Acne can sneak up on you unexpectedly. While breakouts can occur at very unfortunate times, there are a bevy of products available to you that can help rid your skin of unsightly zits. Sadly, these can cost money and some can be quite caustic on your skin. Furthermore, as luck will have it, you’ll likely run out of the product right when you need it most. While using baking soda for acne is a possible home treatment option, there are a number of other ones that you can whip up in your kitchen or bathroom to help deal with the sudden appearance of acne. Here is a short list of some popular, although unproven, home acne remedies.

Baking Soda

Image via Wikipedia

Baking soda can act as a home acne remedy, depending on acne severity, because it leeches out the oil and moisture from your skin, becoming a sort of ersatz exfoliating agent. Acne is primarily caused by the skin naturally produced by your skin clogging up the air paths on your skin called pores. Should these pores become blocked, they can easily become infected. Once infected, the familiar signs of acne, red bumps, whiteheads and blackheads, typically form and become a hassle to deal with.

Applying a solution of water and baking soda to an area that has acne can help eliminate the acne over the course of several applications. Continuously removing moisture from a spot of acne causes it to contract and dry up, allowing it to heal and fall off of your face. It is best to apply this baking soda treatment once a day right before bed. Allow the mixture to dry on your face and then wipe clean with a towel.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar can help with acne because it is a rich source of alpha-hydroxy acids. This chemical compound is present in a number of foods and is responsible for riding the body of deposits of fat and oil. As acne is largely a deposit of skin oil, applying a dab of apple cider vinegar in a water solution or ingesting a spoon full in a cup of water, can help reduce acne deposits by removing the amount of oil that builds up on your skin.

Water and Rest

While not a spectacular sounding treatment option, consuming adequate amounts of water and receiving ample amounts of sleep can go a long way to helping you rid yourself of acne. Hydrating your skin by drinking plenty of water helps you flush away acne by removing much of the built up oil on your skin. Being hydrated means the oil on your skin is disposed of better and does not linger as much on your skin.

Plenty of sleep can also remove acne by allowing your body to rest and recover from the day and lowering stress. Reducing stress is essential to removing acne as stress is one of the prime causes of acne due to hormones released in the body during stressful situations causing acne to form more readily.

While not as glamorous sounding as some of the commercial options available, home remedies such as baking soda for acne are great solutions if you either don’t want to bother spending a lot of money on medication and creams or if you just happen to run out of the treatment you have been using to cure your acne.  It may be possible that the solution that works for you is currently sitting in your cabinet.