How to Whiten Skin with Lemon Juice

Lemon juice has long been used as a skin remedy, and its usefulness includes reducing freckles and treating oily skin, but did you know that lemon juice is a natural skin-whitening agent?

Lemon juice has natural bleaching abilities, but keep in mind that you cannot make drastic changes in your skin tone with lemons. Your skin may brighten a few shades, but the effect isn’t permanent.

Only use fresh lemons, not bottled lemon juice, as it can often contain water and preservatives. As lemons are fairly cheap, try to buy one a day for this treatment. It will make your life easier if you use a hand-juicing device for your lemons.

Do a Patch Test First

If you are like a lot of people, you will want to get on and try skin whitening with lemon juice without waiting around for a patch test, but that’s a bad idea. If you put lemon juice all over your face, and then have an allergic reaction, you’re going to regret being impatient!

It’s simple to do a patch test. Clean the inside of your elbow, and rub some lemon juice on the clean patch. Wait for 24 hours, and see how your skin feels. If it starts stinging or burning in the 24 hours, wash the lemon juice off immediately and don’t use it on any part of your body.

How to Make a Whitening Liquid

Slice the lemon in half and remove the seeds. Manually juice the lemon until all the juice is extracted. If you don’t have a juicer, hold the lemon half over a large bowl and squeeze it hard, until all the juice is in the bowl.

Wash your face, then clean and pat dry. Apply the lemon juice to your face or any other area you’d like to lighten, and if it starts stinging rinse it off straight away.

Using Lemon Juice for Freckles

Freckles are just clusters of melanin, the pigment that gives us our skin color. They are usually common in red-haired or light-skinned people, and appear on the face, neck, shoulders and arms.

If you want to lighten your freckles, try using lemon juice. The acidic properties of lemons will lighten your skin, but it can take several applications to work and the lightening is only temporary – if you go out in the sun without protection, the freckles will come back.

To treat your freckles, the easiest way is to put fresh lemon juice into a spray bottle and spray directly on to your skin in the places you want to lighten. Another technique is to rub a sliced lemon on the area and let it sit on your skin for around 10 minutes, then wash off.

Lemon Juice Face Mask for Oily Skin

This face mask will treat oily skin while lightening any freckles.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon Fuller’s earth • 2 teaspoons rose water • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

Mix the Fuller’s earth with rose water and lemon juice to form a paste. Rub the paste onto the skin areas you want to lighten. Leave the mask on for 10 to 15 minutes, then rinse off.

Lemon Juice Face Mask for Dry Skin

Lemon juice can dry out your skin, especially if you use it every day for a period of time. This mask will moisturize your skin while lightening freckles.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon olive oil • 1 teaspoon honey • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

Mix the ingredients together to form a thin paste, and massage into your skin for a few minutes. Leave on for 10 to 15 minutes, then rinse off.

Warnings

Lemon juice is usually safe, but like all natural remedies it can have side effects or cause irritation.

Don’t go out in the sun with lemon juice on your skin. Lemon juice can make your skin extra-sensitive to sunlight, and this can lead to burns or discoloration. Make sure all traces of lemon juice are washed off your skin before you go outside.

Avoid getting lemon juice near your eyes, because it can burn and sting. If you are prone to dry skin, using lemon juice may make the problem worse.