Spearmint tea is an easily available treatment for hormonal acne and it’s seriously underrated if you ask me! If you’ve read my six tips for healing hormonal acne you know I swear on spearmint tea to prevent my monthly breakout caused by hormonal fluctuations.

The reasons why I swear on spearmint tea are:

Image of a female face from both sides with clear skin, although there are some fading acne scars
My face after successfully treating my hormonal acne (you can see scars, but no more inflammation)

a) Obviously I’ve had really good experiences with it! My results are clearly noticeable and I can reproduce them, too.

b) Studies show that spearmint tea is definitely helpful for lowering free testosterone. And according to what my endocrinologist told me, this is exactly what the skin receptor that causes acne is very sensitive to.

You see, for me personally, there’s nothing wrong with my hormones. They’re all in the “accepted range”. But I’m super sensitive to androgens. That skin receptor I was talking about: It reacts strongly.

This sensitivity is genetic, unfortunately. Lots of people struggle with it and this is how lots of hormonal acne happens. And, yes, you could take hormone medication, but that will mess up lots of other things in your body.

Personally, I am not a fan of taking hormones when nothing is “broken”. (Obviously take your medicine when you’re ill and your doctor prescribes something!) My alternative is to try natural things to lower my androgens a little. And this is how I landed on spearmint tea.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are so-called provision links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I can earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

How spearmint tea helps acne

So how does spearmint for acne work?

Spearmint tea has not really been studied specifically for acne, or at least I couldn’t find good studies about it. But it’s definitely been proven to lower androgens. And for me personally, I know that this is what’s causing my acne. My androgen levels are not too high, from a medical point of view, but they’re on the high end and I’m sensitive to it.

So does spearmint tea help hormonal acne?

Yep, if you have regularly occurring hormonal acne (which is the one around your jaw line happening regularly around the time of the month): Give it a try!

Traditional Medicinals Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Healthy & Refreshing, (Pack of 1) - 16 Tea Bags
Traditional Medicinals Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Healthy & Refreshing, (Pack of 1) – 16 Tea Bags
Davidson's Organics, Spearmint Leaves, Loose Leaf Tea, 16-Ounce Bag
Davidson’s Organics, Spearmint Leaves, Loose Leaf Tea, 16-Ounce Bag
The Tao of Tea, Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Loose Leaf, Tin, 2 Oz
The Tao of Tea, Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Loose Leaf, Tin, 2 Oz

Another positive effect spearmint tea offers is reduced inflammation. A study found that it had significant anti-inflammatory effects, both right-away and long-term!

And no matter which type of acne you’re dealing with: chances are inflammation is a problem for you, too!

No matter what causes your skin issues, at least one of the benefits of spearmint tea for acne will work for you!

Related: Hyaluronic acid and acne – What you need to know

How much spearmint tea to drink for acne

As I said above, there aren’t any good studies yet about spearmint tea for acne. This also means, unfortunately, I cannot give you “the perfect amount” of spearmint tea to drink.

I can’t tell you how much spearmint tea you need to lower testosterone. I can only tell you, how I do it.

The way I’ve been doing it successfully is to drink 1 -2 cups a day for a few days from the time around ovulation. That is the time where androgens can really take a toll.

And this works for me, really well. But I cannot tell you with any certainty if this is the right dosage.

Image of a cup of spearmint tea on my desk

Please keep in mind, I’m definitely not a doctor, and even if I was I would not diagnose you through the internet. So if you’ve never talked to your doctor or to a dermatologist about your acne, do that first please!

Personally, I’ve visited every doctor I could: GP, (several) dermatologists, gynaecologists, endocrinologist…

None of them could help me sustainably, because there’s nothing “wrong” with me in a medical sense. I’m just very sensitive to my own natural androgens.

If you find yourself in this description, definitely try spearmint tea!

Related: Does Niacinamide actually help with acne?

Spearmint tea for acne: how long?

As with any treatment for acne, you can’t simply drink spearmint tea once and poof – no more acne. It takes time.

During my research, I kept stumbling upon mentions of a study from the American Academy of Dermatology. Apparently they did a study in 2015 where they found that two cups of organic spearmint tea daily reduced inflammatory acne lesions by 25% after one month, and 51% after three months.

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t actually find the study itself, so take it with a grain of salt.)

The point is, as with all things when it comes to skins and healing: You’ll need patience. Give it time to work, at least a few weeks.

Image of a cup of spearmint tea, the words "Good things take time" written across

If you’re into routines, or if it’s hard for you to drink tea throughout the day: It can be really nice to have one cup of tea as part of your morning routine.

(I have some other tips for how to create a morning routine here.)

And then you can have the second cup of tea throughout the day, or in the evening before you go to bed.

Related: My favorite hack to relieve fatigue – quickly and healthily!

Can spearmint tea make acne worse?

I’ve also been asked if spearmint tea can make hormonal acne worse.

As far as I understand, hormonal acne is caused by androgens. So this specific type of regularly occurring acne, caused by your monthly cycle. In that case, any worsening should not be caused by spearmint tea.

So can spearmint tea cause acne? Highly unlikely.

However, you might also have acne for completely different reasons! It might be due to some inflammation in your body, some other illness, or some other hormonal imbalance that’s not high androgen.

And, who knows, maybe there might be some interaction that causes spearmint tea to make your acne worse. I couldn’t find any possible reasons for this, but who knows!

Image of a a white chalk question mark on a black board

So, again, this is why it’s super important to try and find the cause for your acne with a medical professional first.

Best spearmint tea for hormonal acne

In my opinion, the best spearmint tea to use for acne is one where you get as much of the leaf as possible. Meaning, no tea bags, but loose leaf.

Traditional Medicinals Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Healthy & Refreshing, (Pack of 1) - 16 Tea Bags
Traditional Medicinals Organic Spearmint Herbal Tea, Healthy & Refreshing, (Pack of 1) – 16 Tea Bags

This let’s you try out different amounts, which can be really important if you drink two cups daily. I’ve found that too much makes it taste bitter, and loose leaf also lets me mix the spearmint with other leaves.

Obviously, tea bags can also work if you’re just not that much into loose tea. But I don’t think they’re the best for this kind of endeavour.

Another thing to look out for is that your tea isn’t polluted with pesticides and other undesired chemicals. Look for organic, fair-trade teas.

I think, this one* is a great choice. Order it here!*

Peppermint tea or spearmint tea for acne

Lastly, because I’ve been asked this: it’s not peppermint tea it’s spearmint tea specifically. I have not researched peppermint tea for acne, but I know that spearmint has the strongest anti-inflammatory activity from all the mints.

And I haven’t heard of peppermint having the same androgen-reducing effect, which is what gives spearmint it’s effectivity in fighting acne.

Related: The best skin care products for treating acne scars

Share this with someone!

Lastly, if this helped you, please share it with someone else. You never know who it might help!

*These links are so-called provision links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I can earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.