Garlic is another useful home remedy for acne. Pimples disappear without scars when rubbed with raw garlic several times a day. The external use of garlic helps to clear the skin of spots, pimples and boils. The process is further helped by eating three pods of raw garlic once daily for a month to purify the blood stream, so as to secure a long-term clearance of the skin.

Make a paste of baking soda and water. Apply to the face and leave on for 5 minutes. Rinse off with apple cider vinegar. Rinse again with clear water. Apply a coating of vitamin E oil to your face and leave on overnight.

Herbal Home Remedies for ACNE #2

Burdock is a great astringent, removing excess oil from the skin. Use it faithfully every day if your skin is oily. It may take several weeks before you notice an improvement. Put 2 handfuls of burdock roots and leaves in 2 cups of water. Bring to a quick boil using a stainless steel or glass pot. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes. Dip clean cloth into liquid and use as a compress until the cloth cools. Repeat this, keeping the liquid hot, for about 15 minutes.

Ideally, acne should not influence your mood at all. But that demands a lot of stability. Try one of the following:

1) Realize that acne will always be changing, so any improvement or deterioration will be temporary. As Acne takes its course; don’t let it make you too happy or too sad.

2) Think about the worst kind of acne you have ever had and regard that as ‘normal’. Any improvement will please you.

3) Ignore acne as much as possible. Think of it as little as you can and do not look into the mirror more than you need to.

4 On the days when acne is particularly severe, play a game with yourself of not letting it affect your mood. Make sure you keep busy doing things that need your full attention.

The diet must be followed rigidly. The following foods are forbidden: sugar (and all sweet snacks), fat, salt and spices, dairy products, nuts, pork, shellfish, products containing preservatives, carbonated drinks, alcohol, coffee, tea. You may eat: fresh fruit and vegetables, grains and pulses, potatoes, rice, grilled and boiled beef, chicken, white fish and honey. You may eat as much of these as you like, so you won’t go hungry. The diet will not harm your health and, if necessary, could be followed throughout one’s life. It is important to keep to it strictly – just one slip-up may prolong the treatment.

Two litres of water (boiled) or still mineral water should be drunk a day. A light laxative should be taken once a week to clean out the body and help drain away waste matter which might otherwise be contributing to acne.

After a couple of months the body will have been thoroughly cleansed and production of sebum reduced by up to forty per cent. Then the patient is tested for sensitivity to various foods.

The testing goes as follows. You start by eating one of the banned foods, for two weeks. If this does not produce spots, then it means you are unlikely to be sensitive to it and you may continue to eat it. At the end of that two-week period, another banned food is tried. This procedure continues until one of the banned foods’ does produce a reaction. That food should then be avoided completely in future (or as much as possible).

When the patient registers sensitivity to one of the banned foods, then the diet is continued for another month in order to purify the body. Only’ then can the other banned foods be tested properly.

After a minimum of three months it will be clear what the patient may safely continue to eat and drink. Some people are not particularly sensitive to anyone of the foods but react to the whole range. They can stop the diet in due course.

Many people believe that certain types of food and drink can make acne worse. It is rare to find anyone who eats and drinks indiscriminately and who does not have acne pimples. Nearly everyone has some kind of food they think is not good for them, that they believe makes their acne worse. Some of the most frequently cited culprits are: pork, spices, cheese, chocolate, eggs, junk food, nuts.

In medical circles too, people sometimes assume that there is a link between acne and diet. Various research has been conducted to shed more light on the matter.

Try to resist the impulse to start squeezing blackheads, or even pimples, just before some special occasion like a party. If you rush it and don’t have the time to be careful, your skin will end up looking worse than it did before. Make sure that the light is good, and that you have a good mirror, so that you can see clearly what you are doing. If you are going to squeeze regularly, set aside one evening a week in order to give yourself time. Try not to, do it more than once a week. This will give your skin time to recover and, besides, the less you meddle with it, the better it is for the acne.

First wash your face thoroughly in warm water. This softens the skin and makes squeezing easier.

Alternatively, you could try steaming your face. Fill a basin with hot water. Add camomile (or eucalyptus and lavender) to the water, if you like. Place a towel over your head and put your face over the bowl so that you are in a kind of tent. Stay there for about ten minutes. This, steams open the pores and the blackheads will come out more easily.

The blackhead remover
Never squeeze out blackheads with your nails or with tweezers. This can infect and disfigure the skin. The best thing to use is the special blackhead remover that you can buy cheaply at the chemist’s.

Start by disinfecting the remover with cotton wool soaked in antiseptic. One end of the remover is like a tiny saucer with a hole in the middle. You put the hole over the blackhead, with the curve of the saucer against the skin. Gently press against the skin and the blackhead will come out. If you’ find this difficult, squeeze out the blackheads with a clean paper tissue. Wash your face in warm water, and fold the tissue over your fingertips, so that they do not touch your face.

Afterwards, dab disinfectant on the affected areas. You’ll soon find out if a blackhead is going to be obstinate. In that case don’t persist in trying to remove it. Leave it and try again another time.