Aloe Vera For Acne | Does It Help?

How I First Discovered Aloe

I remember burning myself at my first ever job. I was a waiter at a celebrity hot spot, and it was non-stop. On my second day I burnt myself pretty bad on a paella dish. I literally had a blister within minutes, and my boss (who was into herbal medicine) stopped me when I was putting an ice cube over it. He cut of a piece of aloe vera from the side of the restaurant and told me to put that on.

This was before smartphones (now I would quickly Google it), and while I didn’t completely trust him, the burn hurt so much, I started rubbing the plant juices on my burn.

Guess what? The burning feeling stopped immediately, and the blister reduced in swelling within hours. Unfortunately, that meant I had to go back to work immediately as well!

So what does all this have to do with pimples? A lot actually. Aloe vera has been called a magical cure for many things, and there’s certainly some truth in it. So let’s find out whether it can help you cure acne as well!

aloe vera for face pimplesIs Aloe Vera Good For Acne?

Interestingly enough Aloe has been used in herbal medicine for thousands of years for its healing, soothing and rejuvenating properties. It was even called the “plant of immortality” by the Egyptians, and used by Cleopatra herself to stay beautiful.

But let’s get back to the present day and find out what makes aloe so powerful. The key to aloe’s healing effects is the many components that make up this plant. For example it contains six different antiseptics and is full of vitamins, amino acids, calcium and germanium. While there is a lack of scientific research supporting aloe’s effects on treating pimples, there is no doubt that it has helped plenty of people.

Scientific research has however showed that this plant has anti-inflammatory, anti- bacterial, and anti-viral properties, which are all necessary in curing acne.

Should You Use Aloe Vera Gel For Acne?

You can supposedly get the benefits of this “magical” plant by either drinking the juice or applying it topically. There is a lot of scientific debate on what’s best, but from our research it seems you’re better of trying the topical method. This leaves you with the choice of either buying the plant itself or buying a topical gel or cream.

One study showed that combining aloe vera with topical retinoid as a treatment of acne vulgaris made it more effective and reduced the side effects. So while it might lack the power to get rid of acne by itself, combining it with a more powerful treatment does seem to work fairy well.

This is a little disappointing; since this means that it’s not the magical cure some people hope it will be. So if you’re considering trying this method, and we certainly suggest you do; the best way to use aloe vera for acne is to combine it with several other natural remedies, or even better with a high quality over the counter cleanser.

From our own experience and from feedback form our readers, we found that combining aloe vera with Exposed Skincare has the most chance of getting rid of skin outbreaks fast.

One thing to bear in mind, while we rated this a top quality product (and it really is), there just are no guaranteed when it comes to treatment of acne. Everyone is different!

Best Gels To Buy

To save you some time, we compiled this list of the top three Aloe Vera products on Amazon. This list is based on our personal reviews of these products, and reading through countless of customer testimonials.

You could instead go buy the pant itself, but from reading user reviews, it seems that the over the counter products are more effective in terms of medicinal effectiveness. Also, you probably end up spending more buying the plant yourself, and it seems like a lot of hassle to cut it.

aloe vera gel acne amazon1. Aloe Vera Gel By Earth’s Daughter

This is the highest-rated product on Amazon, and just by reading the customer reviews, we became convinced that this product can help a lot of you. While it is slightly more expensive than some of the other ones we’ve seen ($17.99 down from $25.99), the quality is very high and it is 12 oz. It’s organic (very important for skin creams) and has no additives or alcohol added. It’s also fragrance free so there’s less likely to be skin irritation.

Click here to see more details on Amazon.com

2. Fruit Of The Earth Aloe Vera

This is another highly rated product by Amazon customers. It doesn’t look like it’s organic, but it’s still 100% pure. It costs $10.52  for a 24oz gel pump.

Click here to see more details on Amazon.com

3. Lily Of The Desert Aloe Vera Gel

We like this product, because it is made with only Certified Organic ingredients and is enhanced with Polysaccharide-Rich Aloes orb. We didn’t get a chance to personally review this product, but the 240 customer reviews on Amazon (most of them very positive) tell us enough to give it third place on this list of best Aloe Vera gels for acne.

Click here to see more details on Amazon.com

Any of these products will do, and like we said before, try combining this treatment with either another natural remedy or a proven over the counter product, like these.

What About Healing Scars?

Aloe vera for acne scars can be even more effective than for blackheads and pimples. Aloe is very effective at alleviating scars, or al least helping reduce the visibility of them. Because scars from pimples tend to be quite small, the gels listed above can be fairly effective. Unfortunately it’s not guaranteed to work. I’ve seen some amazing results on some people, while others didn’t see much difference on their scars. My suggestion is, try one of the above products and see what happens. They aren’t that expensive and apart from possibly healing scars, it will make your skin look better.