A Tart Trial: Lemon Facial Treatments

One of my friends on Facebook (who happens to be the same age as me) posted a new status saying "If someone showed me at 17 what my sun spotted/streaked face would look like at 27 I probably wouldve worn sunscreen :(". Well, I feel that way now as well, but if you would have shown my 17 year old self what a sun spotted/streaked face would look like... well... I would have said "Whatever. Sunscreen gives me pimples." It did and it still does... but now that I'm 26, I actually use the sunscreen. (Yay for maturing!) Honestly, the pimples aren't as bad, but I'm a little ashamed to say that I still have them even though I'm 26! These pimples... they don't just come and go either. They come, they go, and they leave a reddish darkened area. Humph. That brings me to my point: How the hell am I going to get rid of the spots, streaks, and reddish darkened pimple imprints? Well, I've come to learn that whatever I can't answer, Google sure as hell can. So, I did.

I think I googled "dark spots on the face from acne." Some recommendations I saw said using products with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. I already use a facial wash with salicylic acid - so, I decided to continue using it because I feel like I haven't seen any improvement in my dark spot from acne. So, I started looking at peels... glycolic acid and lactic acid seemed the most accessible. You can find them everywhere online ... any place that sells beauty products will sell these acid treatments. Apparently, you can buy puny amateur concentrations, all the way up to "professional" concentrations. Which started sounding pretty scary to me when I read the reviews about it causing a face to totally break out (that's definitely not my goal). Then I saw a whole bunch of natural remedies... lemon juice being one of them. This appealed to me because my grocery store sells six lemons for a dollar, they smell good, and it's a natural acid (citric acid).

Now, if you do a little research on citric acid, there isn't a whole lot of data about using it on your face, unless you read the testimonials sprinkled around the internet. Those seemed pretty compelling and I couldn't find a whole lot of horror stories... and geeze... they're just so darn cheap.

So, I went to the store and grabbed six lemons. Then, I cut a slice and spread it on my face and marinate for a couple hours. Then, I made photographic evidence for your skeptical woes:

Needless to say, I will not continue this lemon juice trial... let's just say, it's left a sour taste in my mouth. For now, I'll let my skin recover and let nature take it's natural course in healing the dark areas that pimples have created. My search for the miracle fix is at rest for now! All those searching for miracles: good luck! It seems they're hard to find...