Milia, also called milk spots, are small, pearly white cysts that form under the skin. They develop when keratin—a protein that makes up hair, skin, and nails—gets trapped beneath the surface.
These dead cells have nowhere to go and so they collect, forming a hardened ball that looks like a tiny pearl, unattractively obvious under the new skin that has formed over it, hence the name "pearl acne".
Milia are tiny, dome-shaped bumps on the skin that contain dead skin cells trapped in small pockets near the skin's surface. In some cases, milia are actually nicknamed “baby acne” or “Epstein pearls" due to their appearance.
If they don't respond to treatment at home, a dermatologist can perform a manual extraction, prescribe medications, or recommend procedures like laser resurfacing. Never try to extract milia on your own. Milia can't be popped, and attempting to remove them yourself can cause complications like a skin infection.
Milia are commonly associated with newborn babies, but may appear on people of any age. They are usually found around the nose and eyes, and sometimes on the genitalia, often mistaken by those affected as warts or other sexually transmitted diseases.
Milia can also happen when a skin infection or trauma clogs the sweat ducts (i.e. laser treatment, chemical peels, herpes). A lack of sleep, smoking, poor personal hygiene or long-term steroid use can also contribute to the milia. Milia will naturally come to the surface of the skin after a few weeks or months.
Primary milia: Primary milia are small cysts that are common on your eyelids, forehead, cheeks or genitals. They affect both children and adults. Secondary milia (traumatic milia): Secondary milia are small cysts that occur after damage to your skin, either from burns, rashes, blisters or sunlight exposure.
Pustules are a type of pimple that contains yellowish pus. They are larger than whiteheads and blackheads. Home remedies and over-the-counter creams may help treat pustules. Pustules appear either as red bumps with white centers or as white bumps that are hard and often tender to the touch.
Milia happen when the dead skin cells don't fall away. Instead, they get caught under the new skin, harden, and form a milium. Milia can also happen because of: Skin damage from something like a rash, an injury, or sun exposure.
Another increasingly common cause is people slathering their skin with petroleum jelly, a skincare trend popularised by social media known as 'slugging'. The idea is to lock in moisture and prevent dehydration. While this does make sense for some skin types and your skin may feel smoother, slugging can cause milia.
In appearance, Epstein pearls resemble unerupted baby teeth. But these bumps are actually benign (noncancerous) cysts made of excess keratin (a protein that helps form hair, skin and nails). They get their name from Dr. Alois Epstein, the Czech pediatrician who first described this condition.
The most common type of staph infection is the boil. This is a pocket of pus that develops in a hair follicle or oil gland. The skin over the infected area usually becomes red and swollen. If a boil breaks open, it will probably drain pus.
Milia are harmless, small, hard white bumps that usually appear on your face. You can decrease your chances of getting milia by changing your skincare routine. If necessary, you can also have them removed.
Contrary to popular belief, it's not dirt that's trapped in your pores but old skin cells and oil. Whiteheads occur when these contents aren't exposed to the air. The 'white stuff' that comes out of a blackhead or more commonly in pimples is pus.
Hard pimples are the result of dead skin cells or bacteria getting under the skin. Hard pimples are deep, often large, and occasionally pus-filled. They can be one of the most difficult types of pimples to get rid of.
A comedo can be open (blackhead) or closed by skin (whitehead) and occur with or without acne. The word comedo comes from Latin comedere 'to eat up' and was historically used to describe parasitic worms; in modern medical terminology, it is used to suggest the worm-like appearance of the expressed material.
Nodular acne is a type of inflammatory acne. It causes firm, painful lumps to form under your skin and red bumps to appear on your skin's surface. Nodular acne requires treatment from a healthcare provider. You can't treat this type of acne yourself. Untreated, it can lead to severe scars.
Whiteheads and blackheads are filled with dead skin and oil. They also have a small opening to the outermost layer of skin, so when you pop, the dead skin and oil are ejected. Milia are filled with excess keratin, a protein that occurs naturally in the skin. Most importantly, they have no opening.
Plasma pen treatment for milia is a non-invasive and relatively painless procedure that typically does not require any downtime.
Syringomas and milia have similar symptoms where a group of bumps will form on your skin. Milia are tiny white bumps filled with the skin protein keratin that form most often on a newborn's skin. Syringomas are small sweat gland growths that look like a yellow or a natural skin tone pimple.
Common cutaneous cysts on the vulva
Vulval milia are 1–2 mm, white cysts very commonly seen on examination of the labia of older women. The patient may be aware of the multiple small lumps, but typically they are asymptomatic and an incidental finding.