Garlic to Treat Acne?

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Instagram is one of my favorite apps. Whenever I have free time I find myself scrolling through my feed and the popular page. Because of my interest in health and beauty, a lot of the recommend videos are from beauty and makeup accounts. One blogger’s post in particular, Farrah Dhukai’s, caught my attention. I have seen her account before. She posts a lot of beauty DIY videos–‘do it yourself.’ These videos have become very popular, gaining her over 2 million followers and verification on Instagram. One of her more surprising beauty tips caught my attention: using garlic to treat acne.

In her post, Farrah claims, “if you have a whitehead like me-it’ll be gone INSTANTLY and won’t come back […] if you have a larger pimple beneath the surface rub the garlic on it and leave it on overnight. You’ll wake up with it GONE!” She continues in the video to apply the garlic and then shows the result the next morning. And surprisingly enough, the pimple that was once there is now completely gone. Personally, I have tried countless acne remedies over the years in attempts to control my acne. I have used everything from toothpaste to dermatologist recommended products. However, none have worked as well or as instantly as the garlic supposedly does.

Initially I did not believe this could truly be possible. However, after doing some research I came across a dermatologist from New York, Dr. Amy Wechsler who confirmed the likelihood of this DIY acne treatment’s results. According to Wechsler, garlic has the active ingredient ‘Allicin,’ which has anti-inflammatory properties. Consequently, it would be possible for garlic to reduce the inflammation of acne, decreasing pimple size.

However, there are other dermatologists with different opinions. One dermatologist in particular at NYU, Marie Leger, M.D., Ph.D., stated, “‘People are always trying to smear food on their skin in my experience…I don’t think it’s a good idea.'” According to Leger, garlic can cause a skin condition called “dermatitis” which can come in the form of red patches, rashes, or sores. Apparently this not only can happen to people who are allergic to garlic, but also those who are not. These marks can take up to months to fade away. So the question remains, is it really worth it to rub garlic on your face?

In my opinion, it’s not. There are many topical treatments that work just fine. You can use an array of products ranging from the strong formula of Proactive to natural ingredients such as tea tree oil. The key difference here is that these products are all dermatologist recommended, not just trending beauty videos.

One thought on “Garlic to Treat Acne?”

  1. I too have an obsession with watching makeup and beauty tutorials on Instagram, but I’ve never came across this particular method of acne treatment. I know that people will literally try everything and some of the concoctions people come up with honestly freak me out. I would be hesitant to rub garlic on my face for many reasons but mainly because of the smell it would leave behind. However, I really enjoyed how you did your own research to validate this single claim of garlic’s “powers.” It was interesting to see the actual scientific background of the treatment rather than just a before and after shot on social media.

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