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Although I don't get as much acne these days, lately many of the ones I get don't really seem to come to a head, which is strange. I don't think they're quite cystic though, or at least most of them. I just put such a variety of products on them, like sometimes benzoyl peroxide, sometimes salicylic acid, sometimes tea tree oil, sometimes this vitamin E stuff or other topical antioxidant. And the pimple just forms a lump, often eventually including a reddish coloration, but doesn't actually come out like a normal one would. Instead it just kind of freezes in place and then remains a raised, discolored bump that's dry or mostly dry, or is even just a husk or shell of a pimple. Some of these take months to subside or blend back in to the skin.
There's one deeper pimple where there was a large raised, inflamed area near the corner of the eyebrow, probably consisting of multiple affected pores, but then I put a lot of products on and it eventually deflated considerably and I thought I actually had "beat it", so to speak, before it came out, but then as I was sleeping on that side after a few more days, it kind of came back up, and now there's like two little heads or mounds on top of a bigger, more extensive raised area that still hurts if touched. The two "points" on there weren't whiteheads though, and I put more product on them. Now they turned this deep maroon-purple-almost black color. What's up with that? Is there like bleeding under the surface or something? And how do I deal with this?
Yep. I get these near my nose usually when I use BHA alone so I wonder if it's excessively dry skin or dehydration causing them in my case. I'm not sure what to do about them except ice. Niacinamide serum also seemed to help them?
the maroon is definitely bleeding under the skin
Ah, okay. I'll look into that, thanks.
I guess in today's day and age, with all these products around, you run the risk of overdoing it sometimes and drying out your skin.
Speaking of ice, I do recall using these green tea ice cubes I made, and they worked decently well. I need to give those a shot again.
And hmm, now most of the inflammation of the big lump is gone (still something sort of there under the surface but doesn't really hurt anymore- I'm guessing my body/immune system is slowly like dealing with or processing whatever is there), but the maroon spots are still there and clearly visible, rather sharply delineated from the surrounding skin. Could this also be like melanin that is released into the skin of an area that was damaged from the inflammation? For me, the dark marks or scars can be more of a problem than the acne itself. I might have like only a couple of pimples a month but when I do have em, they can be pretty bad and last a while, thus leaving scars that may take up to a year to go away. So even though I might not have much active acne at a given time, there's a "collection" of scars and dark marks accumulated over time, some more faded than others.. Annoying. And those chemical peel or laser treatments can be expensive. What's the point of doing them if you end up getting more acne or scars later?