Spearmint Tea for Hormonal Acne: What the Research Says

Spearmint tea has quietly become the internet’s favorite home remedy for the acne that shows up along the jaw and chin right before a period. Two cups a day, the story goes, and your skin calms down. It’s cheap, it’s caffeine-free, and it tastes good, so the appeal is obvious. But a nice ritual and a proven treatment are not the same thing, and this is one of those topics where it’s worth being honest about how much we actually know.

So here’s the short version, up front: there’s a small amount of research suggesting spearmint tea may have a mild anti-androgen effect, and androgens are tied to hormonal breakouts. That’s genuinely interesting. It’s also a long way from “drink this and your acne clears.” Let’s walk through what the studies say, how people drink it, and where the story runs out.

What androgens have to do with your chin breakouts

Hormonal acne usually clusters on the lower third of the face and flares on a cycle. The common thread is androgens, a group of hormones (testosterone being the headliner) that everyone produces to some degree. When androgen activity runs high, or when skin is especially sensitive to it, oil glands ramp up. More oil, plus dead skin cells and bacteria, plus inflammation, and you get the deep, tender bumps that don’t come to a head for days.

This is why hormonal acne shrugs off a lot of surface-level skincare. You can do everything right on the outside and still break out on schedule, because the driver is coming from the inside. Anything that nudges androgen activity down, even a little, is at least aiming at the right target. That’s the logic behind the spearmint idea.

What the research actually found

The headline studies here are small. The most cited is a randomized trial out of Turkey in which women with a hormonal condition called PCOS drank spearmint tea twice a day for a month, and researchers measured a drop in free testosterone compared to a control group. An earlier, smaller study reported a similar hormonal shift. On paper, that’s a plausible mechanism for why spearmint might take some of the edge off hormonal breakouts.

A few things to sit with, though. Those trials were built around hormone levels in women with PCOS, not around acne severity in the general population, and they were small and short. Skin was, at best, a secondary observation. There isn’t a large, high-quality body of research showing that spearmint tea clears acne in most people who try it. What we have is a suggestive thread, not a settled conclusion. Research suggests a possible mechanism; it does not promise a result.

Worth saying plainly: this is a supplement-adjacent wellness habit, not a proven medical treatment. If your acne is severe, scarring, or wrecking your confidence, that’s a conversation for a dermatologist or your doctor, and it’s the far higher-leverage move.

How people actually drink it

The routine that’s floated around is simple, and it mirrors the studies: two cups of spearmint tea a day, one in the morning and one later on. People steep a bag or a spoon of loose leaf in just-boiled water for five to ten minutes, covered if they can, since a lid keeps more of the aromatic compounds in the cup instead of drifting off as steam.

A couple of practical notes. Make sure you’re buying spearmint, not peppermint. They’re cousins and they smell similar, but the research is on spearmint specifically, and a lot of “mint tea” on the shelf is peppermint or a blend. Read the box. Caffeine isn’t an issue here, which is part of why the evening cup is easy to keep up. And this is a habit that only works if you can actually sustain it, so pick a tea you genuinely like the taste of.

How long before you’d know

Skin moves slowly, and so does anything that works through hormones. The trials ran for about a month before measuring changes, and a skin cell cycle plus a full hormonal cycle means you’re realistically looking at one to three months of consistent, twice-daily tea before you could even guess whether it’s doing anything for you.

Set expectations accordingly. If you drink it for a week and your skin looks the same, that tells you nothing. If you drink it for three months and notice your usual pre-period flare is a little quieter, that’s a signal worth paying attention to, though it’s still just your own sample of one. Keeping a rough note of your breakouts is more useful than trying to remember.

What it won’t do

Spearmint tea is not going to erase cystic acne, and it won’t out-muscle a strong hormonal driver on its own. It’s not a stand-in for prescription options a doctor might discuss, like topical retinoids, spironolactone, or combined oral contraceptives, all of which have far more evidence behind them for hormonal acne. It won’t fix breakouts that are really about a harsh routine, a comedogenic product, or friction from a phone or a mask.

The honest framing is that spearmint is a gentle maybe-helper. It might shave a little off the intensity for some people. It might do nothing noticeable for others. Treat it as a low-cost, low-risk experiment you run alongside a sane skincare routine, not as the routine itself. And if you’re pregnant, nursing, on hormone-sensitive medication, or managing a health condition, check with your doctor before making it a daily habit, since even food-and-drink amounts can interact with the rest of your picture.

Tea we’d reach for, plus a few calming extras

If you want to try the two-cups-a-day habit, get an actual spearmint tea you’ll enjoy, and pair it with a gentle, non-stripping routine so you’re not fighting your skin on the outside while you wait on the inside. A few picks:

Prices move constantly, so we link to live listings instead of printing a number that is wrong by the time you read it. Links go to Amazon, which is where a referral gets credited.

None of these are magic, and the skincare picks won’t touch the hormonal driver any more than the tea will treat the surface. They’re two different jobs, which is exactly why running both at once makes sense.

A few honest answers

Can I use peppermint tea instead?

The research is on spearmint, so if you’re trying this for the possible androgen angle, stick with spearmint. Peppermint is a fine, pleasant tea, but it’s not what was studied, and there’s some reason to think it doesn’t work the same way. Check the box, because a surprising amount of “mint” tea is peppermint.

Is two cups a day safe?

For most people, a couple of cups of spearmint tea a day is a normal amount of an ordinary beverage. That said, more isn’t better here, and this isn’t blanket advice. If you’re pregnant or nursing, take hormone-sensitive medication, or have a health condition, talk to your doctor before making it a daily thing.

Will it help acne that isn’t hormonal?

Probably not in any targeted way. If your breakouts aren’t tied to your cycle and aren’t driven by androgens, the mechanism spearmint is thought to work through doesn’t really apply. It’s aimed at one specific type of acne, and it’s a soft aim even then.

Should I stop my other acne treatments?

No. Nothing here is a reason to drop something that’s working, especially a prescription. Spearmint tea is an add-on experiment, not a replacement. If you’re considering real changes to how you treat your skin, loop in your doctor or dermatologist.

The bottom line

Spearmint tea is a low-cost, low-risk thing to try, backed by a small but genuinely interesting bit of research suggesting it may nudge androgens down and take a little heat out of hormonal breakouts. Keep the expectations modest: two cups a day, give it a couple of months, and treat any improvement as a quiet bonus rather than the plan. It pairs well with a gentle routine and it pairs even better with realistic hopes. For anything stubborn, painful, or scarring, the tea is not the answer, and a conversation with your doctor is.

Want more of this measured, evidence-first approach to skin? Browse our Wellness archive, or dig into the routine side of things over in Skin.

This is part of our complete guide to acne-prone skin.