Baking Soda

Try it. It did not get rid of my acne, but it helps to keep it under better control. I use it twice a week as a mask and it is very helpful with drying out anything active and reducing the redness of my scars.

My skin is extemely sensitive, oily (thanks, genetics), and stubborn against most treatments (Proactive, Clearasil, AcneFree, and Neutrogena made my condition WORSE!) . In my mid-20s, my extremely severe acne seemed to finally calm down, but I would still get occassional breakouts and horrible cystic acne on my cheekbones, towards my temples, and along my jawline that would remain on my face for months and when it finally started to heal, it would leave huge blue/purple scars under my skin...and I hadn't even poked or popped the infections! So my skin has a permanent light rash from bad products, blotchy from cysts, and scars from when I used to pick and from cysts I let heal. Anyway, the first time I used this, I mixed it into a paste and left it on for a half hour. Much to my horror, my skin burned, was really flushed when I rinsed it off, and so I had to put aloe on it. I would not have used it again had I not noticed one thing: the swelling on one of my cysts decreased a lot. After a couple more uses every other day (left it on my face for up to an hour), all my cystic acne was dried up and gone! I also started to notice that my complexion was becoming even-toned again and my face was incredibly smooth. Also, I felt I was getting less breakouts. Sadly, it doesn't seem to do much for my hormonal acne breakouts that I get as I approach that lovely time of the month.

I forgot to pick up my topical acne prescription before the long weekend, and my skin breaks out as soon as I stop using it, so I resorted to baking soda. It works in a pinch, I had two pimples that the paste I made of water and baking soda dried out and brought to the surface. I recommend it as a last resort if you're out of your usual products.

With proper use, this is a great product. Just be careful to mix with copious amounts of water and rinse off thoroughly, moisturizing afterwords.

After reading all the good reviews here, I decided to try it. I mixed the baking soda with water, and applied it on my face like a mask. I left it on for about 15 minutes. After i washed the mask off, my skin was soft, and my pimples were visibly reduced. However, my whole face turned a bright red colour!! Luckily, an hour later, my skin turned normal again. :) For something so cheap, I recommend trying it, but make sure you are not busy for the next hour or so, because your skin may turn red.

It often stung and burned on my sensitive skin. It did work most of the time, but sometimes it made things worse. I had a healing patch of skin that was in between a scab and healed, and it opened it back up again. Now I'm back to square one to heal it.

I started using baking soda as my daily cleanser about a week ago. Many of my zits have dried out, though I'm still unsure if it's just my own hormones or if it's actually working. My face seems brighter, and it's easier to put on my make-up, which is a plus! It leaves my face feeling fresh, and it's definitely the most effective exfoliant I've used (& I'm a St. Ives Apricot Scrub fan!). It's also super cheap and all natural,

I use baking soda after cleansing as an "extra cleanse" and exfoliator. It leaves you skin feeling really soft and clean which is why I like it so much! I don't know if this has helped greatly to reduce pimples because I started using it when I started applying ACV and lemon juice as toners... So I am not sure which product is mostly responsible for the improvement...Probably a combination of these 3 that helped my acne clear up this much. I still use it twice a day and I just love it :)

The bottom line with baking soda is that it works to an extent. It works great, actually. My face is pretty bad, to the point where I hate leaving the house, I hate going anywhere, just because I don't have clear skin. However, my problem may be different from a few others; I know it's recommended heavily against, but I can't ever help but scratch and pick at my acne. I scratch them until they're absolute, bleeding scars, until they're unrecognizable as acne. And so one day, I was looking at myself in the mirror, saw that I had these awful scabs and scars everywhere, so I tried baking soda and water. I stirred until the mixture was thick enough to stay on my face, but liquidy enough not to crumble to pieces. I spread it on all over, and let it stay as a mask for 10 minutes. Ensure that you remain still, or the mask will begin to "snow" whenever you move. I turned on the water to be lukewarm, borderline cool, and I used only my fingertips to rub in circular motions at my face. If the mask restricted rubbing because of water and paste buildup, I would just run my palm under the water and dab my face at those areas. I pat the towel in gentle, small and rapid pats all around my face. Very gentle, very rapid. No pressure applied at all. After this, I notice the scabs are not black, the scars are not red. The baking soda peeled off the layer of dead skin, and now it's just flesh that needs to heal. Now that it's no longer acne and it's just a cut, I apply Polysporin, and it heals great. You also don't have to worry about that lasting discolouration from old scars; baking soda bleaches your skin and evens out the skin tone. (: I would advise against using it too much. Peeling off skin that is trying to heal too often won't give it a chance to go away completely. But with new breakouts, I would use it more consistently, until the scars are fleshy and you can use Polysporin. I have a piano recital coming up, so I am so, so, SO thankful for Arm & Hammer Baking Sod

It stings but overall works pretty well