Acetone
★★★★★
Been dealing with this regularly for 30 years.. ended up with acetone dabbed on with earbuds.
Initially kept it on until the burns. Now I'm not sure if a lot of the scabbing that follows is due to the coldsore healing itself, or actual acetone burns.
Will keep using it. Maybe cautiously to avoid damage to surrounding areas, which may actually take longer to heal.
Acetone
★★★★★
I used a q-tip to dip in a home depot purchased acetone container and applied throughout the day starting in the afternoon. Without any exaggeration, and with outmost sincerity, it worked for me. By the end of the day 10 pm or so - the size of the bumps/bulbs decreased to about 25% from the large size of that same morning. I could not believe it. I asked my roommate, just to make sure I was not losing my mind and going blind...
By the next morning, the bumps decreased more in size, and a small scabs started to appear - signaling the healing process has begun... I only applied once or twice the second day.
Don't ingest the powerful acetone, careful breathing in the fumes - I held my breath as much as possible, sealed my lips / mouth while applying with q tip soaked. Acetone evaporates very quickly, so application time is short.. Think I applied about 10 times from afternoon til midnight the first day.
Hope this helps!
(US)
11/04/2023
★★★★☆
Be Careful with Acetone!
Acetone is so powerful it will take the paint right off your car!
You are using it to kill the virus, this shouldn't take more than 1 day, once the virus is dead, meaning the cold sores stop growing and developing, you need to stop using acetone, it is used to kill the virus, not to heal the cold sore, the healing process happens naturally, the more you leave it alone the quicker it will heal.
Acetone
★★★★★
My lip went down after a couple hours. I then poked the blister with a needle and got the fluid out. Next day it crusted over. Did the acetone all day again but maybe fewer times. Third day was just a scab. Did the acetone a few more times just in case. Now I'm just waiting for the scab to come off. I'm on the fourth day. It usually takes a week before it scabs over. I guess I'll be doing this from now on.
Acetone
★★★★★
Miracle of miracles, the acetone worked! Several times of the day, I would press a q-tip dipped in 100% acetone onto the area until it stung and then removed it. The cold sore never even got to the tingle phase. By day two my lip was slightly swollen but only about a third of what it normally would have been. By day three it was 10% swollen with a simple scab that could be covered with lipstick. No blisters even. Unbelievable. A week later, the small scab is still there, but the sore is clearly receding to nothing.
Where has this been my whole life?! The acetone must just kill the virus! Thank you all for sharing your experience with this amazing remedy! So helpful.
Acetone
★★★★★
(USA)
10/29/2023
Acetone is not the safest chemical in the world so I would use a q tip so as to target the sore better rather than a cotton ball.
Acetone
★★★☆☆
For some reason I didn't think to check on here until about day 5. I tried acetone but the skin was already broken and it made it 10 times worse and left a scar too.
I think acetone must be used at the first signs and would be very effective but not once the skin has broken.
Acetone
★★★★★
Panicking I scoured the internet and saw Cheri's post from 2021. I tried it and put acetone on each one with a q-tip for about 20 seconds each and 1 DAY LATER they had all scabbed over!!
This would have been at least a week or more without this remedy! Thank you!!
Acetone
★★★★★
(CA)
12/26/2021
Does acetone make them stay away? Just wondering because I use selenium (selenomethionine) and I don't get cold sores any more. I take 1 200mcg capsule a day although I started by taking 2 200mcg capsules a day for about 10 months.
Acetone
★★★★★
However, the MOST important thing you can do to PREVENT cold sores is to NEVER consume ANY artificial sweeteners, which all contain aspartame, including almost any type of gum these days, diet sodas, diet drinks of ANY form, etc, as the aspartame WAKES the virus and activates cold sores. I have not had a cold sore in many years as a result of avoiding aspartame. Hope this helps someone.
(Washington)
12/15/2024
★★★★★
It's not just the aspartame. I started totally avoiding aspartame and ALL artificial sweeteners years ago, (I never drink sodas either) and I still get a cold sore, every time I get a runny nose-- a cold, the flu (which is RARE), or allergies and Im blowing/wiping my nose a lot!! So I think I need to take Lysine. When they do start to come on-- I SWEAR by the acetone and/or ICE!! Apply the ice cube till it hurts! let it rest a while and do it again, repeat often as soon as you feel that tingle. The virus can't take the cold and it goes away without scabbing...
Acetone
★★★★★
Acetone
★★★★★
Such a brilliant remedy, so cheap and SO much more effective than any expensive cream or Valtrex.
Acetone
★★★★★
I'm 42 and I've gotten cold sores my whole life. Like all of you, I too have tried everything I could get my hands on including Dr. prescribed meds. Nothing. Ice seems to chill them out for a bit - but they always came back with a vengeance. I found that acetone works 100% of the time. 100%. I honestly don't care what any naysayer says. It's really that good. If you catch it at the tingle stage, then it stops there. If you catch it at the blister stage, the blisters immediately go down and your at the scab stage. Even that goes quicker. This is the closest thing to a medical miracle that I've experienced. The folks who suffer from this virus would understand that statement. I keep a little bottle of acetone in my home, my car, at work and in my luggage.
Acetone
★★★★★
Good luck!!!
Acetone
★★★★★
I cannot overemphasize how much this works; I currently have a very big very sore collection of cold sores & I tried nail varnish remover (as I read it somewhere else) & I could not believe how much it helped within an hour! It sounds drastic & it does sting a lot but the pain is over quickly & cold sore is drastically improved after 1 go!
I've tried everything in the past; taking lysine (cold sores still appeared), zovirax on first tingle (actually think moistening it made it come out not disappear), dabbing with alcohol (helps a v small bit), doing a lot of different stress management techniques to avoid triggers (sleep, exercise, eating well) all to no avail; the nail varnish remover is the only thing where I've actually seen a difference.
One thing I will say about prevention that works is not to let your lips get chapped; most of the times I get a cold sore its after my lips are v dry and chapped; they crack & then out pops a cold score.
I hope it helps someone else.
Acetone
★★★★★
I put the acetone on it once every hour of the day. Hold it for 20 seconds, IT WILL BURN! But it works. The next morning, my cold sore was almost gone. It wasn't even noticeable! I continued the process of applying acetone every hour of the day until it was gone.
It also helps to take the vitamin L-lysine. I also drink plenty of milk when I have cold sores, because milk also contains lysine.
I hope this was helpful!
(Oregon)
01/18/2017
