Donald Saunders asked:


There are a very large number of products available today for the treatment of acne and these range from the relatively inexpensive to those that will cost you an arm and a leg. However, since acne generally takes a long time to clear up, even the cheaper treatments can soon add up to quite a lot of money. One alternative however is to turn your attention to the many home remedies which have been around for years and which, in many cases, really do work for some people.

A note of caution before you start looking at home remedies. Before using any home remedy you must be sure that the remedy in question is safe because the last thing you want to do is to use anything which is going to either make your acne worse or damage your skin. If you are not absolutely sure that a treatment is safe then either consult your doctor or test the treatment on a very small area of your skin, other than your face, before putting it into general use. Also, if you are suffering from anything other than mild acne then you should consult your doctor before trying to cure it yourself. Moderate to severe acne can not only be difficult to treat, but it can also cause considerable and permanent scarring if it is not treated correctly.

Perhaps the most widely used over-the-counter treatment for acne is benzoyl peroxide which can be purchased as a cream or a lotion. However benzoyl peroxide is also used in many soaps and face washes and so one cheaper alternative is simply to replace your usual soap or face wash with one containing benzoyl peroxide. This is one solution which can be very effective but it must also be used with care as benzoyl peroxide can cause your skin to become dry and can also lead to irritation and redness if overused.

A second very commonly used treatment is salicylic acid (the active ingredient in aspirin) and this can normally be purchased quite cheaply either as facial pads or as a facial wash. This can be especially helpful in unclogging the pores of your skin and helping your acne to heal.

Besides these two treatments, which are variations of two standard over-the-counter treatments, there are a host of other remedies which include the use of goat’s milk (normally in the form of a soap, vinegar and a number of herbs. The recipes for these are many and varied and there are far too many to list them all here. However, a search on your favorite search engine for example for “vinegar + acne” will provide you with several ideas for using both straight vinegar and apple cider vinegar to help treat your spots. A search for “garlic + acne” will produce similar results.

One thing that you must remember when trying any home remedy is to give it time to work. Acne is not something which you can cure in a couple of days and even with the best treatment it generally takes weeks, if not months. So try a remedy for at least a couple of weeks and if you are getting no joy from it then move on and try something else. Remember too that different people’s skin reacts differently and that what will work for one person will not necessarily work for the next.

Home remedies for acne can be very effective, but they will not normally work as effectively as medication which has been specifically formulated for the job. At the end of the day however patience will normally yield results.