Tea tree oil and acne treatment

Many acne sufferers are familiar with benzoyl peroxide. Some love it; others hate it. This active ingredient works extremely well against mild to moderate acne. I have used it in the past and it accelerates acne healing by killing the acne causing bacteria. Lots of over the counter and prescription medicine have benzoyl peroxide as the active ingredient. However, it seems to irritate skin in a very unpleasant way. In the past, I have used this as a spot treatment. It feels burning when I apply it on the skin and leaves me very itchy. A few years ago, I got another prescription topical medicine for acne treatment with benzoyl peroxide as an ingredient. It it very effective but burned my skin. So I can't use it because of its horrible side affects. I'm sure lots of you are familiar with my experience.

According to some researchers, tea tree oil works similarly to benzoyl peroxide but without the harsh effect on skin. So of course I want to try it. I went to my local Target and got a bottle of pure tea tree oil. I was very excited to find a natural alternative to benzoyl peroxide and tried it out on my acne immediately.

The smell? Tea tree oil has a very strong smell that other people can definitely pick up if you use it during the day. It's not really unpleasant to me, but just very strong. I actually don't mind it at all. It's hard to describe the smell. Some people actually like it. So, it really depends on your personal preference.

Did it irritate my skin? Surprisingly, no. My skin is extremely sensitive and very easy to irritate. However, the pure tea tree oil did not really irritate it. But most people recommend diluting it with olive oil to get your skin use to it. I was too impatient to do that!

How well did it work against acne? That is the most important question. It does work similarly to benzoyl peroxide because it dries out the acne and kill the bacteria. But not as fast. I did see improvements with this treatment. My pimple shrunk in size. It is a natural treatment for acne so don't expect it to work as fast as benzoyl peroxide.

In conclusion, I really like pure tea tree oil. It is a natural treatment for acne which is always better than harsh chemicals or prescription drugs. The part that I really like was that it didn't irritate my skin at all. I am very happy about that! I think you should definitely give it a try because it's inexpensive and readily available in many stores.

Best natural home remedy for acne – proven to be effective on my skin

I had tried lots of alternative home remedies to “cure” acne in addition to traditional medicine from different dermatologists.  Anyone that suffered from acne has heard about these home remedies from many different sources (online, friends, magazines and etc).  Many of these home solutions for acne had actually made my skin worse.  Putting toothpaste on my acne is the worst; it made my skin super red but it didn’t do anything to heal the pimples.  The home remedy that I am describing below is somewhat labor intensive.  But it is all natural and it really works. 

I mentioned about this natural home remedy for acne in my previous blog entry “Daily acne skin care routine for oily, combination skin”.  I will describe this in details with pictures to help you make this at home.  It was given to me by a classmate in college.  At the time, I developed severe acne that had lots of whiteheads, papules, pustules and even 1 or 2 nodule.  It was a very hot summer and my skin was so oily.  Although I had acne before, it was the first time that it made me very depressed about my skin.  I noticed that she had severe acne on her cheeks but it was disappearing.  I thought it had to be something that she was using and asked her about it.  She was nice enough to give me the recipe for this all natural home remedy that really decrease the severity and amount of pimples in a short time.

It is not a home remedy that will work for every kind of acne.  Here is what is good for: oily or very oily skin, constant breakouts and sensitive or very sensitive acne prone skin.  It is less effective against monthly breakouts that most women suffer from.  However, it does lessen the severity of the acne and the amount of pimples.  Overall, it helps a lot with very oily skin where it will visibly reduce oil production on the face. 

Here are the ingredients that you will need; I also have this in picture to make things easier:

1. A big deep cooking pot that will hold all the ingredients plus water.
2. fresh sugar cane (1 foot or 12 inches for each serving)
3. fresh lemon peel (1 whole lemon peel for each serving)
4. Dried licorice slice, a Chinese herbal ingredient.  It can be bought at any herbal medicine shop and almost all of them have it in stock.  If you live in Southern California like me, you will be able to go to lots of Chinese herbal medicine shops.  These include Tak Shing Hong which has many shops located in the local Chinese community in Monterey Park, Rowland Heights and Los Angeles area.  You can also get them on online at Amazon. (12 pieces for each serving)
5. raisin (dried raisins that are not flavored, not your sun maid California raisins)  Again you have to buy this from a Chinese supermarket (99 ranch market, 168 market, Hong Kong supermarket in San Gabriel to name a few in Southern California).  Any Chinese supermarket should have this ingredient in stock.  Look to your right for picture.  (12 raisins for each serving)

As you can see from the ingredients above, this home remedy for acne is quite labor intensive.  Well, I never said that getting rid of acne is easy.  This home remedy recipe for acne really works so it is definitely worth your effort and time.

You put all the ingredients in a cooking pot of appropriate size.  It is easier to make a whole week’s worth of this home remedy and store it in the refrigerator for use later.  So that means 7 foot of fresh sugar cane, 7 whole lemon peels, 84 pieces of the dried licorice slice, and 84 pieces of raisins.  Chop the sugar cane into small pieces so that it fits into the cooking pot.  Add 21 cups of water into the cooking pot.  Turn on the stove and bring it to a boil first.  Once it boils, turn down the stove so that the mixture simmers for one hour.  21 cups of water is now approximately reduced to 7 cups which is one week’s medicine.  So basically, you want to boil down the water from 3 cups to 1 cup. 

Here is how you drink the medicine: drink it after lunch, this home remedy works best when drunk around noon time.  It also needs to be warm not hot when you drink it.  I just warm it up in the microwave and let it cool down a little bit before I drink it.  Here is what the acne medicine looks like.