Lovelyish

I’m definitely gonna try tip one and two. Thanks for sharing

Those are some nice tips! Here’s a couple more:

Coconut Oil is a quick fix for anything – from acne to bruises to infections to a lot more.

Calendula Oil will help razor burn, itchy skin, and irritations.

Oatmeal will exfoliate while retaining moisture in your skin – giving you a healthy and radiant glow.

Honey will help keep your skin smooth and youthful while healing scars and fighting infections and more.

I have a lot more listed on my blog too.

1, 2, and 4 are very very very YMMV and I’d never recommend anyone use them without patch testing for an extended period of time first. 

Baking soda is quite alkaline, especially considering the acidity of our skin. It’s also quite abrasive. So those two variable combined means that it can easily compromise your skin’s barrier and could even do more noticeable harm such as leave the skin raw or cause breakouts to spread if they have a head (as would any manual exfoliation method). Some people might find it dehydrates and/or dries them out. It causes my scalp to smell funky and itch. I avoid it entirely now after I tried it for my own DIY stuff.

Lemons can in turn be very acidic and thus drying. So while the acids may help exfoliate it can also contribute to worsened surface dryness, especially if used on a regular basis. Ideally you’d want to dilute it if you want to use it, same goes for vinegar. It would be better to utilize a gentler form of natural AHA/BHA instead.

Mint ingredients can be quite irritating, especially peppermint. Which can easily just worsen a breakout. It can also be drying, which can worsen a breakout in combination with the irritancy. I avoid anything mentholated in lip products for these reasons.

@EmberCove - Coconut oil is highly comedogenic. Unless you’ve patch tested it or are not at all acne-prone in the slightest, I’d advise against it. Most oils are YMMV as well, and essential oils should be avoided as much as possible for actual skin contact. For aromatherapy purposes, sure, but don’t seek them for skincare. 

@ashleynicole - http://embercove.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/the-healthiest-oil-on-earth-coconut-oil/, http://www.coconutresearchcenter.org, http://www.highonhealth.org/coconut-oil-is-an-awesome-natural-acne-treatment/, http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/coconut-oil-for-acne.html

I do my research, hours and days worth of it on ingredients. It’s my job. And I do not promote essential oil usage for irritated skin at all. My products have cleared up acne from lots of my customers, myself being one of them and I’m HIGHLY prone to acne. Do your research first (start with about 5-8 hours worth and work yourself up to 5 days worth) then come back with enlightenment.

@EmberCove - While coconut oil has natural antibacterial agents, it’s also rated a 4 out of 5 for comedogenicy, i.e. likelihood of causing breakouts. In fact, most carrier oils have at least a 1-2 rating, the exceptions I can think of at the top of my head (for oils that have so far been tested) are safflower/sunflower oil and mineral oil. It doesn’t matter that the oil is antifungal, it’s simply a highly comedogenic ingredient that more often than not does not respond well to those with acne-prone skin. 

That’s good that you don’t promote essential oil usage for sensitive skin, although I hope you also don’t promote it for any skintype unless used very very very diluted or extremely sparingly. 

And okay, so your products have worked well for your customers. That doesn’t mean that it works for everyone or that just because you’ve deemed the ingredients safe for acne that they are actually ideal for acne-prones. The sad fact is that natural approaches are more likely than non-traditional approaches to cause nasty reactions partially due to the nature of these ingredients being more likely to cause allergic reactions. But overall a lot of natural ingredients on comedogenic sites show at least mild irritancy and/or comedogenic tendencies. This is why most women on makeupalley (a website that allows consumers to unbiasedly and freely review anything and everything without requiring consent from the marketers, whom I am sure would prefer to post positive reviews on their websites than the negative ones – there are plenty of products that get terrible reviews online overall but on the company’s website get great ratings) recommend very simple and basic routines and preferably staying away from natural/organic unless very light on ingredients and with very benign ingredients. Unfortunately many companies equate natural with throwing in a crapload of irritating natural ingredients. 

Imo, it sounds like you might be biasing your research because of you extreme promotion of natural versus non-traditional. I’ve tried plenty of natural methods, they all worsened my skin save for one cleanser from LUSH (a brand that many argue is not as natural as they claim), but even then it thinned out my skin, caused dehydration, broken capillaries, and could leave breakouts if I wasn’t anal about its removal. I currently don’t use anything at all, just water, and other than some texture issues my acne has cleared up. I do not exclusively promote non-traditional methods, I do not exclusively promote natural methods. To me the most educated is someone who promotes the use of anything that works for the person while getting a grasp of which ingredients are more likely to be problematic for more individuals. This is why comedogenic websites are quite useful. As are the boards on makeupalley,com, where there are a few researchers/scientists who post in there. Many of them are very adept at finding literary/scholarly articles related to skincare as well, such as demonstrating that mineral oil in not actually toxic to the body like many fear-mongering groups like to promote (biggest one would be EWG).

@ashleynicole - Email me your address, I’ll give you a free sample of my products.

@ashleynicole - What does YMMV mean?  Just curious. 

@HaleyHailstorm - “Your mileage may vary.” Took me ages to figure it out LOL. Basically like saying that results are very individual to the person, blanket statements on its effectiveness/results cannot be made.

@EmberCove - Since I’ve cleared my skin up by not using any products, I’ll pass. I’m incredibly happy that I was able to clear up my ingredient- and irritation-induced acne by going water-only (and not picking). Based on the year I spent trying to use natural DIY methods to clear my skin which resulted in my acne going from mild-to-moderate to almost severe (40-50 zits at a time), I know what doesn’t work for me. No amount of research on your behalf will change that, and my skin seems to agree with the slew of comedogenic websites and helpful non-biased insight offered by the women at makeupalley.

I am an esthetician and have worked with multiple brands of products, but I have come to love homemade stuff more than anything else I have tried. I used to have horribly acne ridden skin, and all the chemicals in beauty school and the spa just made it way worse. Jobaba and Coconut oils worked wonders for my skin, but I only use them a couple times a week. I use whole leaf crushed aloe on my face everyday. I wash with a mix of honey, sugar, olive oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg and it always clear any blemish right up and softens my skin so nicely. The baking soda however is way too harsh on my skin. I tried it for a few weeks and it made my skin hell. Nothing has cleared up my skin other than the natural stuff though!

This is great! I am going to try it, specially #2!

I exfoliate my skin with a baking soda paste once or twice a week. Its amazing and gets rid of blackheads. I have dry skin but it doesn’t seem to make it any worse. I also use the baking soda paste as a substitute for shampoo. 

I guess i’ll have to try the parsley/yogurt mix for under eyes. I’ve never heard of that one.

I use baking soda once a week or so now that I have no acne marks, but when I do get a pimple and thus a mark I’ll use it a week straight.

Best thing I use is emu oil. Fades scars, moisturizes, and it’s cheap. 

I’ve never heard of these before. Except for the baking soda one. Sometimes I’ll mix baking soda in with my cleanser to brighten my skin up.

I’ve been using baking soda for several months now.

@ashleynicole - Hi, I was wondering when you said “While coconut oil has natural antibacterial agents, it’s also rated a 4 out of 5 for comedogenicy, i.e. likelihood of causing breakouts. In fact, most carrier oils have at least a 1-2 rating” – where is this statistic taken from? Was just wondering who is rating it and how they are testing this.. Thanks.

@mixxignalx@xanga - I have no idea where these things are/were tested, but these numbers are taken from comedogenicy websites. There are plenty of oils however that haven’t been rated, so it’s up to consumers to look up reviews on non-affiliated websites and acquire samples when possible to figure out if it would be likely to cause issues. As for coconut oil’s antifungal (that’s the word I usually see, although I dunno if both it and antibacterial can be used interchangeably, which I guess is what I did haha) properties that can be found through Googling about its chemical make-up; Wikipedia likely has sources on it, I’ve just come across it so many times that I remembered that.

Anyways, here are some good lists to check out:
http://www.zerozits.com/Articles/acnedetect.htm
For oils specifically: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=66

http://www.cosdna.com/ (this one is like a Google type of thing, seems really helpful)

If you mix honey, milk and nutmeg, it’s a good moisturizing mask. My personal favorite.