You’ve eaten a proper diet with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and avoided fried or greasy foods. You wash your face twice a day. You use the cream the nice lady at the pharmacy recommended. And yet you still have a giant ugly acne pimple right on the end of your nose. So what can you do?

First and foremost, don’t touch it. Not even a little bit. Don’t pick at it. Don’t squeeze it. Don’t pop it. Don’t pinch it. All you will do is make it bigger and redder and make it last longer. Squeezing forces the bacteria and other nasty stuff deeper into your skin and over the rest of your face. It can even leave a permanent mark.

For some immediate relief, hold an ice cube directly on the spot for one minute. No longer, you don’t need frostbite instead of a spot. Repeat the process 30 minutes later. After 2 or 3 treatments the redness and size will be much reduced.

Mix half a teaspoon of honey with an equal amount of lemon juice and gently dab the mixture onto the spot with a cotton ball. This has natural antibiotic properties and will, if nothing else, stop the spot from spreading.

Try a small dap of toothpaste on the spot. This is very good at drying out pimples quickly. Remember to remove the toothpaste before you leave for school or work otherwise you may get some odd looks.

Add a dab of ointment containing benzyl peroxide or salicylic acid to the spot. Many over the counter medications contain one or both of these – check the list of product ingredients. Just buy the store brand or lowest cost cream.

While you are at the supermarket pharmacy, ask for one of those large paper sacks. Cut two eye holes and one for your mouth. Pop it over your head for instant spot disguise. Okay, only kidding but the supermarket will indeed have a product called appropriately enough concealer. Guys, you can use this as well, don’t be shy in asking for help. Get the closest match to your skin tone that you can. All it needs is the tiniest amount gently smoothed over the spot for coverage.