Pesky spots... my tested methods to calm down cystic acne outbreak over the past few days

SO I always had a bit of acne on my face, actually more so on my neck, and I just took it to be hormonal as it always got worse around my TOM, so i would use certain face washes for combination skin, use concealer etc. I never was a huge water drinker but when i started into fitness in a bigger way I realised the importance of hydration and started drinking 6-8 glasses a day of water, within a month I was astounded.. my skin was completely clear, so much so that I was able to wear BB creams or tinted moisturisers instead of full coverage foundations. however my troublesome time still is during my TOM, not necessarily because i have hormonal outbreaks.. but because I crave sugary drinks, and then I forgo water for them.

This came up again last month, i craved sugary drinks and rather than ignore the cravings I gave in, and drank them, and within 3 days my skin was breaking out.
I go on holiday on Friday, and over the weekend my skin broke out real badly... I believe the reason for this is I've started back into drinking water in a big way and its flushing out the toxins, its happened before when I've deviated from the water regime, but the acne outbreak on my neck was huge cystic spots that really hurt,they were all so close together that they merged almost and they weren't nice. i hate wearing makeup over them because i feel it doesn't help with the healing process but I just couldn't go out with them on show, so its a catch 22 thing

so with the trusty pinterest's assistance, I wanted to try some cures put on it to try and reduce redness and swelling, whilst the water does its thing. so I decided to document the results with a few of the pinterest suggestions

so below is a picture of the spots prior to any treatment, this is after I had washed them with Garniers gel cleanser (which I'll review in the next couple of weeks, I've only used it 3 times so far)

These spots actually are single ones that are so red they almost have linked up and look like massive spots, they were very uncomfortable, not pusy at all, just red and angry

Treatment one - what I used... Aspirin
The first thing I read on pinterest was to take a non-coated aspirin tablet (pic 1), and add 4 drops of water on my hand and mush it up (pic 2), then apply directly to the spots *pic 3), leave for 3-4 minutes then rinse off

PIC 1                                 PIC 2                                           PIC 3

I immediately felt a cooling effect on my neck when I applied it, I think I added too much water to the process, but i left it on about 3 minutes then rinsed it off (which took some time)  this promised to reduce the redness within 4 hours so i headed to bed, Pic 4 is the spot the next morning ... see any difference??

                                                             PIC 4

MY FINDINGS:

I do see that the top two spots initially had merged to one, but you can def make out the two of them now, I felt they were as red as before but definitely were a little smaller, and didn't hurt as much.

how many stars for this method?  *** out of 5*

Treatment 2- what I used - toothpaste

I unfortunately didn't get a chance to photograph the next experiment but it followed the night directly after treatment one.

I had worn makeup the day after treatment one and so found when I rinsed off my makeup that the spots were quite red and angry looking (this is generally the case after washing though) so I went to my old favourite method.

Basically just spread some toothpaste over the spots.

we have Aquafresh so i smeared it over them and headed to bed. Instantly it cools them and it hardens to a coating that seems to keep cooling them all night. I again went to bed,

MY FINDINGS

The spots again were calmer looking after washing , but didnt really look any smaller. this method for me just soothes the burny ones

how many stars for this method?  ** out of 5*

Treatment 2- what I used - Asda Spot treatment gel

I have used many spot treatment gels that promuise reduced spots in anything from several hours to overnight. this asda gel I have never used so I dedcided to give it a go.

it simply instructs me to apply it after washing my face, directy to the spots in the morning and the night. I aplied it last night befpre bed to my spots, again the spots were red, but they are sligtly smaller from the previous treatments.Pic 5 is the gel, and pic 6 is my spots prior to treatment, again they're pretty red but are smaller

PIC 5                                       PIC 6

there was no cooling process, in fat quite the opposite it has quite  chemical smell and feels warm for a moment or two, but not uncomfortably warm, just tingly, I like that, it makes me feel like its doing some good.

it dries on quickly and I went to bed.

this is the spots the next morning after washing my face and reapplying the gel

MY FINDINGS:

I definitely see a reduction in the size of the spots,and they don't hurt as much, I'm going to continue to use his gel twice daily on top of my normal washing regime and drinking at least 8 glasses of water per day but i'm pretty happy with the results from the gel, which only cost £1.80 in Asda!

how many stars for this method?  *** out of 5*

but yeah I think the true findings and the definite lesson from this is... DRINK WATER and keep doing so!!!