There are a ton of home remedies for acne that have been used over the years.  But do any of them have any real merit? One such remedy that has gained some attention is the use of regular aspirin, topically, on the face or where ever you have skin affected by acne.  How would rubbing aspirin on your face help to clear up acne?  Well, maybe it’s the anti inflammatory nature of the aspirin? After all, that’s what aspirin is essentially, it’s a pain reliever and anti inflammatory agent, so wouldn’t that be why it might help your skin to clear up?

Actually, my reasoning is not correct for why the popular “aspirin mask” for acne home remedy may work to help clear acne.  It’s because the aspirin itself breaks down into a beta hydroxy acid that has great exfoliation and cleansing properties, to get down into the skin and help to clear the pores.

You may have heard of alpha hydroxy acids, which are used in a lot of skincare products, both top of the line and OTC ones. Well, beta hydroxy is of the same family, and it is used in some beauty and skin care products as well, and it is known mostly for it’s exfoliating benefits, revealing fresh new skin.

The way the aspirin treatment typically works is that you grind these tablets (not the type with the anti stomach upset coating on them, just plain aspirin) in some water and you rub it allover your face, leaving it there for a few minutes like a mask.

It is much better if you can use the homemade facial mask instead of readymade. There is plenty of simple and natural ways to keep the skin on your face beautiful that can be found right in your own home, and are safe for any type of skin!

Use the homemade facial mask which suits your skin:  first identify your skin type before you apply the homemade face mask. It is best to try out a few of the homemade facial masks suited to your skin type and discover which of them is the most helpful to you.

Here are some facial scrubs and masks that you can make on your own in your kitchen. Oatmeal is always a great way to keep your skin smooth and soft, and it evens out your facial skin color tones for a naturally radiant glow.

To make easy oatmeal face mask, buy regular unbleached oatmeal, and mix it with water and egg whites. There are no specific amounts, just mix them until they are constancy similar to sticky bread dough. Once it is all mixed together, stir in a tiny bit of honey, and rub it on your face in small circles.

You do not have to leave this mask on very long; about five minutes will be enough for it to work. Rinse it off in the sink or shower, and there it goes… smoother, softer, healthier facial skin within minutes. Another mask good for our skin is made from cucumber.

We make a paste by mixing one small cucumber and one cup of oatmeal. Then, we mix one teaspoon of this paste with one teaspoon of yogurt for oily skin or milk malai for dry skin, and leave for 30 minutes and then wash.

Also, honey is well known ingredient in cosmetic industry. We could easily made face mask only with honey. First we clean our face with warm water to open up the pores. We apply honey on our face, and leave it for half an hour. Then, we wash it with warm water, and after that we use cold water to close the pores.
Beauty products help us to look and feel our best.

These products have been associated with helping us to keep our mind and spirit healthy as well as our body by playing a role in helping us to maintain a high self esteem. Beauty products do not need to be expensive.

There is also another staple that everyone usually has around their house that can also come in handy as part of your natural skincare routine, and that is sugar. My best friend since high school has used a sugar scrub on her face now for years, and her skin looks great. She uses sugar simply to exfoliate her skin since it’s granular in nature, and it’s not irritating or drying like table salt or other granular substances would be to the skin, and she loves it. Not to mention, the roughly twenty cent price tag on a good scrub down with table sugar is definitely appealing as well.

Baking soda is supposed to work well on acne lesions and also to help exfoliate and de-bacterialize the immediate area. It acts as sort of an antibacterial agent because of it’s ability to kill small organisms due to it’s volatile properties, and yet it is natural, so it is gentle on the skin as long as it’s not left on the skin for too long (as what I probably did). It can also be used as a paste to put over one single zit, but not a zit that has been popped already since this may just cause additional irritation.

Some people say that baking soda actually helps redness go away, but that was not my personal experience. Baking soda is definitely worth a try though, especially since you have so little to use by putting it on your face since it’s so cheap.

I can tell you what makes me break out, what makes my skin look dull and bloated and not colored so well, and what foods seem to really boost my skin’s overall radiance, resilience, and overall beauty and clarity.  For me, there’s no question that my diet has everything to do with how I appear on the outside.  Your diet an be your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to beauty and your skin.

Here are some of the foods on my good food list, that I swear tend to make my skin more breakout resistent, and much more well toned looking, as well as more defined.  I have a much better clarity and color when I eat these foods in abundance :

Lemon juice in my water

Limiting Caffeine

Lots of omega 3 rich nuts, fish and olive oil.  I even put a little olive oil in my I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray butter, to add a little extra omega 3 power to it since I use this on my veggies with dinner because it has no fat.

Broccoli, spinach, kale, onions, green beans, almonds, salads with dark leafy greens, tomatoes, cucumbers

Lots of berries.  My favorites are blackberries and blueberries, loaded with nutrients, brimming with antioxidants.

Low fat or fat free dairy, but not too much.  I love a good light yogurt and maybe some fat free cheese, and while I think high fat dairy is bad for the skin, I believe low fat dairy is fine.

Bad foods for acne and skin :

Sugar or anything with a lot of sugar in it.

Lots of refined carbs such as chips, pretzels, sugarys sodas and drinks

Alcohol

Coffee and caffeinated beverages.

Fatty meats.

Fatty dairy.

Too much mixing of food groups during meals.  I believe this causes a lot of acidity in the system, which lead to inflammation.  An example of bad food combining would be pizza with the works.  You’re combining meats, cheese, bread, and veggies.  A good example of good food combining is chicken breast with broccoli and a salad.

There are lots of natural ingredients that have proven excellent for the skin’s tone, clarity and suppleness, and although I still highly recommend an herbal oral acne supplement as well, or even a homeopathic acne treatment on top of treating your skin topically since the root of acne occurs inside of our bodies, not outside, I think that treating yourself to these home made acne treatments is not only fun, but eye opening.

I’ve talked a lot about my earlier years and experimenting with various acne remedies that I made myself at home, but none were with the savvy that some of these recipes come with, and the knowledge about how the ingredients soften the skin without irritating acne prone skin.  Enjoy! 

I would have given anything to enjoy the pristine complexion that so many of my friends seemed to enjoy when I was a preteen and well into my teen years, and yet the answer remained elusive to me until I was an adult and learned about all of the excellent alternative acne treatments I could use as well as how my diet and lifestyle could clear my skin. 

 

Little did I know at that time, mostly because the internet was not nearly as sophisticated, and barely used at all back then, the plethora of acne cures, treatments, ointments, creams, lotions, devices and diet and lifestyle plans that could clear up my acne if I’d only had the benefit of enlightenment that this vast network of information could have shown me. 

 

However, today is today, and I’m pretty much acne free, so there’s no use crying over spilled milk as they say.  Nowadays, I’m reading about some very interesting, very unorthodox treatments for acne that have seemed to work for many individuals, of course to varying degrees, and thought it fun to share some of the more unusual treatment methods with you here today. 

 

The most interesting and certainly dubious if ever there was one, acne treatment I’ve read about, is one that is not an acne treatment at all, but rather one of those happenstance “discoveries” of a totally unrelated substance to acne treatment that is found to be a good topical antidote to acne.  It’s actually a sexual lubricant used in Cambodia for condoms commonly used by those in the sex trade for protection against STD’s called Number One Plus.  

 

Many have testified that this lubricant, when applied topically to acne problem areas, actually dries up acne lesions fairly quickly.  There is really no explanation for how someone happened to find this out, but I suppose we can just use our imaginations on that one!

 

Another interesting and unusual acne treatment I’ve heard of throughout my years of research is the topical application of toothpaste to acne lesions.  I tried this one and it didn’t work for me, but my own father swore that it helped him clear up acne spots when he was in his teens, and I did also have one friend who said this technique worked for her, but she emphasized that it had to be a white paste type, not blue or clear or a gel. 

 

Another err, interesting treatment that is supposed to be therapeutic for acne as well as other common skincare woes is one that is performed by an asian-inspired beauty salon that gives facials that are made with ingredients that include nightingale droppings.  Yes, you read that right – bird poop as an acne and skin care treatment!  Still, they swear that this stuff works, so who are we to judge unless we try it?

 

Here is one that I actually like and also believe it has merit and works as I had tried it back in my more experimental (and yes, I guess desperate) days.  It’s an egg white mask.  What you do is take the white of a raw egg, separated of course from the yolk, and you rub it on your face just like you would any other type of skin mask that you buy in a store.  You let the egg white dry on your face, then rinse it off. 

 

It leaves your skin feeling baby soft and smooth and is supposed to have soothing, therapeutic effects on skin that is affected by acne, which is often inflamed and irritated.  This is one of the best and cheapest ways to pamper yourself a bit and give yourself a little salon treatment without spending the money.  Just watch you don’t let the egg drip off your face! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really can control the food we put in our mouth, even if we can’t control whether or not we have “good skin genes”, so stop thinking that your acne is out of your control, because as soon as you think that, you’ve lost part or all of the battle for clear, great skin!  Food is probably one of the best ways we can treat our skin to a better look, less acne and a youthful, toned and even look for years to come.  Thanks for reading as always everyone!

If you want to try to neutralize inflammation caused by eating foods that increase skin volatility as mentioned above, a good suggestion is to start drinking lemon water.  Not only is drinking lemon juice infused water a refreshing difference from plain old water, but water with about an eighth of a lemon (preferably organic) squeezed into it can help neutralize acidity in the body caused by acid-producing foods, which in turn limits inflammation.  Seriously, begin to drink lemon juice infused water for a few days and I’d be surprised if you don’t see at least a little difference in the way your skin looks.
 

If you want to get really adventurous, add a sprinkle or two of cinnamon, again prefereably organic, to your water, and you may also enjoy a bit of a revved up metabolism as well as a more stabilized blood sugar level, as research is showing cinnamon has excellent benefits for blood sugar stabilization.  Why do I mention blood sugar?  Well, because a stable blood sugar level helps to lower inflammation, and it also helps reduce the effects of stress and anxiety which can trigger higher levels of androgens in the body, which are the very hormones that cause acne. 
 

And there you have it, free or very cheap, easily incorporated, and dare I say “pleasant” ways to combat acne.  Not only do these suggestions help reduce breakouts, they are also generally beneficial to your health in other numerous ways.  Who says everyone needs a dermatologist or expensive skin care regimens to achieve pristine skin?  
 

 

Acne remedies are a dime a dozen these days, and some of them like Zenmed’s acne line as well as the natural antioxidant acne formula Acnezine are highly recommended, but there are also other things you can do to significantly curb your acne without buying anything.  The very word “acne” conjures in many people’s minds either past or present struggles with self image, embarrassment and feelings of helplessness if they’ve ever suffered this skin condition, or are currently suffering varying degrees of acne. 
Our skin’s appearance is very important, and it seems to have been only made more important by the emphasis of “great skin” in beauty magazines, tabloids and other media outlets that our society has become so enthralled with.  It’s no wonder that the skincare industry has enjoyed growth and profits in leaps and bounds over the past fifteen to twenty years.
So, what can you do, besides enlist the help of an expensive dermatologist or spa specializing in skin care to help combat acne and prevent new breakouts on your own, for next to nothing, or better yet, free?  Well, we will start off with focusing on things you can change in your diet to get rid of or dramatically reduce acne breakouts, since diet is more key for your skin’s appearance and health than most people may think. 
There are many schools of thought on what to avoid and what to include in the diet if you are to attain and maintain clear skin, however, one thing remains pretty clear, and that is the avoidance of sugary foods and caffeine.  I cannot tell you how many times I myself have experienced major periods of breakouts that I can directly attribute to the consumption of sugar or caffeine in excess. 
Sure, it’s ok to have a sweet snack (a small one!) here and there, and not suffer the consequences of a few new pimples, but by and large it is prudent to either strictly limit sugar or try to eradicate it all together.  Sugar has many destructive properties that are generally bad for overall health, but it’s recently been proven to help accelerate the aging process of the skin, and also to lend a hand in the inflammation of skin cells. 
Inflammation is a direct cause of acne, since it is by definition an inflammatory skin condition, so we can safely say that sugar is indeed a category of food to be avoided in the quest to be acne free, oh and also to keep your skin young too!  OK, enough about sugar, now let’s move onto to another culprit behind acne.  Caffeine can have similar effects on the skin to sugar, since it actually may increase inflammation, especially in some people who are more caffeine-sensitive than others (like myself). 
With all the super caffeinated beverages out on the market today, it’s no wonder we’re all not walking around with broken out faces.  I suspect that teens especially are susceptible to the caffeinated drink rage, which is unfortunate because they may be unknowingly aggravating their skin and causing breakouts at the age where they are more apt to break out anyways. 
Caffeine can also produce an uneven and “bumpy” texture of the skin.  Beverages aren’t the only culprit either, since there are many supplements, pills and diet aids that contain stimulants that will break your skin out faster than you can say “energy”.  Caffeinated drinks and other products containing stimulants should be avoided if you want to avoid bumpy, broken out skin.