Acne is totally annoying, that is when it’s not ridiculously painful. While everyone suffers the occasional breakout there are those times when you get a blemish that has decided to rival the size and fortitude of Mount Kilimanjaro. In these instances, aside from going the old route of straight up wearing a paper bag over your head, there are some natural ways you can ease the discomfort as well as speed along the healing process. From the most aggressive to the most gentle, these remedies will help you manage the irritation and reduce the appearance of those pesky painful pimples.
Home remedies for acne
1. Honey mask
Often when people are suffering from painful breakouts they will resort to harsh cleaners and treatments assuming their skin just isn’t clean enough. In reality, these aggressive treatments can worsen already inflamed and sensitive skin. Instead of warring against acne and putting yourself through even more pain and suffering, go in the opposite direction and pamper your skin with gentle and soothing treatments.
A homemade honey mask offers many benefits for troubled skin, not the least of which is the ability to calm and soothe painful breakouts. Plus, honey has antibacterial properties which can help reduce the occurrence of breakouts as well as support the healing of current blemish spots.
2. Green tea
Green tea has made a name for itself over the years as a mild but effective natural topical treatment. Its antioxidant-packed plant leaves can provide healthy and natural support for everything from bug bites to inflamed, irritated, painful pimples. Sadly, drinking green tea doesn’t seem to provide the same benefits as applying it topically, so as much as you may enjoy a nice cup of fresh green tea to start your day, if you want to help fight blemishes and breakouts you will need to apply it topically.
There are some green tea creams available but if those don’t suit your needs or our skin just doesn’t like them, make your own green tea toner at home. Soak a handful of green tea leaves in freshly boiled water for 3-5 minutes. Once it’s cooled you can keep it in a glass bottle for up to a week (in the refrigerator) or for a few days in a spray bottle. Use it as a spray toner or apply it to your face with a cotton cloth and let it air dry.
3. Tea tree oil
This is a highly effective but also more aggressive treatment for blemishes. Tea tree oil has antibacterial properties that can help keep skin clean and clear and also counteract the inflammation that comes with breakouts and pimples. It is a strong essential oil that you should use sparingly though because if you’re too aggressive you can end up irritating your skin or causing even more painful problems.
Do not use tea tree oil as a toner (like the great tea solution) or witch hazelm,which we will cover in the next section, but only as a spot treatment. Because tea tree oil is so strong, you will need to make a small solution mixture that is 1 part tea tree oil to 10 parts water. Keep it in a glass bottle, and it will stay fresh for a few days without refrigeration. Apply the solution only to pimples or small sections of breakouts with a clean cotton cloth or organic cotton balls. You can also use a tea tree oil blemish touch stick.
4. Witch hazel
Although witch hazel doesn’t have the reputation of tea tree oil for treating acne and pimples, what it does have is an undeniable amount of antioxidants and antibacterial properties to keep your skin clean and healthy. You can make your own witch hazel toner and use it nightly, but since it can be hard to find actual bark from a witch hazel shrub, you are probably better off buying already prepared witch hazel solution and diluting it to meet the needs of your particular skin problems. Witch hazel is best for preventing breakouts by promoting healthy skin and helping to reduce inflammation but can be relatively effective at speeding the healing process for current breakouts pimple patches.
5. Aloe vera gel
For the truly sensitive, and we don’t me fragile hearts but delicate skin, the only path to reduced pain and swelling when breakouts occur may be aloe vera gel. Sometimes sensitive skin is pushed beyond its limits and after days or weeks of pollution, dirt, oil, and general debris that you skin comes into contact with on a daily basis, your face reaches its breaking point. Instead of aggressively fighting against skin that is already inflamed and irritated in the midst of a serious breakout, go the other direction and pamper your sensitive and stressed out face.
Ideally, you own an aloe vera plant and can pick off leaves to use the fresh and completely natural soothing and moisturizing properties of the plant. But if that is not the case, look for 100% pure aloe vera gel with no added ingredients and make this your daily moisturizer while you work to give your skin a break and let it heal.
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