Cystic acne is the worst. Not only are they more painful, bigger, and redder than regular pimples, they also take longer to heal. While we recommend you immediately schedule an appointment with your derma the moment that manifest, you can also try these DIY hacks/remedies before heading out. (Ed's Note: Before trying any of these, speak to your dermatologist first to find out if these methods are safe for your skin type.)
Ice
You've probably heard of Hollywood celebs dunking their faces in a bowl of ice to get glowing skin. Who knew it could be used to soothe painful pimples, too!
Ice works by reducing swelling and inflammation on the pimple and bringing the pus to the surface. When it's "ripe," that means you can now take a trip to your derma's office and have it extracted!
Warm Compress
Like ice, a warm compress can shrink a pimple and help it come to a head. When doing this, though, make sure your face is clean and don't aggressively rub the blemish as it might do more harm than good.
Green Tea Leaves + Honey
In case you didn't know, green tea is filled with antioxidants to help heal marks and unclog pores, and honey has soothing, anti-bacterial properties to calm down any type of pimple. When combined, they make an excellent homemade blemish-shrinker!
Yogurt + Honey
Yogurt contains lactic acid, a type of alpha hydroxy acid, that exfoliates at a cellular level without drying out your skin. After putting on the mixture, wait for it to dry before washing it off.
Vicks Vaporub
It's simple: Vicks contains soothing ingredients like camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus oil. All three work to alleviate the pain, redness, and inflammation caused by a large pimple. Leaving it on overnight will make a huge difference to your spot, but be careful about using it too much on sensitive skin as the formula may be a bit too harsh.
This story originally appeared on Cosmo.ph.
* Minor edits have been made by the Femalenetwork.com editors.
