Home Remedies for Acne

If you know the cause of your acne and you are looking for home remedies that others have tried and found to work, here is a list of some that you can try. The acne home remedies listed here have worked for many people but it does not guarantee for some people. Verify if you are allergic or overly sensitive to the following items: garlic, papaya, glycerin, eggs, orange, or lemons before using.

1. Apply some toothpaste on the acne spots. Don’t apply on skin because it will make it dry. Make sure it is the paste not the gel.
2. Massage the face with the peel of lemon, orange or grapefruit directly to acne spots. Wash with lukewarm water after 10 – 20 mins.
   
3. Rub raw crushed and dabbed garlic on the acne spot gently. Garlic is very beneficial for acne sufferers. Garlic reduces the inflammation and is also very effective in fading away the scar that is generally left after the acne vanishes.
4. Place ripe tomato pulp on your pimples and keep the tomato pulp up to one hour; then wash off.
5. Apply fresh lemon juice on the affected area overnight. Wash off with warm water next morning.
6. Apply Aloe Vera juice twice a day can greatly speed up the healing of acne lesions. Aloe Vera is not only a great anti-inflammatory agent; it also has anti-bacterial properties which makes it an ideal home remedy for acne.
7. Apply mixed mint juice with turmeric powder on affected area. Leave for 15-30 minutes and wash off with lukewarm water.
8. Apply blended cucumber on your face and leave it for 1/2 hour and then rinse. This refreshes your skin and prevents acne from breaking out.
9. Apply juice of raw papaya (including the skin and seed) on swelling pimples or acne.
10. Mix 1 tablespoon of yeast (dried or fresh) with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Apply it on the face and wait until it gets hard (try not to move), peel or wash with warm water.
11. Mix the vinegar and salt together, before rubbing the mix over the pimples. Leave it there for some 10 to 20 mins before removing with lukewarm water.
12. Blend some nutmeg with milk into paste and apply on affected area. Wash it off after 20 minutes. Pimples disappear like magic without leaving a mark.
13. If you have oily skin apply a paste made by mixing sandalwood and few drops of rosewater on the acne affected area for about an hour and then wash off gently.
14. If you have dry skin, take a piece of sandalwood and rub it on a smooth stone and make a paste using a few drops of raw milk. Apply the mixture on the acne and keep it for an hour and thereafter gently wash with water.
15. Apply fresh mint juice over the face every night for the treatment of acne, pimples, insect stings, eczema, scabies, & other skin infections.
16. Apply grated potatoes as poultice to treat skin blemishes, wrinkles, boils, pimples, blackheads and whiteheads.
17. Apply a paste of ground sesame seeds with water as poultice for inflammation of the skin due to allergies, skin rashes, and pimples.
18. Mix 1 teaspoons of groundnut oil with 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice apply on pimple to prevent formation of blackheads and pimples.
19. Apply a mixture of lime juice and rose water on face and leave it for 15-20 mins. Rinse off with lukewarm water.
    

Discontinue use immediately if a rash occurs and consult a qualified dermatology professional.

Wrinkles Prevention

Prevention

Our skin begins ageing in our mid twenty’s although the signs are usually not visible. Genetic factors greatly determine the skin’s quality over time. The skin’s rate of ageing is also influenced by genetically predetermined cessation, hormone depletion and immune suppression. We cannot turn back the clock and change the fact but we can avoid further damage and prevent wrinkles.


Protect your skin from prolonged exposure to the sun. Wear protective clothing such as wide-brimmed hats and long sleeves or use an umbrella. Apply a broad spectrum sunscreen that offers both UVA and UVB protection that should be applied at least 20 minutes before going outdoors, even in winter. Select skin-care products with a built-in sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.

Quit smoking because smokers are also more prone to wrinkles than non-smokers. You can improve your skin tone and texture and prevent future wrinkles by quitting smoking.

Get enough sleep because when you don't get enough sleep, the body produces excess cortisol, a hormone that breaks down skin cells. With enough rest and you'll produce more HGH (human growth hormone), which helps skin remain thick, more "elastic," and less likely to wrinkles.

Use moisturizers though they can’t prevent wrinkles but they can temporarily mask tiny lines and creases. Because dry skin turns plump skin cells into shriveled ones, creating fine lines and wrinkles long before you’re due.


A balance diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains, consume at least 8 glasses of water daily (to hydrate and moisturize your skin) are important and cannot be undermined.

Keep a healthy lifestyle by exercising, good diet, and a positive mindset to reduce stress and tension. Use anti-ageing creams with vitamins A, C, E and glutathione which boosts internal supply of anti-oxidants to skin cells.

Don’t over-wash your face as tap water strips skin of its natural barrier oils and moisture that protect against wrinkles. You will be washing away protection if you wash them too often. Use a cleanser instead of soap unless your soap contains moisturizers.

Acne Prevention

Prevention

• Wash acne-prone areas only twice a day with a gentle cleanser and use oil-free, water-based skin-care products to removes excess oil and dead skin cells. But too much washing can irritate the skin.
• Use an acne cream or gel containing benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid as the active ingredient to help dry excess oil.
• Always remember to remove makeup before going to bed. Sleeping with cosmetics on your skin can clog tiny openings of the hair follicles (pores). And be sure to throw out old makeup and clean your cosmetic brushes and applicators regularly with soapy water.
• Avoid hairstyles in which the hair is constantly touching your face. Shampoo your hair regularly.
• Avoid exposing your skin to too much cold, heat and sunlight. Too much exposure to sunlight can lead to burning and skin cancer.
• Avoid greasy or oily creams and foundations block the pores and may cause pimples. Choose powder or water-based moisturizers over cream products because they're less irritating.
• Choose a sensible, varied diet, drink lots of water and exercise regularly. If you feel good, your skin will feel good too
• Shower after exercising or doing strenuous work because oil and sweat on your skin can trap dirt and bacteria.

The information posted here should not be considered medical advice, and is not intended to replace consultation with a qualified dermatology professional

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What make Acne Worse?

• Changing hormone levels in adolescent girls and adult women 2 to 7 days before their menstrual period starts.
• Picking and squeezing the spots may cause further inflammation and scarring.
• Stress or emotional tension. Stress can make acne worse in some people.
• Oil from skin products (moisturizers or cosmetics) or grease encountered in the work environment (for example, a kitchen with fry vats).
• Environmental irritants, such as pollution and high humidity.
• Discontinuing birth control pills. Some women get acne when they stop taking birth control pills. The pills may have been keeping their acne at bay.
• Steroids can cause acne as a side-effect.
• Certain medicines and chemicals.

The information posted here should not be considered medical advice, and is not intended to replace consultation with a qualified dermatology professional.

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Acne

Acne can be distressing and annoyingly persistent and also cause significant emotional distress as well as physical discomfort. Acne is also called Zits. Pimples. Blemishes. Acne is a common skin disease that causes pimples. Its the term for plugged pores (blackheads and whiteheads), pimples, and even deeper lumps (cysts or nodules). Pimples form when hair follicles under your skin clog up. Most pimples form on the face, neck, back, chest and shoulders. Acne affects most teenagers to some extent, however, the disease are not restricted to any age group; adults in their 20s - even into their 30s, 40 and 60s can get acne. Acne can be upsetting; disfiguring, decreased self-esteem and self-confidence can lead to social withdrawal and even depression. Left untreated, severe acne can lead to disfiguring scarring, which itself can be difficult to treat.

What causes Acne?

No one knows exactly what causes acne. Acne can be caused by the over activity of the sebaceous glands that secrete oily substances onto the skin. The sebaceous glands of people with acne are especially sensitive to normal blood levels of a hormone called testosterone, found naturally in both men and women. Testosterone in people prone to acne triggers the sebaceous glands to produce an excess of sebum.

Hormones likely play a role in the development of acne, making the condition most common in teenagers. During puberty, the production of male sex hormones (androgens) increases in both girls and boys, which can stimulate the sebaceous glands to produce more sebum. In some people, the sebaceous glands are extremely sensitive to androgens. These people, mostly men, get acne so severely that they need medical treatment. Some adult women experience mild to moderate acne due to hormonal changes associated with pregnancy, their menstrual cycles, or starting or stopping birth control pills.

Direct skin exposure to greasy or oily substances, or to certain cosmetics. A family history of acne, if your parents had acne, you're likely to develop it too. Irregular shedding of dead skin cells resulting in irritation of the hair follicles of your skin. Friction or pressure on your skin caused by items such as telephones or cell phones, helmets, tight collars and backpacks. There is also the case with environmental irritants such as pollution, intense heat, humidity or cold.

Types of Acne

When you read about acne or other skin diseases, you encounter words or phrases that may be confusing. For example, the words used to describe the lesions of acne

• Comedones (whiteheads and blackheads). Comedones are created when the openings of hair follicles become clogged and blocked with oil secretions, dead skin cells and sometimes bacteria. When comedones are open at the skin surface they're called blackheads because of the dark appearance of the plugs in the hair follicles. When comedones are closed, they're called whiteheads — slightly raised, skin-colored bumps.
• Cysts. These are painful, pus-filled lumps beneath the surface of the skin. These boil-like infections can cause scars.
• Nodules. These are large, solid, painful lumps beneath the surface of the skin. They're formed by the buildup of secretions deep within hair follicles.
• Papules. These are small raised bumps that signal inflammation or infection in the hair follicles. Papules may be red and tender.
• Pustules. Similar to papules, pustules are red, tender bumps with white pus at their tips.

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The information posted here should not be considered medical advice, and is not intended to replace consultation with a qualified dermatology professional.

Eyebags

Do you appear older than your age simply because of the eye bags under your eyes? Eye bags can make you look tired, unhealthy and older than you really are and less attractive. Eye bags and dark circles are most commonly caused by lack of sleep, but in addition, ageing, heredity, fatigue, allergies (like eczema and asthma), sun exposure and stress can darken the pigment around the eyes as well. In some cases, bags under the eyes are a sign of kidney problems.Poor diet plays a major role to make bag under eyes. An excess of sodium in the diet will cause the body to retain water, causing puffy bags under the eyes and puffiness in the legs, feet, ankles and abdomen, illness, hormonal issues, thyroid conditions, and bending the head over for several hours during the previous day are other causes of eyebags.

The tissues under the eyes have a flat gently tense tone in youth. Age and other factors can let the muscles sag and fat bulge. Some call this protrusion blepharochalasis and more commonly called under eye bag or baggy eyelid. Nobody looks good with puffy bags under their eyes.

When seen in a young person, particularly someone that squints from myopia, this could be due to over-activity of the eye muscles (orbicularis hypertrophy). Such eye bags are usually well defined and more obvious when the person squints. The eye bag is also closest to the eyelid. Such eye bags respond well to Botox, which has an added effect of widening the eye aperture, resulting in larger eyes!

As a person gets older, the quality of facial circulation and lymphatic drainage reduces. The skin of the eyelid ages, it loosens, becomes less elastic, and begins to sag and lose tone. As the eyelid loses tone it cannot hold the fat within the bony orbit or eye socket beneath the eyeball, and the fat pushes forward against the undersurface of the weakened eyelid and creates the eye bag , puffy eye, or eyelid bag. The stagnation of toxins and fluid produces puffy eye bags. The size changes from day to day and also varies at different times of the day. As the situation tends to worsen with time, the extra fluid collection stretches the skin in the delicate eye area.

Eye bags have a lot to do with bad food habits. Extra salt-intake is one of the severest causes of bags under the eyes. Also your water intake is very important to solve eye bags problems. Relax your eyes as much as possible.

Vitamins for eyebags:

Vitamin A

This ingredient is associated with having anti-wrinkle properties. The actual active which gives the anti-wrinkle activity is Tretionin which is a derivative of Vitamin A. It improves elasticity and increases the collagen content of the skin when applied daily. Vitamin A is known to have topical benefits such as thickening the epidermis. It also has a regulating effect on keratin formation and reduces UV induced wrinkle formation.

Vitamin E (a Tocopherol).

Vitamin E’s main activity in Herbal Eye Bag Doctor is as an antioxidant. Vitamin E also has other topical benefits such as protecting cells from damaging environmental pollutants or helping in wound healing.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K for example has been proven to inhibit bruising of the skin, and this is why it is suspected to help counteract common and pesty dark shadows in the sensitive eye skin care area. The others, Kojic acid hydroquinone are known and effective skin whitening ingredients, common place due to their effectiveness in things such as bleaching and age spotting creams and treatments. Apply an eye cream containing vitamin K and retinal. Dark circles may be caused by a deficiency of vitamin K. Regardless of the cause, however, recent research has shown that skin creams containing these two ingredients reduce puffiness and discoloration significantly in many patients. Long-term daily use seems to have the greatest effect.

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)

Vitamin C to the skin, it can actually stimulate the production of collagen, a protein that helps form the skin’s supporting structure. Normally as we age, collagen levels diminish; as a result, our skin wrinkles. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin which is necessary in the body to form collagen in bones, cartilage, muscle, and blood vessels, and aids in the absorption of iron. Dietary sources of vitamin C include fruits and vegetables, particularly citrus fruits such as oranges.

Massage and exercise for the eyes:

1. Put your hands over the eyes, with the base of your palm resting over the cheeks and the fingers on the forehead. Your palms create hollows over the eyes. Look into the darkness for a minute. This is very relaxing.


2. Press the base of your palms gently on the eyes. Release the pressure and repeat. Do this three to four times.


3. Open the eyes wide and look at the four corners of the room. Close the eyes and repeat, going the other way.


4. Do the same exercise by rolling the eyes in a circle. Repeat going the other way around.


5. Hold a pencil in front of the face. Look at it. Slowly extend your arm, taking the pencil further and further away from the face, while you are still looking at it. Bring the pencil back slowly and repeat.


6. Look out of the window as far as you can see. This itself is a very good exercise for the eyes.


7. Take time off from your work and look at green plants and trees. Green is supposed to soothe the eyes.


8. Extra Pillows: Propping your head higher while you sleep will also reduce puffiness by encouraging fluids to drain away from the eye area.

Home remedies for eyebags:

1. For an instant fix, place two spoons in the freezer for about 15 minutes and set them over your eyes.


2. Raw potato slices will help tighten baggy eyes.
3. For reducing the puffiness under eye bags, One can apply cotton dipped in ice water or very cold milk directly over our closed eyelids and leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes. This will cool and rest the eyes. The cotton should be placed on the eyes for 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Honey can reduce under eye puffiness because honey has warming properties and the trick to reducing puffiness is to cool the eyes, not warm them.
5. Get around half a basin of water and add a drop of rosemary oil extract, a drop of rose extract to the water. Soak a towel in the water, then dry it and lay it on your eyes. Keep the towel there for 15 minutes.
6. Apply a compress of iced water or cold milk directly over closed lids and leave on for 15 to 20 minutes. Sometimes, an eye wash of tepid water also helps.
7. Take cotton wool and make two thick square pads. Soaked in cucumber juice. Lie down, close your eyes and put the soaked pads on them. Keep them on for about 15 minutes.
8. Used tea bags can also be used as eye pads.
9. Either that, apply one of the many different eye treatment creams available in market.

Kitchen ingredient that this how-to calls for—it’s not a cucumber, and you’re sure to have one on hand. Find out the secret!

To Make:
1. Slice 1/4 potato to fit over your eyes.2. Cut
2 slices or, if you prefer, 5 to 10 very thin slices, several for each eye. Either method works.

To Use:
1. Spritz eye area with water.
2. Lying down, place the potato slices on your eyelids and leave in place for at least 10 minutes for best results.

Things to avoid:

1. Avoid using anti ageing or anti wrinkle creams around the eyes.
2. Do not apply rich moisturizers in the eye region at night.
3. Too much of salt-intake
4. Don't drink too many fluids right before going to sleep.
5. Staying away from fast food and processed foods and drinking plenty of water flushes the excess sodium out our system and helps contain dark circles.
6. Avoid rubbing your eyes. The rubbing irritates the skin and can break tiny capillaries beneath the skin, causing both puffiness and discoloration.
7. Smoking causes vascular (blood vessel) problems that can not only threaten your life, but also make your blood vessels appear more prominent and bluer beneath the skin.
8. Do not apply ice or extremely cold water directly to the skin around the eyes for more than a couple of seconds.
9. Cut down on the caffeine, alcohol and salt, especially the night before an event. These promote water retention that can settle in your face as you sleep causing puffy eyes.

Relax your eyes as much as possible. Things are not going better if you put a lot of tension on the eyes. On the contrary, things are going much better if you let go. And when you look into the mirror and see for yourself that your eye bags are reducing, it will give you satisfaction and self confidence.

Dark eye circles

Collegen

These trip cells to make collgen via heat or chemical inflammation.

Laser -Long pulse waves are used to zap the dermis layer. The heat stimulates collagen production. It gives the most dramatic and fastes results. Downtime, since the top layer of skin is removed. Expect days of redness and skin peeling.

Radio-Frequency- It stimulates the growth of collegen and elastic fibres through heat. Thermage is an example of this therapy. No redness or bruising, you see immediate improvement for skin laxity. A few days of mild swelling. Some find Thermage painful (akin to a burn) and require an anaesthetic.

Chemical peels -These have small active molecules that seep deep into the dermis to kickstart repair. Effects are long-lasting, in terms of years. But you will still need topical cream in between for maintenance. More downtime than topical creams, the redness lasts for about three days. A tingling sensation is common, and skin is more prone to hyperpigmentation.

Retinoid cream- They cause a chemical reaction to stimulate collagen production. Common actives include vitamins A, vitamins C, fruit acids and peptides. Cost-effective, convenient and great for skin upkeep in between doctor's visits. Skin gets visible improvement after two months. Tretinoin is prescription drug, Retinal, the alternative, is found in a lot of cosmetic or over-the-counter creams. But it's less potent, so results take longer to show. Some people report redness and skin hypersenitivity.

Important: Get advise from your doctor and check with a registered experience

Know your skin type

You have OILY skin type when:

• Your complexion is greasy, swallow or oily feeling


• Your skin is coarse with larges pores


• Regular cleansing or washing is needed to control this oiliness


• Makeup is easily absorbed into the skin

You have a COMBINATION skin type when:

• Your pores are medium sized


• You have a smooth and even skin texture


• Your skin has good circulation and healthy colour


• Your skin is sometimes dry on the cheeks


• You suffer from oily an oily nose, cheeks or forehead

Your skin type is NORMAL when:

• Your skin is soft and supple


• It is even toned, smooth and fine textured


• It is free of blemishes, visible pores or flaky skinit never feels dry or oily

Your have a DRY skin type when:

• Your skin is fine pored and textured


• It is transparent looking


• It requires frequent moisturisingIt has fines lines and wrinkles


• It feels dry after washing or cleansing

Information from http://www.skinculture.com/

Blackheads

Detest black head! Nasty habit of pinching them with my fingers, only to have red blotchy skin. Need a solution to rescue appearances?



First of all, you have to quit your habit of squeezing them. When you squeeze them, germs from you fingernails will cause your skin pores to become inflamed.



Blackheads are caused by excess sebum oil and dead skin cells. It's preferable to use natural products. Harsh skin care products can strip your pores of its natural oil, causing your skin to want to produce more sebum.



Here's a method you can try to reduce your blackheads. Use it at least twice a week.

• Cleanse your face thoroughly with a natural, mild cleanser and pat your face dry.


• Fill a basin with warm water and add a few drops of Tea Tree Oil.


• Steam your face to soften the skin and to allow the pores to open.


• Apply your facial mask.


• Rinse off with warm water again and pat the skin dry.