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Woman’s pimple popping horror story goes viral

Keep your fingers away from your face and clean your makeup brushes.

That’s the simple take from one woman’s horror pimple popping story that went viral this week.

Katie Wright, from Texas, has proven just how easy it is to get the infection — simply by not washing your makeup brushes enough.

When Wright discovered a painful pimple above her eyebrow, she did what so many of us (wisely or unwisely) do in that situation: She popped it.

Katie Wright shouldn't have popped her pimple. Photo: Instagram
Katie Wright shouldn't have popped her pimple. Photo: Instagram

But instead of being a little sore afterwards, her “entire face swelled up” within the hour and she felt like “something was going to burst out of my skin.” Sensibly, she took herself straight to a hospital.

The doctors said she had a very serious case of cellulitis, a type of staph infection that can spread to other parts of the body, such as the blood, muscle, and bone, and can become life-threatening if not treated quickly.

“Since it was on my face, there was a huge risk of it spreading to my brain or to my eyes causing me to go blind,” Katie wrote in a warning online.

Katie's face became swollen from the infection. Photo: Facebook
Katie's face became swollen from the infection. Photo: Facebook

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Now that it’s finally healing and her face is going “back to normal,” she has shared her story online to urge other people to clean their makeup brushes regularly — all of them.

“This most likely happened from bacteria getting on my eyebrow pencil brush,” she said. “I’m super strict on washing my face/beauty blender/brushes, but I never ever thought to disinfect my eyebrow spooly. If you wear makeup PLEASE make that a step in your cleaning routine! It’s a small thing to do to avoid a painful, expensive and traumatising infection on your face.”

She shared the message along with photos of herself taken 48 hours apart — before and after the infection took its hold.

After the infection took hold. Photo: Twitter
After the infection took hold. Photo: Twitter

The after image should be graphic enough to persuade anyone to make brush cleaning part of their routine, but what should that routine look like exactly?

Because of how they’re used, it’s impossible to keep your brushes from ever getting dirty. So if that’s not motivation enough to spend some quality time with your beauty tools, know that the bacteria production on your brushes is contaminating your makeup and promoting acne and breakouts on your skin.

It’s easy to wash brushes: Just fill a bowl with warm, soapy water, submerge the brush, gently massage the bristles, rinse, rest on a clean towel, and repeat.

Katie now has thousands of dollars in hospital bills. Photo: Instagram
Katie now has thousands of dollars in hospital bills. Photo: Instagram

Oh, and a final bit of motivation: Katie’s ordeal was not only emotionally trying but also financially costly, and she launched a GoFundMe campaign to try and recoup some of her losses.

“Unfortunately, this was not a cheap lesson to learn. I was left with thousands of dollars in hospital bills that I haven’t been able to pay yet,” she wrote. “The doctors of St. David’s saved my life and it would mean the world to be able to pay them back for their services. Any help you may be able to offer would be greatly appreciated and every little bit helps!”

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