Home Remedies for Acne
Those working under a budget or feeling that the many chemicals found in acne treatment products may begin to feel that home remedies for acne are their new best bet. If you’re planning to treat your acne from home, the best thing to do is to learn about your own acne and be aware of what causes it. By now you may notice your skin is extra oily, extra dry, or simply suffering from bacteria (stop touching your face!). Regardless of the reason, there are several home treaments you can try.
Oily Skin
Oatmeal masks work great for oily skin; they absorb extra moisture naturally and gently. For an oil mask, cook oatmeal and keep it luke-warm to warm– you want it to be comfortable. Apply it to your face and let it sit for ten or fifteen minutes to give it ample time to take in your extra oils.
You can do this for as much as twice a day, but pull back if you’re getting dried out. Dry skin is just as bad for acne, and not to mention uncomfortably itchy and flaky.
Dry Skin
I find cucumber masks to be the best for dry skin, as cucumber has natural moisturizing effects and is still cleansing. (Personally, I don’t use home products anymore as my acne was a bit too strong, but the products I do use have cucumber still. That’s how much I like it.) Blend cucumbers, either with a blender or with some of your own mashing to make it into a paste. Apply the paste to your skin and leave sitting for ten or fifteen minutes.
Even if you have oily skin, or are in one of your oily skin periods, I would still success the occasional cucumber mask once a week or so as they help take out redness and it does clean your skin without actually adding oils to your skin.
Bacteria!
Stop touching your face!
Okay, even so, sometimes bacteria driven acne is hard to deal with. It’s usually the acne you see on your cheeks from resting your cheek in your hand, or around your hairline if you don’t wash your hair often enough. Yogurt masks work great for this because yogurt has live active cultures; these little microscopic buggers eat bacteria, so leaving a mask on for ten minutes or so will give them a chance to do their jobs.
Use plain, organic yogurt. There’s really no reason to go smearing sugars and extra fruits or vanilla on on your face. Eating yogurt, I find, actually helps too. It’s healthier to eat yogurt that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup or excess sugars too, but when eating it, you’re more worried about the live cultures. When they’re in your body, they boost your immune system, and that can help with some people’s acne.
Quick Fixes
When you’re red, inflamed, and feeling like a mess, the fastest way to take care of yourself is to boil a washcloth (to sterilize it) then once it’s cool enough, to press the heat over your face and acne gently for about thirty seconds to a minute. This will take out a lot of the redness and open up your pores. It’s not a bad idea to do this before other treatments to make your skin more supple and readily able to be cleansed. Careful though: zits and pimples that are threatening to pop will be much more likely to open up after a hot washcloth facial as their pores are ride open. However, if they’re ready to open up on their own, it may be best to aid them the best you can.
