Milia are nothing new to Dr. Sandra Lee, aka Dr. Pimple Popper. The little nodules of keratin are commonly found in the under-eye area, having been caused by excessive sun exposure or long-clogged pores. But the YouTube-famous dermatologist was recently visited by a patient who has them surrounding her entire eye, including many on the upper eyelids.
The good doctor uses a needle or small scalpel to create an opening in each milium, followed by tweezers to squeeze each one out — but that's not always enough. She had to go in with small scissors as a means to both squeeze with more precision and clip the milia out. In fact, between the milia wiggling around and the care Dr. Lee takes not to bruise the especially delicate eye-area skin, it takes so long to do each one that the video ends up being nearly 22 minutes long — and that's not even enough time to get the vast majority of them.
Be forewarned: Although she does her best to prevent bruising, there's a fair mount of blood in this video. There's also a fair amount of Dr. Pimple Popper grunting in frustration because this patient's milia — which she refers to as "pearls" and "nubbins" — are particularly stubborn. (At one point she says "I have to get a massage after this.")
The most satisfying squeezes come when Dr. Pimple Popper uses her trusty commodone extractor for the milia against bony areas like the nose and orbital bone. But don't be fooled — milia can't be unprofessionally popped like blackheads or whiteheads.
"Because they are not directly connected to the surface of the skin, squeezing will just lead to inflammation and redness and not get rid of the bump," Dr. Joshua Zeichner tells Refinery29. "A poke with a needle is necessary to create a passage to remove it."
And don't think for a second that you should do that poking yourself! If everything isn't properly cleaned beforehand, you're just asking for infection.
Luckily, if videos like this help you resist the urge to go in on your own milia, Dr. Pimple Popper hints that she'll probably be back with more of this brave lady's eye nubbins.
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Marci Robin is a freelance writer and editor specializing in beauty and lifestyle content. With over 20 years of experience, Marci has served as a contributing editor for Allure, senior beauty editor at GoodHousekeeping.com, executive editor of xoVain and senior online editor at NewBeauty. Her writing has also appeared in her writing has also appeared in InStyle, MarthaStewart.com and Refinery29.
