Home Remedies To Treat Acne
When it comes to treating acne, there are no better remedies out there than home remedies. Remedies of old handed down from generation to generation that have withstood the test of time are known to work and their effectiveness has been long proven. Most people turn to home remedies for three key reasons: Accessibility, affordability, and comfort. Home remedies are quite accessible because most of the recipes calls for things that you can easily find around your house. Also, as far as most home remedies go, most of what you need also usually turns out to be quite affordable. Finally, some people out there have skin that is simply just too sensitive or allergic to chemicals in over the counter acne treatments that home remedies seem like an attractive option. Whatever your reason to look at home remedies, you’ve come to the right place!
One thing that people need to stop confusing is the cost and brand behind an acne solution and its effectiveness. A lot of people tend to stay away from various home remedies because they believe that they simply won’t work. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Not only do acne treatments work, but a lot of them have been around for generations and their usefulness is proven and documented!
*Special Note* With any of the acne remedies provided here, we recommend that you try them in a small area of your face or other parts of the body first before going all out and covering yourself in whatever it is you’re trying. Some people’s skin tolerates different substances on it better than others and you may be allergic to something and not even know it. Use caution!
Different Home Acne Remedies
Honey For Acne
Requires: Organic Honey
Estimated Cost: $2.29 – $5.99
Pros: Reduces acne scars, leaves skin feeling extremely smooth, fast acting
Cons: Messy, sticky, a tad more expensive than some other solutions.
Honey is a great home remedy for acne that has been used for centuries to reduce blemishes and brighten skin. Honey is a known humectant (which means it draws in moisture) and it also is anti-bacterial due to its high sugar content. When it comes to using honey as a mask, we recommend that you first wash your face completely and pat dry with a towel. Get some honey and warm it up a bit in the microwave, but just for a few seconds we definitely don’t want it hot! Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to slather around the face evenly. Leave the honey on for at least thirty minutes but closer to an hour is better. In the mean time, relax and watch some tv or read a good book. When enough time has elapsed. Clean off all the honey with warm (not hot) water and feel how smooth and clean your face feels. It should only take a few applications before you see significant improvements in your acne condition.
Aloe Vera
Requires: Aloe Vera Plant, Gel, or Extract
Estimated Cost: Free to $10.99
Pros: Reduces redness very quickly, helps to reduce swelling and acne puffiness, leaves a cooling/soothing feeling.
Cons: Can leave a shine to face. Face can feel tight after use. Some people are allergic to Aloe Vera.
If anyone had a mother like me, then you had an Aloe Vera plant in the window. Even as a kid it left me in wonders on how mom would snap off a plant and make a burn feel better. Aloe Vera really is a miracle plant. It’ll help sooth burns, heal skin, and is anti-bacteria, anti-inflammatory, and anti-septic. It’ll make you go to the bathroom if you eat it, and will improve your immune system at the same time, and it helps to control acne too! As far as acne is concerned, it is useful for treating new pimples and scarring. It can help dry out pimples as they form, and can kill the bacteria that causes acne to get red and ugly. To save money, use the plant directly as extracts and Aloe Vera oils are expensive and their quality can always be questioned.
Requires: Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)
Estimated Cost: $.59 – $1.99
Pros: Easy to find, inexpensive, dries pimples quickly, leaves skin smoother, softer, and brighter. Fast Acting!
Cons: May be rough on sensitive skin, can sting if it gets into open sores.
Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate as it is known scientifically is quickly rising to the top of all time favorite home remedies. It works in several different ways. Baking soda is great for soaking up all the oil and gunk that is on your face gently and easily. The grains are somewhat rough and so massaging the face with a mixture of baking soda and water will exfoliate the face. Its bicarbonate ingredient will also leave your skin feeling very smooth and silky. Many people also swear that baking soda is good for acne scarring and for lightening discolorations on the face. The one drawback is baking soda is known to be kinda harsh and can do worse for people with really sensitive skin. It’s paramount to try this on a small area first before covering your entire face with baking soda! Finally, for those that find that it works for them come way ahead because as far as home remedies for acne goes, baking soda is the cheapest!
Apple Cider Vinegar for Acne
Requires: Apple Cider Vinegar (Must be Apple Cider Vinegar!)
Estimated Cost: $1.49-$3.99
Pros: Inexpensive, reduces facial discoloring, lightens acne scars, helps dry out pimples
Cons: Apple cider vinegar has a strong smell, may sting open acne sores a bit.
Apple cider vinegar is a remedy that has gained more traction over the years. It’s been long known t hat apple cider vinegar is an excellent cleansing and detox solution. What separates apple cider vinegar (ACV) from other types of vinegar is obviously it is made by apples. Apple vinegar is rich in alpha-hydroxy acids, which help to dissolve fat deposits and clogged pores on your skins surface. The one thing that has kept ACV from being one of the top acne home remedies is the smell. ACV has a very strong, pungent smell that many people have a hard time dealing with. Most people get around this by diluting ACV with water to bring down the intensity a bit.
Garlic
Requires: Cloves of fresh garlic.
Estimated Cost: $.49 – $1.99
Pros: Inexpensive, purifies the body, effective, powerful antibiotic
Cons: The taste and the smell is intense. Some people are allergic to garlic. Takes longer to see results.
Using garlic to treat acne revolves around eating and consuming the garlic instead of a topical skin solution. Because of this reason, this remedy takes a little longer to get off the ground but is just as effective. Eating garlic cloves helps to purify the body and get rid of toxins . You can also apply garlic juice as a topical treatment. Never put pure garlic juice on open wounds as it will hurt like @#(% and burn for a while. Mix garlic oil with vinegar to get a double whammy acne treatment!
Oatmeal/Oats
Requires: Oatmeal and some kind of mixing agent such as honey.
Estimated Cost: $.99 – $3.99
Pros: Really gets rid of oil on the skin, leaves the skin feeling good. Tends to work well for people with sensitive skin.
Cons: Messy, need to mix with another ingredient to get it to “stick”.
Oatmeal has been an American home remedy for acne for generations and its still being passed down. When it comes to acne, acne is caused by three things: oil on the skin, dead skin, and bacteria munching on the oil and dead skin cells. What oatmeal is really known for is its ability to draw oil out of the face and skin. The astringent qualities of oatmeal act to constrict skin pores after they have been cleaned protecting them from infection. Most people mix oatmeal with honey to keep the oatmeal together and this works well on two levels. You get both the benefit from a honey mask and an oatmeal mask! Try this one out!
Toothpaste
Requires: Toothpaste (The white paste kind, not the gels!)
Estimated Cost: $1.79 – $5.99
Pros: Helps clear acne overnight, fast and effective. Easy to apply and usually quite accessible.
Cons: Not meant to be used on whole face, only spot treats acne. Burns a bit. Leaves you smelling “minty fresh”
Believe it or not, toothpaste has become all the rave on the Internet. From facebook on down to all the different acne forums, people left and right are claiming that toothpaste is a great cure for acne. The idea that toothpaste works for acne revolves around the two main ingredients of toothpaste. Peroxide and baking soda! Both of these ingredients are already used in many of our other treatments so it would make sense that they’d work when in toothpaste as well! Some of the more expensive toothpaste also contain anti-bacterial ingredients that may or may not help. The basic premise is to cover individual pimples with a dab of toothpaste before you go to bed. The pimple should be visibly reduced the next day.
Egg Whites
Requires: A couple of eggs.
Estimated Cost: $.59-$1.99
Pro: Leaves skin feeling extremely smooth, evens skin tone, dries out acne, effective, readily available and cheap.
Cons: Kind of messy and it can smell bad. Some people are allergic to eggs.
Egg whites are great at taking oil off of the face and clearing out any clogged pores that might occur. The benefit that skin gets from the eggs only comes from the whites and therefore it is essential when making an egg white mask that you don’t include any of the yolk as the ingredient. The yolk is full of fat and cholesterol which can quickly clog up pores. We have a great egg white mask recipe!
Waystoclearacne.info famous egg white mask recipe!
What you’ll need:
1 large or jumbo egg
1 tablespoon of milk, the fatter the better!
1 tablespoon of honey
1 Q-tip
1 cotton ball
1. Very carefully crack an egg over the bowl and slowly pull the shell apart draining the white gooey stuff from the yolk. You can juggle the yolk between the two egg shells to get more egg white out. Don’t break the yolk or mix it up!
2. While beating with a fork, slowly stir in the milk and the honey until you get a frothy light mixture.
3. This concoction is safe enough to use wherever you have acne, so apply generously to acne infected areas such as the face, shoulders, neck, back and chest.
4. Use the Q-tip and the cotton ball to spot treat the areas of serious acne. I also like to apply some of this solution under my eyes as it helps with baggy eyes.
5. Leave on for at least twenty minutes but leaving on for almost an hour seems to bring the best results. Use this recipe twice a week in addition to your normal acne regiment to really help control acne.
Green Tea
Requires: Some green tea and green tea teabags.
Cost: $1.99 – $6.99
Pros: Antioxident and purifier. Lightens scars and draws out inflammation.
Cons: The taste can be quite bitter.
Green tea as an acne home remedy has been noted as an effective treatment for thousands of years! The treatment first gave rise in ancient China whose people have always known the benefits of green tea and its affects on skin. Most people who use green tea as a home remedy use it two ways. First they’ll drink the tea which has antioxidant properties, stress reduction properties, and also acts as a diuretic. Secondly, they’ll use used tea bags and apply them directly onto the source of acne to deliver a dose of antioxidants directly to the skin where it’ll be absorbed. Wash off the tea after its been applied to the face.
This is just some off a list of home remedies that are floating around out there. Remember that home remedies are like any other kind of acne treatment though. What works for one person might not work for you. Also remember that with any treatment that it takes time for things to get better and that things may appear to get worse before they improve. The idea is to pick an acne regiment and stick to the plan. Don’t give up unless you haven’t seen any improvements in a week or two!
