Hi,
I have dealt with acne a little bit in high school, but not really in college. I am 22 now and have been dealing with a breakout within a square inch on my face for over a month now and I do not know what is going on. I think it started from mistreating a regular pimple, but now I continue to breakout in this one little area and it seems like as soon as one goes away, another one comes. I can have anything from 3-7 in that one little area.
I have this one part of the area that is hard and is under the skin. I am wondering if it is a cyst, but it is not inflamed at all and does not feel sensitive to the touch, and It also doesn't protrude from the skin at all. I would not be worried about it at all because it is not visble (you have to feel it to even see that it is there). The problem is that pustules continue to form around all around it, but not on it. The pustules are inflamed, red, and protrude from the skin, and come to a head.
I have been using a salacylic acid, Benzoyl peroxide face washes, and a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment but that has been drying out my skin too much, so I have cut out the benzoyl peroxide and been moisturizing with an oil free face wash to combat that. That has definately helped and i though i solved the problem but I woke up with another pustule today and the hard part under my skin is not getting better.
I am wondering what this hard part under the skin could be and what I should do about it. I am also curious if that is causing the pustules around it. Thanks in advance!
Do you see the neat lines the pustules form? The 3 horizontally along the bottom are a good example. This is a sign to think of mites, specifically demodex falpicarum. What you are describing sounds like a nodule with peripheral lesions due to the mites burrowing. Treatments that are toxic to these mites over a 2+ week period of daily application are (in order of effectiveness): tea tree oil (either straight or mixed with 91% IPA or water 50:50 depending on how your skin reacts) , 5% permethrin (Rx), topical metronidazole+ivermectin (Rx), and then the Cadillac treatment for even the most stubborn case,oral ivermectin+metronidazole (Rx)
I suspect one of the topical solutions will be sufficient given your relatively small afflicted area. Apply the tee tree oil or whatever else in the non-afflicted areas at least a few inches outwards as well because the mites look for safer ground, twice daily, for at least 2 weeks..