Authored by Rodney Southern in Skin Care
Published on 01-24-2009
If you’re having trouble with pimples, don’t despair; there are dozens of home remedies for acne that you could probably in your kitchen right this moment. Following are some great home remedies for acne as well as instructions for preparing them.
One of the most well-known home remedies for acne is colloidal oatmeal, which is why it’s an ingredient in so many over the counter skincare products. Regular oatmeal works too, but if your grocery store sells the colloidal kind, that’s even better because it also helps treat dry skin and rosacea. At any rate, buy unflavored oatmeal (the kind that needs to be cooked on the stovetop, not instant, because stovetop oatmeal has more fiber), cook it according to the instructions. Apply it on the face as a mask, let settle until it dries, and then remove it with a warm washcloth, using it as a gentle scrub in the process. You can also add plain, unflavored yogurt to the cooked oatmeal, which will make the mask more soothing and give added benefits due to the beneficial bacteria in the yogurt.
One of the home remedies for acne that might be hard to implement unless you know you’re going to have no visitors for a few days is rubbing your face several times daily with fresh cloves of garlic. Of course, the scent can be irritating and hard to remove (try lemon juice; it neutralizes it), but many people swear that this is a very effective home remedy for acne.
Lemon juice itself is also one of the most effective home remedies for acne. Mix lemon juice with rose water (found in the drink mixers section of the supermarket), apply to the face with cotton swabs, leave it on until it dries and then wash the mixture off. Repeat this process for a month and you should see a marked improvement at the end of it. Or, if you’re in a hurry, just cut a lemon in half and scrub your face with it. This trick has been used by models since the 1940’s to improve their complexions.
If you’ve got an aloe vera plant, breaking the leaves and applying the gel that oozes out to your face is a great home remedy for acne. Or, for a sweeter home remedy, mix honey and grated orange peel and apply the paste as a mask. This certainly smells better and is effective as well.
Finally, one of the home acne remedies that you might never have heard of before is brewing a strong tea made with a combination of dried basil and multiple tea bags (or loose tea, since you’ll have to use a strainer anyway to get the basil leaves out). Use the resulting tea as a toner (if you make enough to use over a week, store it in the refrigerator so it doesn’t go bad). You can do variations of this with herbal teas such as rose hip tea that have ingredients which also help acne.
