Awful spot outbreak and I want to look good on saturday. Help me please!

[ladymontdore]

Just that really. Since the weekend a horrible chin of white heads and some deep painful spots. I have dabbed with tcp but in the hot weather they just seem awful!
Any ideas how to get them to heal up faster.
So annoying - I was looking forward to a few years between spots and wrinkles but now I just have both!

[ActingBusy]

Calamine lotion usually does the trick for me.

I put it on before bed and in the morning all the whiteheads have burst, leaked and dried up - Nice!

[RubyReins]

I am not a fan of the toothpaste treatment as it is very harsh and can burn your healthy skin. Spots do not need to dry out. You need to really look after your skin at the moment so no scrubs, no harsh treatments and no picking. The temptation to nuke the blighters is overwhelming but after suffering terrible skin for 20 years I now see the benefits of treating the spots kindly as opposed to trying to sandpaper the evil sods off.

Use a very gentle cleanser and a clean washcloth to make sure your skin is cleansed and then follow with a toner to boost the skin's acid mantle. I vary between LRP Effaclar and Liz Earle (the former was on offer at Boots the other day). When I have a proper Bobby Dazzler of a zit (the cystic types) I apply toner to the affected area throughout the day and then add a spot cream. I like Vichy's one and Origins have a great one too but it's hard to put make up on top. If it's a horror then I crush an aspirin, add a dot of water to make a paste and put it on the offender for ten minutes and then wash off.

Take an anti-histamine if you can to reduce the redness and apply hemp seed oil at night as it won't block your pores like other oils (e.g. coconut) but has an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effect.

This works for me!

Hope they heal up soon.

[bouquetofpencils]

Elizabeth Arden 8 hr cream seems to melt spots away.

[Shia]

When you dry up spots you are also drying up the surrounding skin. Your skin produces oil to lubricate the pores and a balance of sebum is required for healthy skin. When that balance is disrupted and you dry up the sebum, your skin goes into overdrive and produces more oil which results in excess sebum and your pores are blocked with blackheads, whiteheads and spots.

It is important after you have dried up any spots to moisturise and this tricks the skin into thinking it has enough moisture and doesn't need to produce excess oil.

This sounds revolting but I extract blackheads, squeeze spots and then use anti bacterial hand gel on a cotton wool pad to cleanse the area. Then using a new pad, I apply moisturiser.

[ladymontdore]

Thanks all! So many different approaches. Useful tip re moisturising though, I hadn't thought of that before.
It's annoying because I switched to Avene stuff about a month ago (wanting something gentler) and my skin was looking fab - really smooth and better than it has for ages, so now I'm wondering if it doesn't suit me after all or if it's just the hot weather or something. I do normally get one or two at the time of the month but this is excessive.
I think I might try the calamine - massive jar left over from DCs chicken pox!

[Kundry]

By Saturday is probably to close to do anything major to improve them.

You can try one of those individual spot treatments that claim to improve them in 4 hours - they deliver a load of salicylic acid and do improve spots but never as much as you would hope. My favourite is Vichy Hyaluspot as it doesn't dry the surrounding skin up.

Other than that Rubyreins advice of gently cleanser and then acid toner such as Effaclar - unfortunately this is more of a long term fix than sorting everything by Friday.

If you really have to look fabulous, makeup is the way forward - have you seen Lisa Eldridge's acne video? She is a miracle worker.

www.lisaeldridge.com/video/12764/acneblemish-covering-make-up/#.U9E_tUjO7dA

[BikeRunSki]

Sudocreme

[tethersend]

Freederm turned a few spots into serious cystic acne for me- beware!

The best treatment by far is Clinique's on the spot or something. This stuff. It's magic, should sort you out by Saturday.

[RubyReins]

Yep it is more long term but I had a doozy a few weeks ago that shrank to almost nothing in a day using that method - I made a poultice of sorts with the toner. Eruption on Wednesday, smart dinner on Friday.

Friend of mine swears by an electric mosquito bite zapper...