When it comes to trying to clear up my skin, I can confidently say I’ve tried the majority of home remedies for getting rid of spots. Now, at the royal age of 20 (nearly 21), I’m using my experience with all these “remedies” to give a succinct list of the one’s that actually did help my skin, rather than leave me stood in the mirror the morning before school wondering how on earth that massive spot managed to appear in the middle of my forehead overnight.
Steam:
Steaming your skin is a type of deep cleansing that helps unblock pores and dilate the skin, making it easier to remove dirt and impurities as well as clear pus from pimples. For those of us who can’t afford to pay to have their skin steamed, try boiling water in a pan and holding your head over it for 5 – 10 minutes with a towel over your head (you feel weird af, but I promise you it works).
After that remove impurities from your opened pores through either using a face mask or washing your face with a spot-reducing cleanser. Don’t use a facial scrub – this will only leave your face feeling raw and puffy. After this, tone and moisturise your face in whatever way you normally do.
Toothpaste:
Toothpaste was always hit and miss with my own skin, but a lot of people say it works wonders on tougher spots and acne. It’s a pretty straight forward method, you just put toothpaste over wherever you’ve got a blemish, leave overnight or a couple of hours and it reduces the redness and size.
You should always use white toothpaste, never gel/blue toothpaste. I’d also recommend not using this one every night because toothpaste has a drying effect on skin, and so can cause skin to blister – which looks even worse than the spot in the first place.
Vinegar:
Vinegar is another one you want to be careful of because it can sting, especially if you’ve just popped a spot/picked a scab (don’t pretend like you’re one of those people that “doesn’t pick their spots”, nobody is that angelic).
You want to be sure to use apple cider vinegar, which is the mildest form of vinegar you can get, and mix it with whatever toner you use. If you don’t use a toner, you can use water. Make however much mixture you need depending on the condition of your skin, but make sure it’s half vinegar half water/toner.
Drink water:
At least 2 litres a day and your skin should clear up after about a week or so. This will make you need to pee a lot, but bad skin can often be caused by dehydration. So if you think you can cope with peeing a few extra times a day in order to have naturally fresh and clear skin, then I’d try taking a 500ml bottle with you everywhere you go and filling it up four times a day.
You could try flavoured water if you don’t like the taste of water on its own. Plus, to make remembering to drink water easier you should set yourself the target of finishing the bottle twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon – that way it feels like less of a deadline that you have to meet suddenly.
Lemon juice:
Lemon juice is a natural disinfectant, so for this one you’ll want to squeeze a lemon into a bowl and use a cotton pad to put it over the problem areas on your face. Lemon juice will sting like vinegar so don’t put it over any cuts or bleeding blemishes.
If you’re using this in the morning, leave it on for 5 minutes before washing it off with cool water. But my suggestion would be to leave it on overnight like the toothpaste and wash it off in the morning for the best results.
Washing your face with green tea:
I’m sure everyone’s sick of hearing about the benefits of green tea, but honestly it’s a gift from God and we are not worthy of it’s powers.
You can either lie down with green teabags over your spots/acne (which leaves you susceptible to being caught with teabags strewn across your face by whoever you live with), or make a cup of green tea and wait for it to cool before washing you face with it.
Becky Marrow 