As with all aspects of skin care there are always claims of effective treatments that can be found in your own home and the acne industry is certainly no different.  While most consumers understand that these treatments are not the most effective available to them, the price is certainly right for everyone.  Oatmeal, believe it or not, has proven to be fairly effective in the treatment of acne, at least when it comes to the inflammation aspect of healing acne.  The author examines the use of Oatmeal as a home treatment for acne, and explains which aspects of acne breakouts that oatmeal will treat and which ones it won't. 

Oatmeal has been used for quite some time for the treatment of irritated or inflamed skin.  Soothing hives from allergies or used as a wash for irritated skin, and in some cases even included within dog shampoo to accomplish the exact same thing.  But seldom is it considered a treatment for acne.  It makes sense logically and so to determine just how well oatmeal works as an acne treatment, we decided to put it to a test.

We used oatmeal on acne breakouts to see firsthand just how effective this home remedy actually is.  As expected oatmeal proved to be an effective remedy to the inflammation that is so common with acne breakouts.  It did not set any speed records in doing so, however after a week there was a noticeable reduction in the inflammation.  It should be noted that the more oatmeal that was applied to the breakouts the faster the results were.  The redness of the acne and the swollen legions eventually did reduce, but the question of how it treated the source of the acne still remained. 

No matter how much oatmeal that you use, or how often you use it, it seems that oatmeal will not treat the acne breakouts at the source, the bacteria.  Oatmeal has been and still is an effective remedy for inflammation or for soothing irritations due to allergies, etc.  And if you don't mind the mess, it can be an affordable way to reduce the visibility of breakouts once they appear, but do not expect it to help you stop future breakouts.

While logically speaking, this is a good home remedy option for the specific treatment of acne inflammation, there are many things to consider.  If you suffer from acne, you need to be sure to use something to prevent future breakouts, not just react to the ones that do develop.  That usually means a cleanser at the least.  By choosing the right cleanser, one rich with chamomile or other anti inflammatory ingredients like Resveratrol, that treats both the acne causing bacteria as well as the inflammation of existing breakouts; consumers can affordably treat acne breakouts completely.   Not to mention you don't have to rub oatmeal on your face.  But if you don't get many breakouts or acne is not a huge issue for you, then yeah, perhaps oatmeal can reduce the inflammation you need to make your acne less visible to others.  The key is to understand what oatmeal will and will not do, if it fits your needs, then it will accomplish those goals for you fairly well.