Acne Magazine : Skin Care, Tips, Treatment Reviews

Tea tree oil has been touted by many as a wonder essential oil full of healing properties for the hair, skin and nails. Scientists have recently made more progress in proving tea tree oil’s effectiveness in a research environment.

Tea tree oil has a natural antibacterial property that makes it a useful sanitizer and healing agent which is particularly useful in topical acne cleansers. Recent evidence has also shown that tea tree oil’s natural antibacterial properties will also effectively aid in the treatment of acne.

The essential oil of the tea tree plant is derived from the Melaleuca alternifolia that is a plant native to Australia. An essential oil is a concentrate containing the aromatic essence of a particular plant.

Tea tree oil is gathered through distillation of the plant’s leaves to collect a concentrate form of the antibacterial oil. While essential oils are excellent for use in aroma therapy and other fragrance applications, one should never use pure essential tea tree oil on the skin as this will usually cause severe irritation.

Many skin care shops will sell tea tree oil at a five percent dilution which is safe for application to normal skin sensitivity. This diluted form of tea tree oil can aid in clearing acne.

There are products that incorporate tea tree oil to take advantage of its restorative properties, but recently many products directly targeting the treatment of acne have entered the market.

The common chemical used to treat acne is benzoyl peroxide, but scientists have investigated to see if five percent tea tree oil could serve as a reasonable natural alternative to the standard acne treatment chemical.

In comparison studies study, tea tree oil was discovered to have the same effectiveness in ameliorating acne as benzoyl peroxide, as is found in many over the counter acne products. The successful outcomes of tea tree oil were recorded to have taken a longer time period to accomplish the same results but with less side effects than benzoyl peroxide.

This natural essential oil option has been proven to be just as effective as popular chemically engineered alternatives but the organic properties tend to make it less likely to cause adverse effects.

Tea tree oil is unfortunately not suitable for use by every person. Allergies to the essential oil can prevent it from offering benefits, so it is important to discontinue use and consult a dermatologist if symptoms of allergic reaction arise. Tea tree oil is also not recommended for sensitive skin or those living with eczema.

Cystic acne is very serious. Take regular ol’ acne vulagaris, and put it on steroids, and you have cystic acne. Cystic acne can actually change the shape of an entire section of a person’s face in its most serious form. I have known some younger kids with this type of acne, and it can really be devastating to their appearance, not to mention their self esteem.

I myself have had some cystic acne lesions, but thankfully they were kept to a minimum when I was younger. Not sure why, because it seemed that my face was always a mess and my hormones were swinging wildly from one end to another, given my temperament as well as my rapidly changing and developing body at that age.

The first natural remedy for cystic acne, or any other kind of acne, is diet modification.  If you can eat a diet rich in low fat protein, low in refined carbs and sugars, and rich in wholesome vegetables, minimally cooked and whole fruits (organic preferably), you are halfway there.

Of course, there are people who still have wild hormonal swings even after they modify their diet and eat the right kinds of foods. However, the diet is key to at least getting people with cystic acne on a level playing field with others who don’t have hormonal acne.

Another natural remedy that may help tone down cystic acne is a natural oil found in a tree from New Zealand. The name of the oil is manuka oil. It seems counterintuitive that an oil, the very thing we try to avoid putting on our skin if we have had acne for a long time, would help to actually treat cystic acne, but there is evidence that this oil has some pretty powerful antibacterial properties.

However, there are multiple essential oils that also have great antibacterial properties. Take lavender oil for example. Most people think it’s just a pleasant smelling, relaxing oil that is used in lots of bath and body foofoo products.

However, it is one of the essential oils that has higher antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. It is actually an excellent all natural additive to natural acne soaps and products!  Some experts even believe that it is better for acne than tea tree oil, which has gained lots of kudos for being a natural acne remedy for its own antibacterial properties.

I’ve been reading a lot about the power and therapeutic benefits of essential oils.  Essential oils are those wonderful fragrances that come out of extracting the “essence” of the plant into a single, condensed oil. Often times, it can take many plants just to come up with a single ounce or so of an essential oil.

So these essential oils can many times be very potent in their therapeutic benefits. They contain many different constituents, often times hundreds of them, which make them very powerful on a bioactive level.  You’ve probably read before about the essential oil of the tea tree, and how it may benefit skin with acne, but I’ve recently read that lavendar is another essential oil that can have powerful anti-acne properties as well.

Many of the essential oils today possess antimicrobial and antibacterial qualities. For instance, just spraying a mist of cinnamon bark oil mixed with water into the air can totally inactivate any type of microbes and bacteria that are floating around in the air.

Tea tree oil is the same. It can greatly reduce harmful bacteria on the surface of the skin, which takes one very important component away from acne formation – the bacterial component that gets into the pores and causes inflammation.

Lavendar essential oil, which smells a heck of a lot more pleasing to many noses than tea tree oil, has also been identified as a great topical anti-acne aid as well. It smells really soothing, and it has even been used as aromatherapy to help reduce stress and anxiety as well as depression.

Parents are even urged to use lavendar aromatherapy to help calm their children’s antsiness, or to help with ADD and insomnia.  Lavendar has many uses. It may be one of the most multipurpose essential oils that we know today.

So, you may want to start looking into products and soaps that contain lavendar in them as well. Not just “scented” lavendar, but actually containing lavendar essential oil, which is key to getting the right benefits.  Only the real thing can deliver the therapeutic benefits. There are many scented chemical imitations that do not have the genuine chemical constituents that make lavendar so beneficial.

Hello everyone. This is part one of a three part article series on the pluses, minuses, ups and downs and cost points of medical acne treatments versus natural and herbal acne treatments, which of course you know are the ones I favor after many years of struggling with acne in my youth.

It is a very personal choice when considering the various bullet points on the two different approaches to treating acne, and that is where your judgement and personal experiences come in. So, enjoy our three part article series! 

Just ask any teenage girl if she would love to have clear, glowing skin. What do you think she would say? All right, that was a rhetorical question. It’s perfectly natural to want clear beautiful skin? Just walk down the facial cleanser isle at Target and you will be bombarded with a plethora of options promising to give you a healthy, peaches and cream completion.

Many of the products will advertise natural herbal ingredients or claim to be dermatologist recommended. You might also be wondering whether or not to visit you local dermatologist to receive a medical acne treatment. But, which treatment is better; medical or an herbal alternative?

When first embarking on your acne treatment journey it is probably wise to start with natural herbal alternative options. These natural remedies have been used for centuries before medical science was available and they are time tested. Herbal remedies also have a lower risk of side effects, especially in terms of birth defects.

Fortunately, there are many alternative acne treatment products to choose from. For instance, the healing properties of aloe vera have been widely recognized. The aloe vera plant contains an enzyme-rich gel that not only soothes enflamed skin, but also contains anti-bacterial properties, much like the prized tea tree oil that has resurged in popularity over the past few years.

Aloe can also been taken internally to detox the digestive tract which is another natural way to help heal and clear the skin. Tea tree oil, derived from the Melaleuca alternifoliais tree, is very effective against fighting acne. It contains a bacteria-fighting agent known as Terpenes.

Acne is usually caused by bacteria and the Terpenes kills the bacteria. What’s good about Tea Tree Oil is that there are few known side effects and it smells nice too, although some may find its natural medicinal smell a bit too much.  I personally like it, it’s a mix between a pine and very clean scent.

Using herbs to treat acne is nothing new. In fact, in Chinese medicine, herbs and herbal acne remedies have been used for years as a means to help calm the inner turmoil in the body to help the acne heal and also to stop new acne lesions from forming.

Acne is, after all, a form of inflammation and irritation, and Chinese medicine practice is to treat what they term as “internal heat” by using a “cooling” herb or natural remedy to counter the internal heat caused by raging hormones, free radicals that are roaming rampant, destroying healthy skin cells and taking precedent over the good skin cells.

And then there are also other potential deficiencies in the body, such as zinc deficiencies or other vitamin or mineral deficiencies that have been determined to be a possible reason or contributing factor to the continuation and formation of acne vulgaris.

Herbal acne remedies are usually seeked out by those that have either already tried traditional “medical” acne treatments like tetracylcine or a variety of other antibiotics (which I personally am against, being on long term antibiotics is not good for the body), Accutane, erythromycin, Retin-A and other topical acne treatments as well as medications taken orally, or they don’t want to go down the medical road, and would like to try to holistically (naturally) treat their acne with herbal acne remedies instead.

Whatever your reasons may be for searching for alternative methods to treating your acne without traditional medications or straining visits to the dermatologist, you should know that there are some excellent alternatives that qualify as “herbal remedies” in that they use a base of plant-derived nutrients and therapeutic herbs in their formulas as a means to target the causes of acne internally.

As a teenager, the internet was not really available, so I didn’t have the resources to do the right research and find a good herbal acne remedy, so I was relinquished to going to the dermatologists office over and over again after nothing worked correctly and got rid of the acne for me. My parents wasted hundreds of dollars.

I was first prescribed an antibiotic called Tetracylcine, and that made my skin extremely photosensitive (sensitive and susceptible to sunlight and sunburn), and it also would render a birth control pill ineffective.

There are also long term consequences to taking antibiotics for a long time. There has been much speculation that taking antibiotics long term may even promote breast cancer later on in life, among other health issues it is suspect in having a part of.

I was also prescribed numerous topical remedies, including Retin-A, which just dried my skin out so bad it would chafe and bleed in the winter. I still didn’t have clear skin.

Now, with the offerings of superios products in the realm of herbal acne supplements, like the one we discuss here nonstop, which I used successfully for a course of six months a while ago, and have had minimal issues with my (now) adult acne since, young people and older people with acne have some serious alternatives that work for getting rid of acne. It’s just a matter of finding what works for you.

I read about the benefits of lemongrass while I was recently reading about how it works as an insect repellant, because I noticed that another one of it’s listed side benefits was that it could also help with acne prone skin because of it’s antiseptic and pore-shrinking and clearing properties.  I have noticed, come to think of it, that lemongrass is listed as an ingredient in a lot of the natural soaps and face washes that I’ve looked at for skin clarity, so this didn’t really shock me.

What I was surprised at though, was that citronella, the ingredient that you always see in those mosquito repellant candles that are used outdoors to keep insects at bay, and lemongrass are one in the same thing.  It hit me though, that yes, they do smell exactly the same, but I guess I had just never thought of it. 

Citronella candles have a wonderful scent, and I’ve also had some products made with the essential oil of lemongrass, and it has a wonderful, squeaky clean smell to it the is reminiscent of freshly squeezed lemons and the feeling of thoroughly cleansed skin.  Lemongrass may be a great pore tightener too if you are interested in trying some product with the ingredient in it (if you happen to love organic and natural skin care lines like I do, or buy natural acne treatments that include ingredients you’re unsure of, lemongrass may be a beneficial one for acne prone skin).

And hey, those aren’t the only uses for this relatively cheap plant.  Lemongrass is also used extensively in both Asian and Indian cooking, and I’ve had it in a variety of exotic dishes (well, more exotic than a burger and fries, I’m not talking anything really fancy here though), and it always gives a wonderful, fresh and light taste to anything that’s seasoned with this versatile spice, skin care ingredient, and additive for natural insect repellant.  Truly, lemongrass is a multi purpose plant! 

 

I received this question from a reader about a couple of different herbal acne remedies that we actually recommend here called Zenmed dermacleanse and Acnezine.  Please see the following question and anser, kept anonymous of course for privacy reasons.

Question :

Im twenty-xxxx years old and hav had acne for about eight years.  I went on accutane when I was twenty-one years old and it greatly helped my acne.  However, my face still breaks out and I’m determined to get rid of my acne.  About two months ago, I started taking two pills of Acnezine and two pills of Biodermazen daily.  I was taking the Acnezine by itself for about two weeks and it improved my skin, but I’m now not sure if the Biodermazen is doing anything since I’ve only taken it in combination with the Acnezine.  Have you heard of quality results from taking Biodermazen?  I’m also about to buy Zenmed capsules.  Acne magazine seems to promote Zenmed and I was wondering if you would recommend it?  Zenmed says to take six of its product daily and I was wondering if I could continue taking two pills of acnezine along with six pills of zenmed daily?  I’m not mentioning topical products because I’ve been using xxxxxx (name of product removed per the company’s overzealous copywrite dept., sorry) and just recently switched to Exposed.

Would eight pills a day be too many?

Do you have any other internal suggestions?

I appreciate your help but please leave out the topical suggestions.

I am prepared to pay any amount of money so don’t be afraid to mention an insanely expensive great working product.

Thanks

Answer :

Wow, well I must congratulate you on your thorough research!  I’m also surprised at how many people write me to tell me that Accutane helped and then stopped working, or only got rid of so much of their acne problem and they still needed more.  As far as Zenmed goes, I highly recommend their Dermacleanse capsules.

I took the product for about two months, and continued to take the product for a few months after to maintain results.  I still periodically use the capsules if I am going through a stressful period, which for me indicates a surefire acne breakout.  I hesitate to tell you to combine so many pills.  First of all, some of the ingredients may actually negate eachother, and second I’m not so sure that cluttering your system with too many herbs and vitamins is a good idea.

You may want to contact the folks at Zenmed and get their opinion on combining products so they can give you a better idea of any interactions, but I myself would hesitate to tell anyone to take three different products at the same time.  As far as Biodermazen, unfortunately I have not gotten any feedback from readers on this over the past two or so years this site has been up and running.

I have gotten some positive feedback though on the Acnezine product as a good antioxidant for the skin and sort of an “internal cleanser” of the cells and the underlying reasons for acne.  The difference between Acnezine and Zenmed Dermacleanse is that Acnezine uses a strong antioxidant to help eradicate free radicals which in part cause acne, and Zenmed uses principals in Chinese medicine and the idea of “internal heat” and cooling (you can read more on their site about that).  Good luck with whatever you choose, but I’d recommend contact Zenmed for further direction.

I received this question from a reader and wanted to post it (anonymously) so that if anyone else had the same question they could find the answer here. 

Question :
Hello,

I have just read an article on the acne magazine website about
vitex/chaste berry and its ability to regulate female hormones. I am
23 years old and about a year ago I started suffering from moderate
acne. My acne has developed because I have an excess of androgens in
my body and I am trying to seeks a natural remedy to bring my hormones
into their natural balance. I have conducted some research about vitex
and I cannot seem to fully understand whether it would help me. I have
read that it decrease estrogen is that correct? does that mean is I
take it it would just worsen my androgen-estrogen imbalance? I have
taken birth control to regulate my acne and it worked but my sex drive
was reduced and I had countless yeast infections.

Could you answer my question for me or is there someone you could
recommend me to? preferrably someone I can interact with via email
since i am in XXXXXX.

Your assistance is much appreciated.

Answer :

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