Home Remedies for Pimples and Blackheads for Oily Skin

​​Have you tried home remedies for pimples and blackheads for oily skin?

Pimples, blackheads, and oily skin are the worst. 

​Despite the fact that they look and feel singularly terrible... 

​​...​​they're really common.

​​Today, we’re going to examine what, if anything, can be done for breakouts ​with home remedies for pimples and blackheads for oily skin. 

More than 60 million people in the US have at least one pimple right this second. 

​They can happen at any time... to anyone.  

Even those of us over 30 are always surprised to see the reemergence of a “phase” we thought was over.

There’s nothing like a nice collection of pimples to make you feel like a teen again. 

​And not in a good way. 

​So what’s the solution? 

​Acne, when moderate to severe, is painful and depressing. Severe and cystic acne are always best addressed by a dermatologist. 

For everything else, home remedies may be able to help.

​​If you’ve got pimples, blackheads, oily skin, or just want some tips on prevention, ​then stay with me. 

​​Don’t stop reading now…

​Papules, Nodules, and Cysts, Oh My:                                                     What Kind of Acne Do You Have?

​For many...

...any pimple can feel like a catastrophe. 

However, there are various kinds, and knowing the difference is vital to effective treatment.

Here are the six basic types of acne:

• ​Blackheads: Black is to white as closed is to open. Blackheads are open comedones that fill with sebum or keratin or even dirt. Oxidation turns this oil or debris into a darkly colored plug with no skin over top.                          

  As long as you don’t mess with them too much, blackheads aren’t inflamed. They often lie flush with the skin and cant be seen unless you’re looking very closely.                                                                                                                                                                                          However, none of this makes blackheads easier to tolerate.

  They often form in clusters, typically across the nose, as we have more sebaceous glands there.                                                                                                                                                                                               They can be very hard to remove. Squeezing them out makes the empty pore left behind look much larger, which is a whole new skin concern.

• ​Papules: Papules will look familiar to you if you periodically experience rashes. These small red bumps do, unlike blackheads and whiteheads, come with inflammation.                                                                                        

  Despite their small size, papules can be very painful when you touch them. Additionally, it’s common to have a breakout featuring many together at once, such as across the forehead.

  Picking at a papule is ill-advised for two major reasons.                                                                                                                                               One is that a papule contains no pus within. There’s nothing to “clean out”, and fiddling with it will make the inflammation worse.

  That brings us to the second reason.                                                                                                                                                                           Papules can and do progress to pustules. Squeezing a papule may in fact encourage it to take its next, more severe form.

• ​Pustules: Once that papule has become a pustule, things become riskier. Like other forms of acne, pustules occur in follicles and sebaceous glands, so they can crop up anywhere.                                              

  Pustules are, as the name suggests, filled with pus, and are larger than the three varieties we already went over. When dealing with pustules, the main risk is scarring.

  However, the scarring is more likely to take the form of discoloration lasting a month or two. The last two varieties bring a higher risk of more permanent scarring.

• ​Nodules: Nodules are our first foray into the “severe” category. You may get just one at a time, perhaps on your back or chest. Unfortunately, you can also have many of them.                                                                                                                                                                                         With women over 30, they tend to pop up on the jawline and lower cheeks.                                                                                                                   

  With nodules, you may not notice much redness, but it probably hurts quite a bit if you touch it. People, myself included, may confuse a nodule with a cyst, but there’s an important distinction.

  While buried under the skin, a nodule is noticeably hard. This is because the pore is dreadfully clogged beneath the surface.                                                                                                                                                         It’s extremely inadvisable to pick these, as it increases your risk for icepick and rolling scars.

  It can also transform that nodule into a cyst.

• ​Cysts: The main characteristic separating cysts from nodules is that they’re softer. This is because the former nodule now contains pus.                                                                                                                           The pus results from an infection, and the immune system’s response increases redness and swelling.                                                                                                                                                                                     Again, you should never squeeze a cyst. You run the risk of worsening the infection, as well as guaranteeing that scar.                                                                                                                                                               Cystic or nodulocystic acne causes scars which require professional cosmetic procedures to fix.

​Those are the six main types, but that’s not all.

Those six are just part of a class we call Acne Vulgaris.

​There’s also Acne Fulminans, which affects young men and is really a rare and serious condition.

Acne Mechanica is common in athletes, namely football players, who deal with the friction and humidity of their protective uniforms.

​Finally, we have to address the cause.

The problem is, with adults, anything can cause acne.

It could be hormones, age, gut health, genetics, stress, inflammation, diet, or any number of other reasons.

​In the end, it might not be any of those, either.

We have a pretty good idea that having oily skin can lead to more pimples, but that’s about it.

​What acne isn’t is poor hygiene.

Sure, you can clog a pore by not washing your face well enough and end up with a pimple.

However, multiple eruptions and sustained acne are not your fault. Studies show that an increase in face washing will not affect acne.

​All hygienic recommendations, are to keep breakouts and their corresponding inflammation from worsening.

After all, acne is often triggered by acne bacteria, and we want to control the spread.

​Now, let’s see what we can do in the way of natural topical treatments... ​

​The ordinary skincare.

​Best Natural Ingredients for Treating Breakouts ​at Home

• ​Manuka Raw Honey: The enzymes in Manuka raw honey - check price here, help clear pores and calm redness.  
  
  ​It’s also naturally antibacterial and won’t dry out skin. As you’ll learn, having oily skin doesn’t mean you need to dry it out.                                                                                                                                                       How to Use: Most acne sufferers swear by sticky Manuka honey as a cleanser. To do this, wet your face so the honey is more spreadable. Take a little less than half of a teaspoon and massage all over for about 30 seconds.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Leave this on as a cleansing mask for ten minutes before rinsing. Please note that you should remove any makeup before cleansing with honey.

• ​Organic Aloe Vera Gel: When you break out, it’s tempting to throw tons of astringent, caustic products on top of your pimples. You may also wash constantly to try and dry down your oily skin.                                                                                         

  Both of these practices can make acne worse.                                                                                                                                                             Like Manuka honey, aloe vera is a mild, natural antibacterial. It can also reduce the appearance of large pores, and is notorious for repairing skin. It imparts moisture without encouraging oil production.

  How to Use: Harvest the gel from the leaves of your plant, or get a bottle of pure aloe vera gel - check price here.  
  
  A few people actually find that aloe causes redness for them, so start with just a tiny bit. After cleansing, spread a few drops over the face.

  You can also cleanse with aloe gel and essential oils, or use it as the base for your anti-acne masks.

• ​Green Tea: Many polyphenols that are good for our diets have great benefits for the skin as well. Drinking green tea is one way to control oily skin and some breakouts, as antioxidants are anti inflammatory.                    
  Green tea is also a popular pick for better immune system function.                                                                                                                             Therefore, it’s a good natural ingredient for those with cystic acne, since infection is to blame for the severity of that blemish.                                            
  How to Use: If you can tolerate the caffeine, drink three or four cups of green tea per day. You can also tone your skin after cleansing with green tea. Simply brew a bag and let it cool down before applying to your face.

  
  

• ​Turmeric: Turmeric’s best polyphenol, curcumin, is perhaps the most famous anti inflammatory antioxidant there is. In Ayurveda, it was the original acne and rosacea prescription.                                                                                                                                                                        Additionally, studies suggest that curcumin may help regulate the “acne molecule”, mTor. It helps dictate how much oil you produce and how your skin cells behave based on your hormone levels.                                                                                                                                                           How to Use: Creating a mask out of turmeric only requires a suitable partner that will help in making it spreadable.                                                                                                                                                             The two absolute best options are raw honey and Greek yogurt.                                                                                                                                   Mix a half a teaspoon of ground turmeric with a tablespoon of your other ingredient. Apply to your face and let sit for 5-15 minutes.                                                                                                                                       Note that turmeric can give skin a yellow tinge which washes away relatively easily.                                                                                                                                                                                                       While dairy products do have a link to acne, the probiotics provide good results for many.                                                                                                                                                                                                               As for the turmeric, eating it still the best way to get the benefits.                                                                                                                         However, many find that turmeric applied topically helps fade acne discoloration.

• ​​How to ​Remove ​Blackheads from ​Nose at ​Home ​using Egg Whites: You may think that a professional extraction is the only way to beat those blackheads once and for all.                                                                                                                                                                                       Until then, you keep buying pore strips at... at least five bucks per box.                                                                                            
  The reason you have to keep doing this is because those sebaceous glands can refill quickly. No pore treatment goes down deep enough to remove it in total once and for all.                                                                      
  Besides, those strips are coated with adhesive polymers - hardly appealing to the ingredient-conscious among us.                                                                                                                                                     That’s why many create their own pore strips with egg whites.                            
  How to Use: For longer-term results with blackheads, use a product containing retinol - check price here, or BHA to encourage cell turnover.                                                                                                                        For a weekly reduction in the appearance of blackheads, whip up an egg white until it’s frothy.                                                                                      
  Using a brush, coat the area you’re treating with a thin layer of egg white. Take a small piece of toilet tissue and place it on top.                                                                                                                                                   Top it off with another thin layer of egg white, and leave until it dries. Gently peel it off and clean away any remnants.

• ​Tea Tree Oil: Antioxidant, anti inflammatory, antibacterial. Like other home remedies, tea tree oil - check price here, is effective for pimples for these same reasons.                                                                                                                               

  A review of tea tree oil indicates that it can help with mild to moderate breakouts.                                                                                                                                                                                                             Furthermore, it does so as well as many OTC acne treatments. Such evidence can be kind of scant when it comes to natural treatments, so it’s very promising.

  How to Use: Undiluted essential oils can be very irritating to the skin. Tea tree oil is no exception, so it’s best to work it into your routine gradually.                                                                                                                                                                                                                      On the plus side, there are several different ways you can use it to treat pimples and oily skin.

  You can add a few drops to your green tea as a toner.  
  
  Or, mix it with some jojoba oil and use it as an allover face treatment. From cleansers to masks, boost the acne-fighting power by adding a few drops of tea tree oil. 

​Do You DIY for Home Remedies for Pimples and Blackheads for Oily Skin? DON’T Use These Ingredients...

​Over the years, I’ve seen quite a few home remedies for acne that sound good, but don’t work so well.

It’s one thing to try a treatment and not get amazing results. It’s another to resort to ingredients that could make troublesome skin much worse. 

​Proceed with caution when reading up on DIY treatments.

Here are three often-recommended ingredients that you should not put on your face, ever. 

• ​Baking Soda - DIYers will tell you to exfoliate with baking soda, but this is a disaster. It’s too alkaline for the skin’s acid mantle. Using baking soda can leave skin, dry, irritated, and raw - a recipe for worse acne.

• ​Lemon Juice - Baking soda is too alkaline, and lemon juice is too acidic. Some actually get chemical burns from using it.                                                                                                                                                            It may also make your skin more susceptible to sun damage.

• ​​How to ​Remove ​Blackheads from ​Nose using Toothpaste - Baking soda, peroxide, fluoride, triclosan, menthol. These are all ingredients in the average toothpaste which have no place on your face.                                                                                                                                             Users actually find the “drying” capability makes their skin turn red and peel.

​Some Final Thoughts on...

Home Remedies for Pimples and Blackheads for

Oily Skin

​Make no mistake, pimples are such a fright that plenty of companies make billions selling you products.

But for the average case, home remedies for pimples and blackheads for oily skin may work as well. 

In addition to trying a mild, natural cure, the following can help you maintain clear skin:

​It’s time to share your knowledge.

What natural cures have you tried?

Do you think you know the root cause of your breakouts? 

What products or treatments have gone horribly wrong for you?

​Share with us ​below!