I get a fair few people asking me if it’s a good idea to use toothpaste as a masque for pimples or even as a full-face treatment (ouch!). Here’s all you need to know about using toothpaste on your skin:

• Used overnight on pimples, toothpaste can reduce the size of them or even dry them out thanks to the combination of drying alcohol and soothing zinc. The menthol can help to dry them out too but it can also irritate your skin if you’re particularly sensitive.

• Having said that, it’s not to be used on large areas of the face as it’ll irritate your skin and make it very raw/red. If you are going to use toothpaste on a pimple, avoid the gel-based ones.

• You can use toothpaste as a spot treatment in a pinch but there are lots of better alternatives out there like sulfur-based masques, aspirin and everything listed here.

Interestingly enough, toothpaste can often be the cause of breakouts around the mouth and chin as well as dry lips. The reason being that some people are sensitive to the SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) that’s in most toothpaste. If you tend to break out around the mouth or have found that you’re suddenly breaking out in that area – try switching toothpaste to an SLS-free one for a few weeks to see if it improves. Same goes for mouthwash.

Some good SLS-free toothpastes include:

• Sensodyne toothpastes: Pronamel (the regular and kids version) and Iso-Active Whitening.
• Rembrandt Canker Sore Toothpaste.
• Toms of Maine toothpastes.
• Biotene Toothpaste.

So, before you reach for that tube of toothpaste; look for alternatives, make sure you’re not applying it to a large area, don’t use a gel-based one and make sure it’s not the cause of your acne to begin with!