Say Goodbye to Acne

Baking soda is a chemical compound called sodium bicarbonate. It is crystalline fine powder found nearly in every kitchen and used for leavening the food items such as cake.

Garlic has been used successfully to cure acne. Rub with raw garlic several times a day. Garlic is known to have cured the toughest of acne problem. The external use of garlic helps to clear the skin of spots, pimples and boils. Acne can further be cured by eating three seeds of raw garlic once daily for a month. This purifies the blood stream and ensures basic cleansing of blood keeping acne away.

Fenugreek is another useful remedy for acne. A paste made of the leaves of this vegetable, applied over the face every night before going to bed and washed with warm water in the morning, prevents pimples and blackheads.

During the initial one week ‘all-fruit’ diet, a warm-water enema should be taken daily to cleanse the bowels. Hot fomentation should be applied locally to open up the pores and to bring out the waste matter. The affected parts should then be rinsed with cold water.

Check the label to find out if makeup is water- or oil-based. If the label is unclear, use this guideline: If it separates into water and powder when left to sit undisturbed for a while, it’s water-based, and if it stays mixed, it contains oil.

Make a warm bath with blanch of nettle and rosemary to reduce the acne.

Apply equal amount of lemon juice and rose water with a cotton ball, leave for half an hour and wash. Repeat for 15-20 days.

Rub the acne with garlic cloves several times a day.

Wash face with avocado paste mixed with water.

Take1 tablespoon of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of white sugar wet a little and rub face.

For acne scars: Mix 1 tablespoon of sour cream ( 0% fat for oily face), 1 tablespoon of yogurt, 1 tablespoon of grind oatmeal and 3-4 drops of lemon juice. Apply on face, leave for 10 minutes and wash off.

Blend 1 peeled apple with 1 tablespoon of honey, half a cucumber and 1 tablespoon of yogurt (use a blender). Apply on face, leave for 20 minutes and wash off with warm water.

Put toothpaste on your pimple before you go to bed, should help reduce swelling overnight. Make sure it is the paste not the gel. Any brand should do.

Place Strawberry leaves on the acne, the alkalinity helps to reduce the swelling.

Wash your face twice a day in warm salty water. This should leave your face oil free without aggravating the acne like soap.

Getting pimples on the face is a big problem where you loose your self-reliance and elegance as you are completely worried about what the other person may be feeling when he looks at you. Pimples put you in an uncomfortable state and are quite provoking and annoying too. Pimples seem like a small bulge which are sore and are really achy in a lot of the cases.

Pimples occur because of reasons like unbalanced diet lacking in nutrients, lot of toxins in your body, deficiency of moisture in your skin or blocked skin openings.

Well, to get rid of pimples there are some things that should be considered and attain back a smooth and a nourished skin along with your confidence.

a) Drinking adequate amounts of water, at least 8-10 glasses daily, assists to remove the harmful toxins from your body (toxins are the main cause of pimples) and filters the blood which hence helps to get a smooth and clean skin. It rises moisture level in our skin to a certain extent and hence makes our skin appear complete and nourished.

b) Other important use of water is to wash your skin with pure water daily a minimum of 4-5 times a day. This aids to get rid of pimples as when you do this the extra oil released on your skin surface is also cleaned away, hence avoids creation of pimples. You can use plain water to clean your skin but clinical or gentle glycerin soap along with water acts wonders on your skin as glycerin is a good moisturizing product for your skin and prevents your skin from drying out.

Healthy food is rich in Vitamins, Minerals, Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fat, all of which is vital for your body to execute its daily activities. If you consume unbalanced food which is deficient any nutrients, it will actually show on your skin or any other body part. Like Vitamin A, E and fatty acids are vital for a nourished skin, and if your diet is not proper and is deficient in any such Vitamins then your skin will react consequently and thus result in formation of pimples on face. So to get rid of pimples it is recommended to have a balanced diet with balanced nutrients.

a) Toothpaste can be applied on the pimple directly at night, and in the morning when it dries up it can be washed away with water and the outcome can be seen on your face.

b) An apricot juice is useful to get rid of pimples. It is simple and most effective way to aid you out, only you need to apply it on the affected areas for 10-15 minutes everyday, till you acquire the most-wanted effects. There are other options like on-the-counter pills and clinical creams that may assist to get rid of pimples but the directions mentioned on the cartons must be strictly observed in order to get the desired outcome.

You may also consult a skin specialist to assist you get rid of pimples. A cosmetic treatment or beauty creams also help you to get rid of pimples and give you a fresh and a radiant pimple-free skin, but these methods may be a bit expensive.

Furthermore you must never pierce or squeeze your pimple as it may lead to many more and might leave a spot or a scar too. Evade red meat and hot and fiery food that increases your body toxins, also give up greasy and oily fried foods that not just add up weight to your body but may also lead to pimples on your face.

A SCENE FROM “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” where Professor Sprout, the herbology professor, asks the students to collect “bubutober pus” during a lesson to give to Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse:

“This’ll keep Madam Pomfrey happy,” said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. “An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubutober pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples.”

“Like poor Eloise Midgen,” said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. “She tried to curse hers off.”

“Silly girl,” said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. “But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back in the end.”

Admit it—haven’t we all tried to pull off an Eloise Midgen and resorted to drastic measures to drive acne away? While we may not have the capabilities to curse pimples off our faces, there’s certainly a long list of worse ways to remove acne.

What exactly causes acne? While it is true that stress, cosmetics and detergents (such as harsh shampoos and toothpaste) aggravate acne, they are not the direct sources of your pimples. They will only make worse an already existing condition. And do not blame your diet—chocolate and French fries will not cause acne—or your crush for the huge blemish on your nose. They have nothing to do with it at all.

Hormonal imbalance

The usual culprit behind acne is an imbalance of hormones, which causes the production of extra sebum and therefore, pimples. This could be because of your genes (if your parents were pimply in their childhood, you know who to blame) or other circumstances that could lead to this imbalance—puberty, menopause, pregnancy and monthly periods among them. So if you have a friend who has effortlessly clear skin, curse the genetic lottery and take better care of your skin instead of trying to imitate his/her (lack of) routine.

While others go directly to the source and have hormone treatments in order to lessen their acne, this can be costly and impractical in minor acne cases—sort of like swatting a fly with a nuclear bomb. Some treatments, like birthcontrol pills, have undesirable side effects such as weight gain and headaches. The more dangerous side effects include clots in blood vessels and an increased risk of breast cancer. Males who take birth-control pills suddenly find themselves saddled with a pair of breasts (while some do this intentionally, that’s an entirely different story.)

A good skincare regimen will not only prevent more pimples from popping up, but will delay the onset of wrinkles and freckles. Simply washing your face just doesn’t do anymore. In our more polluted environment, you will have to learn how to cleanse, tone and moisturize your skin at least once a day. Applying sunscreen even when you’re not going out in the sun is also important because indoor lights also contain skin-harming rays. So if you’re planning to spend extended hours in front of the computer for a term paper, make sure you’ve slathered on some SPF.

Old staple

If you’re really going for a direct treatment of the pimple, you might want to check out an old staple: Benzoyl Peroxide.

However, Benzoyl Peroxide apparently isn’t just a spot treatment. According to Dr. Bernadette Arcilla of the Philippine Dermatological Society, when faced with acne, you should treat the entire affected area with Benzoyl Peroxide, but don’t overdo it! Too much of it (say, a huge dollop on top of the blemish) will dry out not just the pimple, but the surrounding skin as well, causing more damage. “The best way to apply it is to spread it evenly over the affected area, so that not only will the pimple dry out, but future breakouts will be prevented as well,” Dr. Arcilla said.

Before buying a tube of treatment, said Dr. Arcilla, take note of the concentration of Benzoyl Peroxide before applying it—PanOxyl, for example, has three variants: 2.5 percent for mild acne, 5 percent for moderate acne and 10 percent for severe cases. The latter is best left for body acne, such as pimples on your back and chest, while facial acne is adequately treated by the less concentrated variants. Again, overdoing anything will cause more harm than good so always start with a smaller concentration.

Dr. Arcilla also advised patients to use medication daily—not just on a pimple, but on the entire affected area. “You should treat the skin, not the pimples. Pimples are just a symptom of something bigger,” Dr. Arcilla said. “And if you treat it early, you can prevent scarring due to more blemishes.”

Instead of treating just the surface, go for an acne management program. In the long-term process (which combines a good skincare regimen and acne treatment), pimples won’t be gone in a week, but there is a significant 30- to 40-percent reduction of acne in one to two months. The process can be expedited with the help of your dermatologist, who can help you create an acne management program for yourself. This does take a lot more time than quick fix-acne treatments, but the results are permanent, at least.

Now, isn’t that better than cursing pimples off your face?

By: Kerwin Chang