June 7, 2006
Proper Nose Piercing Care
Or, How To Get Rid of “The Bump”!
Yes, it can be done. Don’t get rid of the piercing! There is precious little information about this issue and all the piercing technicians tell you is to keep doing the “sea salt soaks.” But I was never able to figure out how I was supposed to soak my nose in saltwater without drowning myself. I did use cotton balls soaked in sea salt for awhile but that was very messy and annoying and inconvenient to have to do it twice a day for 15 minutes each. I can’t even remember to use my Crest Whitestrips each night, much less this much-more-annoying task.
So I was in search of an easier and more effective way and did lots of web searching, because I had developed the dreaded “Bump”, a pimple-like bump next to the piercing that just doesn’t seem to want to budge. But I found some mention of tea tree oil as a possible use for cleaning piercings, so gave it a try. Dipping a Qtip in some oil and dabbing it on my nose once a day was a much more reasonable care regime, even though this oil STINKS like paint thinner. And it is STRONG–they actually tell you to cut it with grapeseed oil because it’s so strong, but I didn’t want to waste time so I used full-strength.
And, my nose bump, which had been resistant to everything else, peeled away in 3 days.
Gone!
So for those of you despairing that your cute nose ring is marred by this unbudgeable bump, fear not, it will budge. There is a cure. CURE! The bump is gone and has been for months. It did come back when my allergies flared up and I was blowing my nose a lot, but I started with the oil again and the bump went away again in a couple days.
So there you have it. Visit your local new-agey shop and get yourself some tea tree, and keep that cute piercing!
UPDATE: Someone posted a link to this story about the dangers of tea tree oil in the comments here, so I thought I’d add it to the main post so that you can make an informed decision…I had no problems but perhaps some people do…
Filed by cynthia rockwell at 12:45 am under Uncategorized
870 Comments
i did the tea tree oil for a good month on my nose (along with warm saline soaks). it worked at first-in just 2 days i saw a notable difference. then it stopped getting smaller and would fluctuate in size but never get close to going away. a week ago now it got much worse. so i had to take it out.
hi cynthia! just wanted to say thanks for the post. i’ve wanted my nose pierced for 13 years (yes, i know it’s ridiculously long!) but couldn’t get my mom to agree. it’s been 3 months since i got it done and for over 2 months i’ve had the bump. tried polysporin, sea salt soaks, hot compresses and the only thing that has worked so far is the tea tree oil. i’ve been applying it 3-4X daily for the last 3 days, and it’s already almost gone. i hope by the weekend i’ll see it completely gone. thank you and everyone else who posted here for possibly saving my precious piercing!
I got my nose pierced and had the bump for about 2 months. for one of those months i was using the tea tree oil once a day, everyday. my nose bump went down and never quite went away. I was frustrated and tried taking out the piercing my myself, only i didn’t know how they were supposed to come out. So i tugged at the piercing for awhile, which made the bump humungous, and bigger than it ever was. So i upped the dosage of tea tree oil to three times a day. this helped but didn’t quite get rid of it. so what i did was mix tea tree oil with crushed aspirin, to make a paste, and covered the bump and wore it all night while i was sleeping. this got rid of it in three days.
( the aspirin thins the blood around the area and makes the tea tree oil more effective at drying the bump.)
I got my nosed pierced in August, I developed the dreaded bump about a month ago. I have tried everything. I used sea salt compresses, chamomile compresses. I used the TTO only a couple of times, because I read that you shouldn’t use it. I am going to start using it again on a regular basis. I leave for Hawaii mid October and also read that you shouldn’t go in the ocean. Do you think i’m healed enough to go in the ocean? I can’t go to Hawaii and not go in the ocean. Help.
hello! i am wondering if i should be draining puss out of my nose through all of this. i’m a picky kind of person; by that i mean as soon as i see a pimple i instantly pop it, and i’ve been stretching the skin around the bump to make the bump puss- should i stop that? is that making recovery take longer? i’ve been putting on the oil 2-3 times a day for 3 days and saw some change but not much.
Is the “bump” you are talking about next to the piercing, or right under it? Mine is right AT the piercing so the jewlery goes through it. It doesn’t look infected, no fluid coming out, just an angry, red, bump. Is that the same thing you’re talking about?
Thanks for posting this!
hey..i got my nose pierced for the second time about two months ago.. and i got this bump/blister looking thing on my nose that you’re all talking about ..when i had it pierced the first time about a year ago i got a bump once in awhile but i cleaned it and it went away all the time..this one won’t even budge..and i’ve tried almost anything EVEN picking and stabbing at it..i have TTO at home so i jsut used it tonight, hopefully it really works for me because i dont wanna take it out for the second time..thanksss!
i got my nosed pierced at the end of july. about mid-august i got the bump, and on the first of september i got tea-tree oil after reading this post. within a few days (maybe 4 or 5) the bump had been reduced to something not even visible by someone but myself. after a few more days, it was completely gone. i went to a piercer about it and he said that the problem probably arose from using q-tips to clean my piercing. the fibers on the q-tips catch themselves very easily and can infect the piercing, leaving that awful bump. so i put the oil on with my fingers. i haven’t had a problem since and i have had multiple sinus infections where i was blowing my nose (a LOT). i would suggest, though, if your piercing is healed to take it out when blowing your nose, do it. i did that a few times. it gets everything out and not stuck on your piercing and there is much less of a chance that the bump will return
i just started using tea tree oil today..its 100% undiluted. This is my 2nd piercing and i got the bump after 2 weeks! my last one..i managed to last 2 months before i got the bump..tried everything but nothing worked. I v never tried tea tree but i hope it works! its my last resort 🙁 i really really just want a nice little nose stud on my nose! 🙁
Will keep you updated..im just glad i found this site… 🙂
update! oh my god…my nose piercing bump has reduced dramatically! its sooo little now! good advice on being patient with the scab forming too…many times i just wanted to get rid of it but i didnt and it jus fell off…just a few more days and hopefully il be bump free! thank you sooo much cynthia! =)
for those of you that have used the tea tree oil are you applying it just on the bump or the piercing itself? are you taking the ring out to apply it? i currently have my nose pierce and have had the bump come and go a couple times but i want to take precaution for when it comes back. so my question is should i apply it with the ring out and put it directly on the piercing or keep the ring in?
and just to let everyone know, you can find the oil on ebay. i got a 4ml vile (as i dont think i will be using it to much) for just under 3 dollars. i figure with that amount i will be able to use it around 100 times, becasue with 1.5 ml it says there is around 60 drops
i am bump free! yay..thank you sooomuch! but the first few days ..it went down like i mentioned earlier but..before it could get fully better..i must of knocked it out in my sleeo because when i woke up the next day..THERE WAS A HUGE BUMP…AGAIN! 🙁 but i applied more tea tree oil..but i couldnt be patient enough and picked the scab..which made the bump bigger! i gave up at that point..was taking the nose stud out but it was stuck due to the bump..so i had to wait for the bump to heal if i wanted to take it out..so i just continued applying tea tree oil with my fingers on the bump without taking the stud out and wow with a few days i am completely bump free! 🙂 and oh yeh i applied the tea tree oil like every two hours the days i was at home other than that i would apply every two or so hours when i got home..hope that helps! and once again..THANK YOU!! 🙂
I wanted to reply to Kevin’s question: I try to apply the TTO to the bump but mine is so close to the piercing that it inevitably gets in the hole. Amanda, I never thought of that but you may be onto something about the fibers of the Q-tips getting stuck in the piercing. I’m trying to think of what else to clean with that is cheap and sanitary and wouldn’t disintegrate into the piercing.
I think I caught the bump in the beginning stage, starting applying the oil Dec.24, and by tonight (26th) it’s decreased dramatically. There was some bleeding right after I applied the oil on the second and third days, and a little bit of pus, but all in all it’s looking a whole lot better. I am hoping that in a few more days the thing will be completely gone.
hi, so i got my nose pierced back in november? and it was healing up well at the start. and then i felt like it was healed enough and would continue healing if i put a hoop in it? so i did that but that’s when the bump started to get worse, and more noticable and now it’s fairly large, like mole-sized, and very noticable. i just heard of the crushed aspirin and water tactic, so i’m trying that as we speak. i’m not sure if since i’ve had this for so long it’s a keloid or just the bump, and if i should just try tea tree oil anyways?
thank you.
hi iv just bought some tea tree oil for my nose but the thing is the bump i have is not sepearte from my nose stud…my hole is actually in the middle of the stud so i have to take it out every time i put it on but when i put it on it didn’t sting or anything therefore im just asking is that supposed to happen?? or shud it have stung? will it still work??
This blog is old, but incase anyone checks it…I’ve had my nose pierced since September 2008. I think I screwed it up in the initial healing process though and it hasn’t healed right since. I took it out in the beginning..after a day or two. I thought that “clean piercing” meant take out the metal piercing and clean it. Boy was I stupid! Now, a year and a half later it still routinely gets irritated. It’s red most of the time around the area. It becomes inflamed, will get a pus bubble around it and people ask me about it all the time it’s embarrassing. I think at this point I should just wait till it gets better and take it out, let it heal and get it repierced. Can it even heal at this point?
Hey. I realise this blog is old, but I stumbled across it the other day when researching what to do about the annoying bump that had appeared beside my nose piercing. Anyway after reading about the Tea Tree Oil treatment and the success so many of you have had with it, I went and bought some straight away and began applying it. Four days later, the bump has virtually disappeared! I am soooo happy, I can’t believe I didn’t research it earlier. Tea Tree Oil is my saviour (thanks so much to this blog also!) 🙂 🙂
Yup! i got the bump too! i have had it for almost 2 months now and i have tried the sea salt soaks with no luck. Im so thrilled to have found this site!! And know that im not the only one who has and is going through it. I have read soo many posted and what works and what doesnt, what you should and shouldnt use. Im so tired and embarrassed of this bubble!! And wish there was one sure remedy for it. I just bought the TTO today and hope it does wonders. Hoping that im one of the lucky ones where it goes away in a couple of days. My sister said she has had this before and it went away within a week having done nothing to it! Im thinking of just going to the doctor to see what he says and maybe has a fast, 100% way of no scaring. Wish me luck =)
I’ve been getting this bump on and off for the past few years, until I came across this blog. Anyone who has this bump, GET TEA TREE OIL RIGHT AWAY! It works wonders! I’ve used it for two days and the bumps gone! Thank you for the info.