I’m sure that most Dopers have at one point suffered from the at least occasional pimple, so maybe you could share your wisdom with those of us who still deal with it regularly? I’m not sure why but I didn’t start getting pimples until I was 18 or so, and I still get them…grrr.
What conventional or maybe not so conventional things have you tried that have helped clear up your skin? I’m not sure how this works, but oddly, I’ve found over the past couple of summers that when I put sunscreen (Banana Boat Sport 30+ for those taking notes) on under my make-up I get less pimples. All I can think of is that the stuff is hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic itself- so it doesn’t add to the problem- and that it’s some how forming a barrier to dirt/oil/makeup clogging pores. That’s an example of what I mean by not so conventional, anyone have any others they think work? Got a product you swear by?
Soap actually isn’t the ideal thing for pimples. Something to do with the Ph levels. When I was a teenager, my doctor told me to wash my face in dish washing liquid instead. :eek: It worked very well, but I decided I’d rather have the pimples.
My older sister and I used raw egg whites for this, not the whole egg. Not sure if it worked, but it felt weird as the raw egg dried and tightened up on the skin.
For the occasional blemish, we found a dab of toothpaste applied before bed and left to dry while we slept seemed to turn most mountains back into molehills. We only did this with the paste kind though, not any of the gel toothpastes, so I couldn’t say if those seem to work or not. There is one last trick I still use, if I get a big ol’ nasty zip, I use a brown eyeliner pencil and turn it into a mole or “beautymark”. Just be sure you put a bit of powder over the pencil mark to make it look natural.
Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is the only damn thing I ever tried that truly zapped the zits. It really works. I used to buy the herb in bulk and make up my own tincture of it. I made it strong. It worked.
The other natural treatment for zits I would recommend is Tea Tree Oil (Melaleuca alternifolia)—a good disinfectant.
Well, the hands are useful. I know I shouldn’t do it as often, but the orgastic feeling you get when the white substance flies out is well worth the effort.
Apricot facial scrub is good. Rub it on with a washcloth or one of those “mushroom” brushes, then rinse with cold water. Then use Vitamin E cream at night; it’s the most powerful moisturizer there is.
Also, it helps to wash during the day as well as night/morning, so oil and dirt won’t build up. When I worked at McD’s, I washed on my break and immediately when I got off shift, and my skin was baby’s butt smooth.
Also also, don’t touch your face! (Except when you’re washing it. :))
While I am well past my teen years, I do get the occaisional breakout. I find that Neutrogena’s Multi-Vitamin Acne Treatment very effective in clearing them up. My daughter is about to turn 12 and is just experiencing the joy of teenage skin. She just wrote me from camp and said that the Neutrogena stuff was working well for her.
I have a question as well, though. I have been running quite a bit lately, in an attempt to regain my girlish figure. Since I started running, I have been breaking out horribly between my breasts. I assume it is because the sweat collects there as I run. I always shower after, I scrub, I use the acne treatment, and while I seem to be keeping them at bay, I can’t get rid of them entirely. Any suggestions?
I have a few lady friends that use a product that they both “swear by” and swear about, claiming that it makes their menstrual cycle as regular as the second hand on an atomic clock, but also causes them to get acne from hell, or so they would like to convince themselves.
Of course, I am talking about the pill. I know it’s none of my gall darned business but if you turned eighteen and started experimenting sexually with the use of the pill, you are causing your hormones to act unnaturally which might manifest itself in acne. It’s been known to happen.
If you aren’t currently using the pill, please disregard everything I may have suggested, but keep it in mind for further reference.
ah, salycilic acid… also known as ASPIRIN. Most of your conventional treatements (stridex, oxy, clearisil) have it. I’m allergic to aspirin, but I didn’t know that the treatments had aspirin as an ingredient until my face got extremely red and my pimples got worse. Needless to say I immediately threw them out and went back to the drawing board.
I got by with Noxema, Witch Hazel, and Sea Breeze.
Thanks for the warning, but I’ve been strongly advised not to ever take it due to family history. Maybe your friends should switch to ortho-something-something it’s a pill that’s side effect often causes women’s skin to clear up. Weird that they market it with the side effect in mind, but…
I use Paula’s Choice cleansing products. You should go to her website, http://www.cosmeticscop.com. She gives great advice as to which products should work best for you. She also has a great Blemish Remover Solution to use if you get a pimple. I have also found that the Pond’s clear circles work very well, as long as you get it on the pimple as soon as you can.
I quit washing my face with soap or cleansers and I’ve had far fewer zits. No lie. Based on a friend’s advice, I started to just use plain water to rinse off my face. It took about two weeks for my skin to get settle down, during which time I had a lot of zits, but no worse than the breakouts I experienced sometimes when I was using a facial cleanser. After a while my face cleared up.
These days, I still get little white heads, especially when its hot and/or I’m exercising a lot, but they’re teeny and go away in a day–not like the medium-sized nasty zits that take forever to come to a head, or the big fat whiteheads that pop up in the middle of the day and you suddenly see them in the mirror and you wonder how many hours you’ve been walking around with a big white head showing, or the deep-down, ultrahuge, really painful, weeks-to-go-away truly evil zits.
Then again, I also don’t put anything else on my face (no makeup, no sunblock, etc.), but my friend wears makeup, and she says if she gets the right kind, the water takes it off fine. YMMV, of course, but what does it hurt to try? Just give it three weeks.
Back when I was getting zits, and I felt a deep-down, ultrahuge, really painful one coming on, I’d dab lemon juice on it each morning and night, and that seemed to get rid of it in a few days.
(Background data: I’m in my late twenties–and on the Pill.)
