Fast Cold Sore Remedies: What Really Works Naturally

Essential Oils

Posted by Lizzy (North Carolina, USA) on 07/15/2026
★★★★★

I've had cold sores since at least high school. Have used a number of remedies in the past but none were tremendously helpful until now. I even used Abreva - that did work but it's quite expensive for a very tiny tube and I never got the sores often enough to use much of the tube before it expired.

Last few years, experimented with essential oils and found a combination that works at least as effectively as Abreva but is all natural and gentle.

First, if I'm away from home and feel the familiar tingle, I found that rubbing an ice cube on the spot will greatly slow down the virus. Apparently, it needs a certain temperature to replicate (hence, the name of fever sore).

Here is the formula I use. Though it varies a bit, the proportions are roughly the same:

Tea tree oil (anti-viral) | 30 drops

Peppermint (relieves itching)| 15 drops

Lavender (soothing and healing especially with blisters) | 10 drops

I mix them in small glass vials that you can buy online at essential oil stores and such.

This creates plenty of blend to get me through an outbreak. I typically apply it about 4x per day with a Q-tip or with my fingertip but make sure to wash my hands extremely thoroughly afterwards.

It works best at the very first tingle - but that's true of most remedies including the OTC ones. I find it to be gentle and moisturizing so there's no horrible stinging (can't even imagine using acetone in this way! ), burning, terrible smell, etc. There is also much less to no horrible crusting and scabbing.

Used it about 2 weeks about 5 days before a weekend trip - caught it right away the and sore was literally gone in 2 days!

Hope it helps!

Clove Oil

Posted by Christy B (Turbotville, Pa USA) on 03/13/2024
★★★★★

Most of the time, when I feel the first tingle of a cold sore, I can head it off with high doses of lysine. Unfortunately, there are some times, like the one I'm dealing with now, where a cold sore comes out overnight without any warning and is past the point of not showing up by the time I wake up in the morning. Whenever that happens, I put a little bit of clove bud essential oil on a cotton ball and hold it against the sore for about 30 seconds. It's amazing because it clears the cold sore up faster and also takes the pain and itching away immediately. I have a toddler, so after I apply clove bud oil, I cover the sore with a colloidal patch to keep little hands from bumping into the infected site.

Acetone

Posted by Whathadhappendedwas (Florida) on 08/28/2023
★★★★★

Acetone is the best remedy I've tried. I get the big swollen lip. Others have said to keep it on for five minutes. However, I kept it on for a min or so at a time. I did it about 20 times the first day.

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.

DMSO

Posted by Kristi LMT (Moore, OK) on 03/03/2023
★★★★★

2 drops of 99.9% DMSO with 2 drops of reverse osmosis water on a q-tip. Apply to cold sore area. With 1 application, mine was completely gone in 4-6 hours. It was applied within hours of the start of it.

Black Tea

Posted by Trista (Sydney, Australia ) on 09/13/2022
★★★★★

Recently found that black tea gets rid of my coldsores.

I usually drink coffee but like to have tea sometimes.

I had a cold sore a few weeks ago and didn't have lemongrass that I usually use on them.

After having a few sips of black tea I realised the swelling feeling was gone.. so I put some directly on the sore. It basically stopped the progression of the coldsore and started healing.

I tried it again today after having another one pop up, it didn't disappoint and is healing.

Apparently the tannins in the tea kill off the coldsore virus.

Colloidal Silver

Posted by Drew (Scotland, UK ) on 09/02/2021
★★★★★

Colloidal silver is the only thing I have found which a real and quick effect on cold sores. I apply it frequently when I get a flare-up.
I am not prone to cold sores, and the vast majority of the ones I have had can be traced to unwittingly ingesting the poison that is aspartame.
Thankfully, the silver goes a long way to countering it. If I'm quick enough, it can stop an outbreak entirely.

Bleach

Posted by Fruitful Eden (Or) on 11/21/2020 4 posts
★★★★★

Like Gloria (2009), Bleach worked for me when I have a cold sore a few years back. It made sense that it would kill a virus since that's what it says on the bottle. so I diluted a little bleach and pressed it on there until it stung and then I only had to reapply it a few times because it didn't get any worse after that.

Honey

Posted by Bee (Lansing, Mi) on 10/20/2018
★★★★★

My go to for outbreaks is honey. Its antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, and conditioning benefits work great at all stages of these buggers. So soothing and I rarely have the long scab stage anymore. I tried melaleuca homey this time and don't think it's any better than the organic I usually have. Take a tbls internally too!

Ice

Posted by Susie (Hawke's Bay, Nz) on 09/19/2018
★★★★★

I have struggled with cold sores for 23 years now and have tried many things to ease the pain and make them go away quicker. I have also been an Earth Clinic follower for over 10 years and have never posted a comment because nothing has ever worked for me. Until today! I am still really stunned and cannot quite believe that it has worked so well. I keep checking my lip, but no, there is definitely no coldsore there. This morning I was at an appointment and I felt my lip start to swell and get really hot and sore. I was gutted because I am going away tomorrow for a few days and did not want to have to worry about a cold sore. When my appointment finished I quickly came home and felt I needed to apply ice to it. I did not know ice could help coldsores, it was not a remedy I had ever come across. I just knew I needed to ice it. So I got an ice pack and held it to my lip for at least 10-15 minutes, then when I took the pack off there was no more swelling or heat and the lump had disappeared completely. I could not believe it. I am still surprised! I keep thinking it might come back so I keep checking. I took two Lysine tablets and applied some cream I always put on just to be sure. Nothing there. No heat, no mark, no swelling. Usually by the end of day one I would have a full on throbbing, very painful blistering sore. I wish I had known about this remedy years ago. I know some remedies work for some and not others, but I highly recommend trying ice. It may just work for you like it did for me. And so easy. I only applied it once.

Lemongrass

Posted by Medina (England) on 03/07/2017
★★★★★

I suffered from cold sores all my life. The slightest stress or too much sun & my lips would be covered with the painful blisters. I spent a small fortune on aciclovir & medicated cold sore plasters to manage the outbreaks & noticed my lips had developed mild scarring.

I suddenly stopped getting them, after I started using a new organic lipbalm. Very rarely I might get one above or below my lipline, but never on the lips. The ingredients of the lipbalm are: organic beeswax, organic jojoba oil, lanolin, organic mungongo oil, organic lemongrass oil, organic peppermint oil, organic rosemary oil & vitamin E.

I googled the ingredients to try to identify which was the key anti-cold sore factor and found a 2003 Japanese study on the inhibitory effects of lemongrass oil on the herpes virus, effective even at very low concentrations. Eureka!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14584615

I'm going to attempt to make my own version of lemongrass oil lipbalm as it's such a relief not to have to deal with cold sore outbreaks anymore. Hope this helps someone else too.

Apple Cider Vinegar, Clay

Posted by Sheel (New York, Ny) on 07/08/2016
★★★★★

I just experience an amazing recovery from a recurring cold sore. In the past I have used garlic and tried acetone topically, but I noticed that moisture always exacerbated the sore for example taking a shower would be terrible. This time I figured I would dry the heck out of it so I tried using a clay mask mixed with an equal amount of ACV on my developing cold sore. I did it two times a day for two days now and slept with it on my lip overnight and the cold sore completely skipped it's "exploding with pus" stage, dried up and is healing. I hope you try this, it really worked amazingly well for me.

Acetone

Posted by Annie (Providence, Ri) on 11/18/2015
★★★★★

Acetone worked very well for me. I get cold sores about once a year, usually in the Fall, when my lips start to chap from the cold. I didn't hear about Acetone soon enough to prevent the outbreak of my first cold sore this year - I was already on day 3 after the blisters had broken when I discovered this remedy. I started using it then - and it did speed healing greatly! In fact, it worked so well that I figured I didn't need to use it anymore, that my cold sore would be nearly gone by the next day or so, so I stopped using it. Unfortunately, when I stopped, it got worse the next day. I had to start using it again to see improvement. It made a huge difference in the speed of healing and that was with spotty/very late use!

Also - normally when I have a cold sore outbreak I get at least one or two, sometimes up to four in a row. Sure enough, I started getting not one but two more as the first began healing. I hit them with the Acetone on a cotton swab, pressing it into the newly forming bump/blisters, for at least 30 seconds, at least once every two hours for one day. By the next day - both were completely gone - they never continued forming!

A couple of days later, I started getting yet another, right next to where the first one was. I put Acetone on about every two hours or so, all day long. The next day - the swelling, bump and forming blisters are GONE! Completely! I feel confident that I will never have another cold sore again as long as I catch it in time and always have 100% pure Acetone on hand.

Acetone

Posted by Ed (Seattle, Wa) on 01/01/2016
★★★★★

My diet is somewhat acidic. I would experience cold sore attacks every other week. I stopped taking daily multivitamins due to high L-arinine content of solid multivitamin pills. I have been eating roman lettuce, green cabbage, carrots and other vegetables every day starting this summer.

I had only 1 instant of tingling and reddish color on my lower lip where cold sores would appear before. Tingling, inflammation and skin redness went away in minutes after applying acetone.

Baking Soda

Posted by Inez (Kent, Uk) on 07/25/2014
★★★★★

Bicarbonate of soda for cold sores:

Been having cold sores all my life but it effects me more now as I have fallen in love. Massive cold sore came up yesterday (Thursday )above my lip found this site and made the paste put it on the sore and it went down within an hour. I covered my whole face with it and my skin is so soft and glowing now thank you so much

inez

Ice

Posted by Lavender (Minnesota) on 12/22/2013
★★★★★

This works at the first sign of a sore, quickly and every time.... ICE.... Take a cloth so your fingers don't freeze off, wrap it around a cube of ice. Place the ice directly on the sore. You can move it around the surrounding area, as well. Leave it there until you can't stand it anymore....then do it again....at often as you have time to during one day's time....

I promise you it will go away. The ice does not bother me, I'm used to it, you will too knowing the sore will be gone by evening. This works for me everytime, been doing this for YEARS!

Acetone

Posted by Josephine (Uk) on 10/20/2013
★★★★★

Just wanted to say that acetone for nose ulcers work very well. Just just a cotton bud dipped it into acetone and applied to the sore for one minute. I did this every moring and niht for two days.. The tinggling sensation went after the second application. Thank you Earth Clinic.