You wake up, walk to the mirror, and there it is. An unsightly, red, painful little bugger sitting on your chin. There’s  never a good time for a pimple. What to do?

Follow these tips to get rid of pimples fast!

Do Not Pop Your Pimples

Clinical aesthetician Angie MacIntosh says, no matter what, don’t pop your own pimples! You could push the impaction deeper into your skin, breaking open the dermal layer. It will find new follicles to come out through, leaving you with more pimples than you started with and potential damage to capillaries from all that squeezing. Ouch!

Emergency Overnight Pimple Zapper

MacIntosh has a secret weapon she keeps locked up for that once-in-a-blue moon circumstance where you just can’t have a zit. Her fixer-upper, however, is not for regular use, she warns. Apply ice to the area and dot on a dab of Visine Eye Drops. The [tooltip text="Vasoconstriction is the narrowing of the blood vessels resulting in a restriction of blood flow to an area; from a skincare perspective, this results in a reduction of the inflammation, swelling and redness of pimples."]vasoconstrictor[/tooltip], in the same way it removes redness from your dry eyes, will pull the redness right out of your blemish.

Acne Spot Treatment

For more common use, pick up a spot treatment gel from your favorite skincare line — we love fast-acting Murad Acne Spot Treatment — which will zap your blemish away by eating away at the bacteria and drying up the oil.

Conceal and Heal

When using makeup to cover up your blemishes, choose a foundation with clarifying properties, as well as oil control. For spot-on coverage, pick a concealer that’s equipped with a dash of salicylic acid to treat that blemish while you cover it up. And until you’ve achieved absolutely perfect skin, what’s better than a two-timing concealer that both masks and repairs? Absolutely nothing.