How To Get Rid Of A Blind Pimple

If we didn't know better, a "blind pimple" wouldn't sound too bad, right? I mean, no one can see it, so only the person who actually has one will know it's there. And while that's kinda true (they really aren't that noticeable from the outside), anyone who has ever had a blind pimple knows how much they suuuck. They're deep, they're painful, they're impossible to get rid of over night, and when they do finally go away, they usually leave a nice little post-inflammatory acne scar behind.

Unlike your average whitehead, which is non-inflammatory and relatively easy to treat with spot treatments, a blind pimple is a type of cystic acne that lives deep within your skin, meaning it won't respond to your usual acne skincare routine. So to give us advice that we actually can use to treat this type of breakout and clear up our skin, we turned to board-certified dermatologists Geeta Yadav, MD, Neal Schultz, MD, and celebrity esthetician Renée Rouleau. Keep reading to find out how to make those blind pimples something you can't see or feel.

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What causes a blind pimple?

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Blind pimples are typically triggered by a surge of hormones, which makes sense why they commonly occur around someone's menstrual cycle. "During this time, the skin's oil glands become hypersensitive to the hormonal surge and react by overproducing sebum, which can cause the gland to become engorged, swollen, or hardened," Rouleau says.

There are lots of different causes of acne, but as Dr. Yadav puts it, blind pimples (aka papules) form just like any other pimple: Bacteria + sebum + a congested pore = inflammation beneath the skin. "What sets blind pimples apart from other breakouts is that they're not at the skin's surface, but deeper in the skin at the subcutaneous level," Dr. Yadav notes. And that, my friends, is why they're impossible to pop, slow to heal, and quite painful to deal with.

Why do blind pimples hurt so bad?

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If I wrote out a list of all the reasons why blind pimples are so annoying, the pain would be pretty high up on it. "The rapid development of pus creates a pressure buildup in the cyst that triggers your skin's sensory nerves and causes pain," Dr. Yadav explains. Basically, major inflammation, deep within your skin. If you need to ease the discomfort caused by all that inflammation and swelling, Dr. Yadav recommends taking a low dose of ibuprofen or naproxen.

Do blind pimples come to a head?

On the contrary—they pretty much never freakin' do, which sucks. Cystic acne is an infection below the skin that causes inflammation and rarely comes to a head, but that doesn't necessarily mean all cystic zits are blind pimples. Confused? As Dr. Schultz explains it, c ystic acne can appear in one of two ways: completely under the skin and flat on the surface (the blind kind) or both above and below the skin (the cystic acne kind). Either way, they're both painful, annoyingly hard to get rid of, and cystic in nature.

Can I pop a blind pimple with a needle?

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Please do not. First of all, you should never pop any pimple because you have a super-high chance of making the inflammation way, way worse. Second, i f your zit doesn't even have a visible whitehead—which blind pimples don't—consider it un-poppable. "The inflammation is what makes up the majority of the bump, and squeezing it won't lead to improvement of the lesion or the skin," Dr. Yadav explains. Rouleau agrees that you won't be able to fix it on your own and adds that most likely, you'll cause scarring to your skin by trying to extract it.

If it's not a completely blind cyst and it's more of an iceberg, then both Dr. Schultz and Dr. Yadav say warm compresses could help the pimple come to a head, allowing it to rupture and expel the pus that's causing pain. Still, even if it does develop a whitehead, refrain from popping the pimple yourself. Knowing where and how to apply pressure on a blind pimple is expert-level stuff, which is why this should be left in the hands of a professional.

How do you get rid of a blind pimple fast?

Here's the part where I kill your dreams and deliver some disappointing news: You can't get rid of a blind pimple overnight. Even the most effective treatments below take a few days to really get to work and preventing one isn't all that easy either. Because the cause of blind pimples is somewhat out of your control, you might find yourself dealing with a big, painful underground zit from time to time, and when that happens, here's what to do about it:

1. Get a cortisone injection

This is probably not the answer you're looking for because it doesn't involve a cheap, easy hack with a magical kitchen ingredient, but the fastest way to get rid of a blind pimple or cystic pimple is with a cortisone injection (which rapidly shrinks them) from a dermatologist.

If you get blind or cystic pimples a few times a year, Dr. Schultz recommends managing it with these shots as you need them. At anywhere from $50 to $200 a shot (though, FYI, insurance usually covers it for just the cost of your copay, but call ahead to confirm), cortisone shots can be pricey, but they work. In just a few days after the injection, your previously painful and large pimple can be all but a memory.

2. Ask your doctor about prescription meds

If you have regularly occurring blind cysts or regular cysts, internal prescription treatment is the best treatment option, although it's more of a long-term solution than a quick fix. "There are four categories of internal treatments: antibiotics, birth control pills, Accutane, and spironolactone," Dr. Schultz says. "The root cause [of cystic acne] is excess oil stimulated by hormones, and all of these treatments in some way reduce the production of oil or the effect bacteria has on that oil."

3. Use anti-inflammatory ingredients

If deep down you know you're never going to make it into a derm's office for a cortisone injection and you want an at-home solution, Dr. Yadav recommends using a warm compress (as explained above) and other anti-inflammatory topical treatments to help clear out the pore for good.

I'm a big fan of Renee Rouleau's Anti-Bump Solution for speeding up the healing process of regular cysts, but others swear by dabs of benzoyl peroxide and 1 percent hydrocortisone cream applied once a day for killing acne-causing bacteria while reducing inflammation—just don't expect major miracles. While benzoyl peroxide might work to decrease inflammation that could lead to future scarring, Dr. Schultz says regular spot treatments made for surface breakouts are generally ineffective for blind pimples (which rarely have a connection to the skin's surface), especially with such intense inflammation happening beneath the skin.

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4. Exfoliate

To prevent that blind pimple from even popping up (or, I guess, popping below?), use a retinoid to speed up your cellular turnover, which not only helps get rid of dead skin that contributes to clogged pores, but also helps fade lingering dark spots and acne scars over time.

For acne, specifically, ask your derm about trying a prescription retinoid, or try the over-the-counter option Differin. Just start slow: Apply a pea-size drop to dry skin one night a week for one week, two nights a week for two weeks, three nights a week for three weeks, then every other night indefinitely. And always (always) follow with a moisturizer.

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5. Ice it to reduce swelling.

What should you do if you attempted to pop a blind pimple (before you found and read this article, of course) and now you deeply regret it? Wrap some ice in a napkin or a paper towel and hold it against the area for a minute. Dr. Schultz says icing the area can reduce that induced swelling caused by you going at it with your fingers.

6. Cover your blind pimple with a zit sticker.

If you've used a warm compress to draw the pimple up and out of your skin, try topping the area afterward with a hydrocolloid pimple patch, which Dr. Yadav explains, will help accelerate your skin's recovery after the pimple has been eradicated. Or you can always slap on some pimple patches to keep bacteria out and stop yourself from picking your cystic acne while you wait for it to heal on its own.

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How long do blind pimples last?

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Here's the deal: Blind pimples can go away on their own (Dr. Schultz says 50 to 80 percent of the time, they do), but because of all that inflammation within the skin, Dr. Yadav says it can take weeks or even months (months!) for the discomfort to subside. And no, squeezing them isn't going go to hurry the healing process along. All that's gonna do is cause more damage to the skin, make your pimple last longer, and leave post-inflammatory changes.

Waiting for your blind pimple to go away isn't always the best option, especially if all that waiting is going to tempt you to go at yourself with non-sterile things. "The problem is the longer it's there, the more likely it is to cause an atrophic scar, which is like a crater or an ice-pick scar," Dr. Schultz adds. However, seeing a dermatologist who can inject the zit with a cortisone shot, as we mentioned above, can cut the healing time from a few months to a few days.

The takeaway:

If you have a blind pimple, don't pop it. Don't pick at it. Don't load it up with spot treatments. Listen, I love a good beauty DIY, but treating your cystic acne isn't something you want to do at home. If your goal is to get rid of your blind pimple as fast as possible (isn't that always the goal?), skip all the BS and see your dermatologist sooner than later so they can determine the best treatment plan for getting rid of that blind pimple. And do it before you make matters worse, k?

Brooke Shunatona Brooke Shunatona is a contributing writer for Cosmopolitan.com.

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