Apple Cider Vinegar for Mole Removal

I decided if I made it through this I would do a review in hopes to help others.

I had a slightly raised mole on the side of my cheek and I hated it. I had gone to the Dr. And it was benign. I asked him to freeze it off and he said No he would have to surgically remove it and it would leave a scar and stitch marks.

I've had them froze off in the past by a Dr. who is way too old to practice so I know freezing them works well. So I was discouraged and aggravated that he wouldn't freeze it off. I had to look at this thing everyday!

It always worked for me In the past with no scarring. Maybe I should have listened to that Dr. Maybe I should have found a different Dr. Either way enough was enough.

I wanted something done. After I read many reviews I decided to try the apple cider vinegar.

It was either going to work or it was going to be the dumbest thing I have ever done.

Either way, could apple cider vinegar Really work? Was I prepared? How harsh could it be right? I have very light skin. I am the one that got a scar from a briar 2 months ago on my hand and it is still there. Reluctantly, I decided to try this.

Day 1. I put vaseline around the edge of the mole of my cheek. (to protect the skin around the area I wasn't treating) I soaked a cotton ball, squeezed out excess and cut to size of area.

I repeated a few times that day and slept in it for 8 hours.

Day 2. I repeated again during the day and then slept again over night with the cotton ball and vinegar

Day 3. I will not lie....I was freaking out. I told myself... I better not apply any more vinegar as it was stinging, the mole was turning black and I was worried. (even though I had read this was part of the process....were they right? I mean you can't believe everything you read on the internet. :)

This thing was big, black, red around my cheek. I drove my sister crazy having her check it to get her opinion. I kept taking photos. Just checking and I was going to be so ashamed if I had to go in to tell the Dr. How dumb I was so then I felt guilt!!!

I was stressed with worry and fear and thinking....what have I done?

I am old enough to know better.

Day 4. I seen a little improvement but still black and Oh my....embarrassing. I was in hiding In my house. slapped a band aid on if I had to leave. The mole was forming a tough scab.

Day 5. Finally seen the light of Day. It scabbed over and I know you're not suppose to help it along....but tht black troll mole had to go. So I carefully and I mean Carefully peeled it back a little to help the process. I didn't rip and tug the scab. It felt like a hard resin.

Well the big black mole is gone.

I have a pink spot in its place but....today really is the first day I consider the healing phase. I don't know what the outcome will be. I do feel that this will heal and it looks very clean straight across.

Would I recommend this or do it again? I am a chronic worrier and I don't like suspense. So for me? Probably Not. With that being said before even attempting this....get the mole checked. That is the number one most important thing. Get it checked!!!!

Talk to your Dr. Ask if it can be froze off.

I had a Dr. Cut on me on the back of my neck once to have a mole removed that was rubbing up against my shirt and now I have Frankenstein Stitches. Personally, I like the freezing method.

If you do decide to try the vinegar. Do so with care. Research, be prepared. Keep a sterile environment. Do not get It infected. stay out of the hot sun until it heals. Use vitamin E and Aloe vera Or coconut oil.

I am not recommending anyone do this. This review is based on my experience Only.

So now onto the healing phase.

Its bright pink. However, with what I dealt with earlier in the week this is just fine with me.

The area looks smooth, clean and like a bad zit that has been popped and irritated. Looks like a chemical burn. What ever you decide... good luck. This was an experience But I am too impatient not to know the unknown! Good luck!!!

Then just a week or 2 ago, it came back. the dermatologist said all my moles were fine and I would have to pay 300 to get this one removed and that it may leave a scar.

So since I am off work for 11 more days, I started doing the Apple Cider Vinegar treatment again for the hell of it. On tues I started, this day 4 and the skin around my mole is burned, yellowish white, and the mole it self is brownish probably heading toward black. It is hideous and doesnt even seem like the mole is completely turning over. I soaked this thing to death in ACV, and I put coconut oil and scar herbal oil all around the skin to keep it from burnig but it is anyway. I don't think I should put anymore Apple Cider Vinegar on it and give it a rest and let it do what it needs to do. I'm more worried about the surrounding skin.... but I'll let you know how it goes.

I have had a small raised mole next to my nose for most of my life. I had asked a dermatologist about removing it a few years ago but was told it would scar and the cost was a little too high for me. So I left it alone, even though it has always bothered me.

So I decided to give this a shot. I read several pages of responses from people here and decided I wouldn't be bandaging it like some people did, but that I would apply the ACV several times a day instead.

Day 1. I carefully applied Vaseline around the mole to try to protect the skin. I soaked a q-tip in ACV and held it on the mole for about 5 minutes and then got a new one and repeated the process. I was nervous about roughing up the mole like I had read about here, so I just gently used the q-tip and used that instead. The mole was kind of small, about the size of the end of the q-tip.

Day 2. Part of the mole had definitely turned black, but part of it looked unaffected. I tried to be a little more aggressive with the q-tip to make sure I was getting the whole thing. I repeated the vaseline/ACV process about 4 times that day.

Day 3. Apparently I had been a little too aggressive the day before because the surrounding skin was looking definitely burnt. The mole had gotten flat but the surrounding skin was kind of a dark brown. It is really important to carefully get all of the surrounding skin covered in the vaseline! So now the formerly small area was about twice as big because of the burnt skin. Day 3 was tough. I was starting to feel some pain when I applied the ACV and by the end of Day 3 it was hurting even when I hadn't done it for a few hours. Plus it looked horrible. I was feeling a little discouraged.

Day 4. I didn't think I was making any progress because the surface of the mole was covered by black scabbing. I used a pumice stone to gently roughen up the surface and I think that helped a little. I had been nervous about roughening up the mole but it was necessary. It was not painful because I just did it gently over and over several times. The ACV was much more painful! Day 4 was really tough. It looked really, really bad and my face was definitely sore from just this one spot. Very frustrating! I almost wanted to give up. I did one small application of Tea Tree oil because I was afraid of infection. Be aware that TTO can cause burning too, and do not use TTO on your face unless you know how you react to it.

Day 5. Using the pumice stone didn't seem to be working enough. Part of the mole was changing in what I thought was for the better, but part was not. It was hard to tell because of the surrounding skin that had been burnt previously. Each time I applied the ACV on day 3-5 there would be a white-ish circle of skin surrounding the mole. After a couple hours this would get better but always came back when I did another ACV application.

I was feeling very impatient to be done with this process so I used a clean pin to carefully roughen up the surface of the mole. It didn't hurt as long as I was careful, and I never did enough to cause any bleeding. But I think doing this REALLY helped significantly. I was able to get through the black scabbing that had covered the mole. I also took a clean washcloth and would let it sit under very hot water for a minute or two, squeeze out the water and then hold the damp/warm cloth against the mole for several minutes, repeating the hot water when the cloth would cool down. This also helped loosen it up so that the ACV would penetrate.

Day 6: The surrounding skin that had been burnt started to show some signs of healing. It is hard to remember exactly but I was seeing progress. I only applied ACV once that day. I did the warm soak with the clean washcloth. I also applied a Vitamin E gelcap a few times that day, hoping it would help based on what I had read here. After using 1 capsule throughout the day I decided I should check to make sure I was doing the right thing to help a scab heal, because it looked to me like it was at the scabbing stage and I could not recognize anything that looked like the mole anymore.

Based on what I read, Vitamin E is not really the best choice to use for healing wounds. I did one more application of TTO that day and then that night I used a small amount of raw honey on the whole area.

Day 7: The surrounding skin where I had burnt it was scabbed but the scabs came off! Just lightly pink skin underneath! I was feeling very hopeful! That day I did only 1 ACV q-tip on a small area that looked like it might need it. I applied honey to it twice that day. Slowly the scabbing area started to come off. I tried not to mess with it but helped it a little when it seemed like it would come off easily. I did a little bit of soaking to try to get more of the scab off because honestly the scab was horrible looking. I used a little bit of raw honey on the wound that night at bedtime.

Day 8. The long, very frustrating, and at times painful week was showing signs of being over! I soaked the scab a little bit to help it along and finally the rest of it came off.

GUESS WHAT! NO MOLE!! The skin underneath is a little bit pink and is tender, but there is no sign that I ever had a mole there! I put honey on it again and will let it finish healing on its own. In about a week or so I plan to use some Mederma to help prevent any scarring, but I think (based on memory but I have to double check) that you have to wait until the skin has had some time to heal from the wound.

I am very, very happy to be done with this process. 8 days start to finish and I was shocked to see that it really worked. But do not think this was an easy fix! It was at times painful (like a 3 or 4 on a scale from 1-10), and it was UGLY for most of the week. Even now it is not exactly pretty skin but it is so much better and I am very happy it worked.

Lessons learned:
It is extremely important to get the vaseline right up next to the mole so that you don't burn skin but also don't accidentally cover any of the mole. Harder to do than it sounds!

Roughen up the mole (gently) because it really does make it more effective. Using a pumice stone helped somewhat but using a pin really did work the best. The warm/wet compress also helped make the area soft so the ACV could penetrate.

Expect this to take at least a week if you are doing daily applications. It might take longer for you. Be prepared for the black coloring and the scabbing. It is not pretty.

Rather than using Vitamin E at the end when you are just left with scabbing, I highly recommend using raw honey. If you are able to bandage the area over the honey that is the best way. Because of the location I was not able to cover mine but it still worked ok. I really think this helped the process at the end and helped the scab heal very quickly. Also I read that increasing your Vitamin C at this time can help, which I did by eating oranges, drinking juice high in Vitamin C and eating a few Tums on day 6-8.

Compared to other moles I have had removed in the past, this was physically the most difficult compared to burning or cutting. I think that is because doctors use numbing agents. Other methods also have the benefit of being done very quickly. The main benefit this way was the cost savings. I used maybe $4 total in supplies? It is too soon to tell if it will scar or not so I can't compare that to other methods yet.

So my answer to this is yes it works, but with side effects. I do not think I will do this on any other moles in the future. I don't think my pain tolerance and patience is high enough to do it again.

I found this site last week as I was thinking of having it cut out. I even paid to go and see a consultant and they wanted £550 pounds to do this but it would leave a scar which I would of accepted as being better than what I had.

Any way I decided to give it a go in secret which is quite hard!!

First I roughed up the mole/lump on my face with a nail file and then put Apple Cider Vinegar on it for about 30 mins. next morning I dabbed it again for about 10 mins and covered it in makeup and then went to work.

On day 3 it started to turn black which scared me a bit but I carried on. I have never left the Apple Cider Vinegar on overnight as it stung to much.

I cannot tell anyone enough amount putting vasaline around the area as I didnt and it has burnt the skin slightly.

Anyway after 5 days I stopped put the Apple Cider Vinegar on as it had turned into a scab and started puttting salve on with silicone in the morning and at night.

The scab came of yesterday but I am left with a pink scar aroung the area which isnt too bad but where the flesh coloured mole was it looks pink but a more darker pink!!!

Is this because this was a deeper area and scab?? than the outside?? as I'm worried that I have now made it worse.

Please can anybody advise I hope this will just fade but a bit slower. Thanks

Given my experience, I think you should be very careful with using this type of home remedy. The number of Yea ratings can be a bit misleading and lead you to perform this home remedy straight away. However, I suggest consulting a professional first before doing anything else (and if I had a choice again, I probably would have preferred laser surgery which is a one-off cost and the scarring would be most likely minimal).

My questions:

1. Has anyone else experienced this sort of reaction to ACV?

2. Am I correct in thinking Aloe Vera gel and Vitamin E oil will soothe the area or are there better solutions?

3. Could it be that the ACV was eating away heathly skin while working on the mole?

Thanks in advance for your help earthclinic!