A big pimple appearing on the face the day of a big event is likely to be distressing. Pimple on your back, though out of sight, are painful. No one wants to be plagued with pimples anywhere. There is no need to suffer unnecessarily. You can get rid of pimples and with proper care, keep the breakouts minimal.



A pimple begins in a pore of your skin. A healthy pore is clean and unblocked. The problem begins when dead skin cells and oil clog up your pore. Bacteria then breeds in the mix causing an inflammation or irritation which we see as a pimple. That is why you should not pick your pimples as you can end up spreading the bacteria, leading to more pimples.

Your skin is not without its defense. It has an acid mantle that bacteria finds inhospitable. However, when you wash your face, you also wash away that layer of protection and your skin takes half to one hour to regenerate that protection. It then makes sense to use a moisturizer or toner after washing your face, to restore your skin's protection.

That said, to get rid of pimples, you have to unclog the pores and keep a layer of protection to deter bacteria from building up.

The best way to unclog your pores is to exfoliate. It could be a physical exfoliation via a grainy scrub, or a chemical one using AHA or salicylic acid to dissolve the 'glue' that makes the dead skin cells stick to the pore walls. Go for something gentle so you do not irritate your skin further.

Next, you need to kill the bacteria. Did you know you could go to your family doctor to get your acne and boils treated? He would typically prescribe an antibiotic cream and a course of antibiotics. That works because when the bacteria responsible for the inflammations is eliminated, your pimples and boils would go a way. The problem with pimples is that after you finish the antibiotics and if your immune system is still unable to control the bacteria growth on your skin, the pimples would return. A long term course of antibiotics stretching over months might not appeal to everyone.

There are other ways to get rid of the bacteria. Over the counter preparations and acne treatments from Clinique, Clarins and other beauty brands are effective too. Some of the ingredients to look out for include benzoyl peroxide which is found on many of the cheaper over the counter acne preparations. What benzoyl peroxide does is to force oxygen into the pore making it inhospitable for bacteria to live in, killing the acne bacteria which hates oxygen. Salicylic acid is another ingredient that works by unclogging the pores. Tea tree oil kills the bacteria outright. These are just some of the possible ingredients you might find in your acne preparations.

For boils, applying a drop of tea tree oil on each boil every 2 hours may be enough to kill the bacteria and bring down the boil. But don't fool around with boils. These can develop into abcesses which may need surgery, so see the doctor as soon as possible if you have a boil.