lip glosses has.

Would that be possible? A little spot gel thingy packaged like the liquid lip glosses so it could fit into a bag/purse so you can apply through the day?????