How To Naturally Remove Acne Scars At Home

Anyone who has suffered from acne as a teen or adult knows the woes of the almighty scar. With acne, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

I first started breaking out when I was 10 years old and struggled with it all the way up until my 20s. It got better when I stopped consuming caffeine and chocolate, and drank nothing but water, but it wasn’t until I switched my diet when the breakouts completely stopped.

I was excited that I was finally able to achieve the smooth skin I took for granted during my elementary years, but I was still stuck with unsightly acne scars. My cheeks were the main areas of my breakouts, so they had all the scarring. I always hated wearing makeup, but was forced to because I hated my scars even more. Since I was on a path to all things natural, I was determined to find a remedy for these scars.

Acne Remedies I found

During my research, I came across all sorts of different natural remedies used by men and women across the world. But like most, I was impatient and wanted something to work quickly.

So much so, that I tried using an at-home chemical peel — big mistake! I did this 2 times and each time it did lighten my scars, BUT it left me with an area on the side of my face that looked burned. It was darker than the rest of my face. So now, I had to worry about lightening that scar as well!

After that lesson, I was ready to be patient with a real remedy that would actually do my skin good, not harm it. These are the natural ingredients that I found to actually work:

Lavender essential oil:

I have seen great results personally and throughout the web-o-sphere regarding the use of lavender essential oil for fading acne scars. People have also used it to fade sun spots and age spots. Just make sure you mix your lavender essential oil with a base oil rather than putting it directly onto your skin.

Unripe papaya:

You may have seen folks on YouTube using ripe and unripened papaya(also known as green papaya) in their face masks. I’ve seen it do wonders on some acne scar sufferers, so I tried it myself. I definitely saw results. It’s just so darn hard to find non-GMO unripe papaya where I live now, so couldn’t continue it’s use. I do plan to buy the powder version of green papaya to use in my exfoliating face masks.

Lime juice:

Most people like to use lemon juice for their facials, but I prefer lime. The citric acid helps to exfoliate your skin, giving it a nice non-chemical peel effect. I like to include this in my facial mix with the papaya and lavender essential oil.

Raw potatoes:

The acid found in the brown potato is similar to that of lemon and lime. You just slice up a brown potato and rub them all over your face gently. Allow the juice from the potato slices to do its work for 15-20 minutes before rinsing it off. You can do this a few times throughout the week.

Neroli oil:

This is another great essential oil for your skin. Neroli Oil helps to fade away acne scars, as well as wrinkles, so it’s an excellent exfoliant. This is a special ingredient that I like to include in my DIY facial masks.

Tea tree oil:

Combine tea tree oil will neroli and lavender and you have yourself an awesome concoction to combat acne breakouts and scars.

Kaolin Clay:

Kaolin Clay is one of my favorite clays because it is great for fading acne scars. I do blend it with three other clays and “activated” charcoal to provide my skin with the utmost benefits from them all.

Activated Charcoal:

If you suffer from blackheads, activated charcoal is amazing as an acne treatment.  It’s a porous powder that attracts and absorbs toxins, so it’s amazing for cleaning out your pores.  My activated charcoal face mask recipe mixes charcoal with bentonite clay.

Creating an at-home acne scar treatment regimen

You can use a combination of the above natural ingredients for your at-home acne scar treatments. To give you an example, I’ll tell you what my regimen looks like:

Every other day, I use my clay masks to deep cleanse my face. Afterward, I use an exfoliation mask made with papaya and lime juice mixed together. This creates a sticky paste that reminds me of a peel. I rinse this off and then apply aloe vera gel to my skin for moisture (I never use oils because they break me out).

I like to add aloe vera gel or olive oil to my clay masks as well to help keep them from over-drying my face. I also include lavender, neroli and tea tree essential oils in the mask.

When I can’t do my papaya and lime facial, I instead use sliced potatoes.

That’s pretty much it when it comes to treating acne scars. I, of course, use other masks like the seaweed clay mask to give nourishment to my skin.

So how about you? What have you been using to exfoliate away unwanted acne scars?