It's difficult to be completely definite about what you should use, but the basic idea is that you want to apply 5-10% strength TTO cream/ointment and 5% strength ibuprofen.
I'm currently using Sainsbury's SkinTherapy day cream (tub style) as the basis for my regime, because it's a good quality cream that doesn't have any dodgy ingredients in it, and its pretty cheap. I tried cheaper stuff like Johnson's baby oil, but that didn't perform as well; I think it stopped the ibuprofen penetrating maybe. I use:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-...Cream_50ml.htmlTo make it fight acne I medicate it; I use a clean knife to fold in 5ml of pure tea tree oil (any pure tea tree essential oil works the same, there's no particular brand that's better than any other); mix half of a 10ml bottle to 50 ml of face cream; I just measure it by eye. You can get 25ml in Sainsbury's for about £8, just use a fifth of the bottle, or 10ml is usually under £4 in boots or Holland and Barrett and use half.
I keep folding it until the tea tree oil is completely mixed in, takes a few minutes, but you only have to do it once per tub. If you have especially sensitive skin, halving the amount of tea tree oil will make it work very nearly as well and will be less aggravating, but using less than that is unwise.
I also use ibuprofen gel:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/sainsburys-...en_Gel_35g.htmlThe own brand gel is cheap and just as good as the branded version; ibuprofen is ibuprofen.
Apply both
sparingly twice a day wherever you tend to get acne, morning and night; I usually put the gel on first, but if you have skin that is sensitive to alcohol you should put the face cream on first; you can just slap them both on together (sparingly) and let them soak in. You can spot treat with them, but you're best off covering areas.
You don't have to wash before or after, and don't wash off for an hour or so otherwise the ibuprofen may not have a chance to work, but it should be invisible.
As with most treatments it will take about 3 months to really more or less stop you breaking out, but it should help fade red spots in a couple of weeks or so. It should give about a 50% improvement in the first 1-2 months and 80-95% improvement by the 3rd month, and then it will level out.
I also use a bit of coverup makeup- this treatment gives me hardly any raised spots, mostly just flat red marks that fade quickly, with coverup, my skin often looks flawless.
The main gotchas are the tea tree oil and the alcohol in the ibuprofen can be a bit irritating for some, but most people are OK. Also if you have asthma that is induced by aspirin or ibuprofen or you know you can't handle ibuprofen pills then this isn't for you. Make sure you read the ibuprofen gel leaflet and don't do anything it tells you not to, FWIW the amount of ibuprofen you absorb this way is about 1/2 a pill a day, so it should be safe long-term.
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