Beauty Box: Lemon Juice for Acne Scars

I don’t consider myself to be a person plagued by acne, however I do have semi-regular breakouts due mostly to hormonal changes (just another reason to hate my period). However, after moving to a new state with a different climate (more humidity), my face royally freaked out and I began breaking out in places (cheeks, forehead) that have always been acne-free. I was perplexed and annoyed by this change, but the thing that bugged me the most about it was the scars that the acne left behind. I had always been so proud of my skin 3 weeks out of the month, and all of a sudden I felt like I couldn’t leave the house without a generous amount of concealer.

Luckily, my skin seems to be adjusting to the new climate, but the acne scars remain as a reminder. I had contemplated more expensive fixes to this problem such as fancy products or microdermabrasion, but then I remembered something I had read in a magazine once about lemon juice as a dark spot corrector. I had a little bottle of lemon juice in my fridge, so I figured I might as well try it before wasting money on products that might not work.

I applied it by squirting a little bit of the juice onto a cotton ball and then wiping it all over my face like a toner. I left it on for about 20 minutes and then rinsed it off. Obviously, there were no immediate results. However, I kept up with this routine, and after about a week and a half, I started noticing a pretty dramatic reduction in the appearance of my acne scars. They aren’t gone completely, but I do feel like I can leave the house without being caked with make-up. I highly recommend this process to anyone who has relatively new acne scars (I’m not sure how well it will work on really deep, old scars).

Pros: Very effective on lightening new acne scars, brightens skin, practically free, doesn’t dry out skin, doesn’t cause subsequent breakouts, smells super fresh.

Cons: Does slightly sting on areas where the skin might be broken.