You’ve spent your entire childhood dreaming about The Big Day, but two days before your wedding disaster strikes. You wake up, look in the mirror, and instead of seeing a beautiful blushing bride, all you see are two enormous red pimples right in the middle of your nose. What to do?
Specialists say that while stress can play a small role in pimple prevalence, having a decent and effective acne care routine is more important than if you are feeling particularly stressful on any given day.
Thankfully, barring cutting off your head, there is a solution that just might work. It’s called SOPE, or Special Occasion Pimple Removal, and it works by getting rid of your zits – before they get you.
All About SOPE
To achieve maximum good results it’s recommended that SOPE is carried out 24 to 48 hours before that special occasion. But even if you have it done just a few hours before that wedding, all-important conference, reunion or prom, it should result in a flattened area that is a lot easier to conceal, instead of an enormous honking zit.
The procedure depends on the type of pimple. If it’s a cyst then it is lasered, which kills off bacteria and makes it flatter and considerably less painful in a very short period of time. If it’s a pustule, it is either extracted or killed off using salicylic acid, which is mild and works by encouraging the sloughing off of dead skin cells.
Another option, if the pimple appears the day before your wedding, is to visit a qualified dermatologist and have him or her inject the offending lump with ILK, or intra legional kenlog, which is a mild steroid. This will make the pimple retreat and by the following day it should be a lot easier to deal with.
However, there are other treatments available that are cheaper and may make having SOPE at a med spa irrelevant – we hope. These remedies for fast pimple removal include:
- Avoiding new creams, cosmetics, shampoos etc a few weeks at least before the wedding or family reunion.
- Reducing the zit with a hot compress, then slathering it with benzyl peroxide to get nasty bacteria.
- Dabbing the pimple with toothpaste – not a tooth gel – to make it dry up and disappear
- Putting yogurt on the pimple to speed up the drying process
- Applying a dot of Visine (yes, the eye drop brand) to the area
- Getting at stress-related pimples with cotton pads soaked in milk, then rinsed with warm water
- Buying the world’s greatest concealer
- Wearing a veil that covers your entire face
Why Do We Get Acne?
If you have severe or chronic acne, it’s a different story and you should get medical help. But everyone gets the occasional pimple now and then –and it’s estimated that around 80 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 get acne, as well as five percent of women and one percent of men aged 25 to 40.
We get acne thanks to those naughty sebaceous glands in our skin, which sometimes tend to produce too much oil. Sometimes the acne reacts to testosterone, found in both men and women, and sometimes it clogs up hair follicles. In some people this can cause bacteria to grow, causing an immune response which inflames the skin.
Certain things, of course, can make acne worse. Picking your zits is the most common culprit. Other reasons are certain contraceptive pills, cosmetics and medicines. Some people in the medical profession say that diet cannot cause acne – but others will swear that it certainly can exacerbate it! While hygiene isn’t really a cause either, keeping areas prone to zits clean is imperative – as is using the right products on your skin.
Healthy Tips to Keep Pimples at Bay
To keep your face as blemish-free as possible, follow these tried-and tested tips…
- Eat a healthy diet. Making sure you have enough of the right vitamins and minerals is important, including lots of fresh vegetables, wholegrains and enough lean meat, fish and dairy to satisfy your health requirements.
- Exercise regularly. Regular, gentle exercise will help keep you healthy inside and out. And, as we all know, having a healthy immune system is crucial to keeping zits at bay. It could just be a case of not catching any more nasty colds, which make you break out horribly around your nose…
- Drink plenty of water. Some people say eight to 10 glasses of water a day is imperative to good health, others say that’s been proven as bunk. Whatever the case, water will certainly help flush out your system – which is important if you’re prone to pimple flare-ups.
- Avoid comedogenic creams, or ones which tend to promote acne. It’s not just a question of reading the label here, it’s trying out the right creams, cosmetics and concealers to find which one your skin reacts to best.
- Have a proper facial cleaning routine. When looking for the right cleanser, the word “oil-free” is usually a good one, as is the word “non-comedogenic”. Wash your face twice daily, gently using your hands instead of a rough cloth. Pat dry. Again, what works well for you won’t work for everyone.
- Try to avoid stress. As if! Actually, specialists say that while stress can play a small role in pimple prevalence, having a decent and effective acne care routine is more important than if you are feeling particularly stressful on any given day.
- Don’t give in to stupidity. Contrary to popular belief, acne is not caused by being dirty - so washing your face more often will probably only make things worse. It’s also not caused by excessive sex or masturbation, although if you have hairy palms you may need to see a specialist - perhaps one that specializes in hair removal? Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us pimples just come and go – that’s life!
Getting a stonking great zit in the middle of your face doesn’t signify the end of the world, although it may feel like it does. Try these tips to keep pimples at bay, and if they do appear, take the right steps to zap your zits. Whether you are meeting your boyfriend’s parents for the first time, having that long-awaited first date or going for an important job interview, don’t let a pimple get in the way of your life!
