The most mahoosive spot you've ever seen. Hayelp!

[Fuckitthatlldo]

I'm usually a fairly clear skinned sort but prone to the odd, not particularly severe spot, particularly in the week leading up to my period.

However I swear I felt this spot coming a good three days before even any redness showed up. I felt a bruised feeling on my chin and wondered if I'd somehow injured myself without realising. But in the past day or so a huge red lump has developed on my chin. There is no real head to speak of, just a huge painful red lump.

What to do??? I'm starting a new job on Monday which is going to involve lots of networking. Gah!

Bad luck! The most important thing is not to squeeze/pick/fiddle with it or dry it out with products, as that'll make it much harder to cover up.

First thing I would do in your position is keep it clean and apply ibuprofen gel 3 times per day to the red area (it says not to use it on the face, but I've never had any problems so it's up to you)! Tea tree etc won't be much good as they won't penetrate deeply enough to help and will definitely dry the skin out, making it much harder to conceal. The ibuprofen gel will take the inflammation down a lot, making it less obvious.

Before work:

1. put a thin layer of sudocrem over the spot (the white cast will reduce the redness, and the sudocrem will stop oil breaking through your coverup)
2. pat some stick/pan concealer over the area, and blend as well as you can without reducing the coverage. If you have time to get it, I'd strongly recommend Benefit Boi-ing for this
3. apply foundation as normal, ideally with a brush (gives MUCH better coverage, and essential for the next bit). If the spot is still showing through, put a bit more foundation on your hand and work it into the brush, then stipple it over the spot and blend again before adding setting powder;
4. powder lightly every 3 hours or so, to stop oils taking the make-up off the area.

Hope that helps, it's always worked well for me :).

I forgot to say - make sure you rub the sudocrem in properly and give it a couple of mins to absorb, otherwise the rest won't work! If you don't have a foundation brush, the Boots own-brand one is lovely.

Oooh thank you ElectricMonk (loving the name by the way).

Can you buy ibuprofen gel just over the counter?

You're welcome, and thank you :). You can buy it from any chemist - although I found out the hard way that if you tell them it's for your face then they won't sell it to you because it's not licensed for that. As I said, I've used it and never experienced any ill effects from doing so despite having quite sensitive skin (and I've heard it recommended by others, so it's not just me!), but it's a judgment call I guess :). It's about £2 from Boots, I know Lloyds usually have it as well - just make sure you get the plain one rather than some kind of Deep Heat equivalent, which will probably have irritants in it to make it tingle.

Hope your first day goes well!