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I’m not a big fan of overdoing the face products. Watch my video below to find out how I feel about external skin care – face washing, product use, and topicals.
Blog author Tracy Raftl used to have severe acne — now she teaches thousands of women how to take back control of their skin through natural, holistic, and mind-body methods.
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If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll probably know that I am a BIG advocate to leaving your skin alone. That means
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7 things you can start doing right now to permanently put acne to bed.
9 Responses
I always try to wash my face with an acidic cleanser. Anything over a pH of 6 is not going to help your face or acne. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, bacteria don’t thrive in acidic environments, especially not on the face. That mildly acidic layer on the skin protects it from bacteria and washing it usually washes away the acid mantle.
I think a lot of people have screwed their acid mantle over because the first thing most people generally do when they get acne is purchase a cleanser. Those who now know that in a large majority of cases acne isn’t an issue of bacteria on the skin usually don’t rely too much on cleansers and tend to go the natural route.
Ah yes, the acid mantle. I remember reading a lot about that, and trying really hard to figure out the PH of the stuff I was using… I can’t remember the results of my experiments though! So what sort of cleanser do you use then?
Hi Tracey! Okay so Ive been using raw honey to wash my face, followed by organic (almost pure) aloe vera juice, followed by a little bit of jojoba oil, as my face is pretty dry. First question – do you think it matters if I use juice or gel? I ask this because Ive been cleaning up my diet for a few weeks now and havent really broken out so to speak, but I have a ton and i mean a ton! of acne scars. They are pretty superficial and I assume will go away within a year’s time but there are so many of them. Little dots. My face is so red because of them. I thought I had rosacea but Im not too sure. I was even thinking of laser treatment or microdermabrasion, what do you think of this?
Also, I was wondering if you had scars/how long it took for them to fade?
Hi Sylvia!
Isn’t aloe juice for drinking? And isn’t it liquidy, and would it stay on your face? I don’t know, I don’t have much experience with aloe juice, except that I know it’s great for drinking, as soothes and heals the digestive tract. This is the aloe I recommend for the face, it seems to be the next best thing to getting it straight from a plant. http://www.aubrey-organics.com/ProductInfo/081.aspx
Also, I’m not too familiar with laser treatment or microdermabrasian, I’ll have to do some research on it. My scars did take some time to fade, you have to be patient. The aloe will help, and a healthy lifestyle will help them to heal as fast as they can. Some people like to exfoliate once a week or too, to help shed the top layer of skin, but I never did that as I was too afraid to irritate my face. If your skin isn’t overly sensitive you can try that with something really, really gentle (like maybe putting some oatmeal in your honey when you wash your face)
I really like your videos and tips and everything. Thanks to you my acne already improved over the last week! At least i didnt get any new major breakouts.
My question is, what do you think of an alcohol free witch hazel, rose petal, aloe vera toner? I like to use it twice a day after i wash my face with the ‘desert essence throughly clean face wash’ with organic tea tree oil. And after I toned my face i would apply the ‘aubrey organics aloe vera’ that you recommended (so far i really like it). Sometimes i mix it with a drop of jojoba oil.
But since I never heard you talking about a toner i just wanted to know if its still ok/good for the skin to use it. Because the one I use is really natural and non-irritating! 😉
Hi there 🙂
Personally, I like to keep things simple and toning seems like an unnecessary extra step to me. I’m not even sure what the point of toning is – is it to bring the skin back to the correct PH after washing? If so, just make sure you use something that doesn’t disrupt the acid mantle (this is one reason I recommend using honey as its gentle, natural, and slightly acidic).
But anyway… I don’t have anything in particular against using a toner if it works for you. So if you think it helps, and you want to use a natural toner, go for it 🙂
This is probably the most useful website i’ve come across, thank you so much, you’re doing such a great job.
I just have a question,
Similarly to Lu above, I’ve been using Witch’s Hazel to tone my face after washing it. I can physically see my pores on my nose and cheeks and in my weird logic, I assumed that the toner would tighten the pores so that they’d go away.
I can totally ditch that and try and go au naturale but what do you suggest for physcially closing the pores on my face? Is there something specific that would work a part from the things that you have mentioned above which I am implementing from this day forward.
Thanks
Hi Annie,
Thanks, glad you’re enjoying my website! 🙂 Unfortunately you can’t actually shrink the size of your pores, you can only make them appear a bit smaller… you might try using a clay mask, with kaolin clay, it might help to keep pores looking smaller. Also jojoba oil is good for getting rid of oiliness and unclogging pores which would help them look smaller too –> jojoba oil https://thelovevitamin.com/3028/choose-good-jojoba-oil-acne/
Hello, Tracy!
I have rosacea and tried everything natural on my face to clease. The only thing that works for me best is the green papaya! What would you recommend to use daily to cleanse my skin? Do you think red clay is good for rosacea? My face looks super grainy, even under my eyes. Dermatologist are not helpful at all. Thank you for your site and help!
Anna