306 replies to this topic

[JayQ]

The point is you use it with ~10% strength diluted tea tree oil, which kills bacteria about as well as BP, but has less downsides; there's no 'breaking in period' and it's not drying at all.

Also, the combination of tea tree oil and ibuprofen seems to stop spots more or less in their tracks- any you do get tend to not leave red marks (provided you get to them as soon as they appear- the combo is *really* good for spot treating.)

BP is mostly a preventative thing, this seems to clear up spots faster (if you get to them early).

Can you not just buy tea tree cream to use instead? Like the one featured here?

http://www.herbalremedies.com/tea-tree-cream.html

Edited by JayQ, 04 November 2010 - 06:22 PM.

[temp123]

That should probably work. 10% kills a few more species of bacteria, but from the research I've seen 5% kills P.Acnes.

[JayQ]

That should probably work. 10% kills a few more species of bacteria, but from the research I've seen 5% kills P.Acnes.

Wow just got mine in the mail today. It smells very strong though, it smells like ICY HOT.

It says Ibuprofen and levomenthol and the ingredients are :

Ibuprofen 5%
Levomenthol 3%

Also contains: Carbomer, proplyene glycol, diisoprpanolamine, ethanol, purified water


Is it ok it has the levomethol in it?

Edited by JayQ, 09 November 2010 - 10:13 PM.

[temp123]

Provided you're not allergic to the menthol stuff shouldn't make any difference; it may even help kill bacteria and sooth the skin.

[JayQ]

Provided you're not allergic to the menthol stuff shouldn't make any difference; it may even help kill bacteria and sooth the skin.

Well i just put some on some red nodules that were not doing anything with sulfur on them and clindamycin on my mustache area in which i have never broken out that bad there before. I am hoping that it decreases it and takes away the redness.

It burned like crazy when i first applied it like the first minute, not it has the cooling sensation now which feels pretty good. Hope it works.

[temp123]

It burned like crazy when i first applied it like the first minute, not it has the cooling sensation now which feels pretty good. Hope it works.

Burning usually isn't good; although I just checked and apparently menthol improves the effectiveness of topical ibuprofen, so dunno, if it's just the menthol kicking in it might be ok.

If it's the alcohol burning your skin though, you should definitely put moisturiser on top soon after.

The other thing is, the ibuprofen works best on new spots, on existing spots it may help a bit, so I don't know about your nodules.

[Timehealsall]

just curious, but wouldnt AHA be just as effective as stopping a pimple in its track compared to tea tree oil and topical ibuprofen?

Also, is taking advil for inflammation a good idea?

[temp123]

Nah. AHA is an exfolliant, and has no anti-inflammatory effects at all. And it's not absorbed by the skin. I never noticed any stop-in-its-tracks effects with that.

BHA (i.e. salicylic acid) would be a better choice, and IRC it works a bit like ibuprofen, but I found I couldn't apply it often enough to work well, because it's such a strong acid.

Ibuprofen doesn't exfoliate, so you can apply it much more often (up to 3 times a day), and you just get an anti-inflammatory effect.

And we're not 'taking' advil, we're applying a very small amount of topical ibuprofen, used only right where it's needed. About 50-100 mg per day. And it doesn't look like very much of that is actually absorbed, probably just a few milligrams, but it's right where you want it.

When you take advil, you're saturating your entire body with ibuprofen. About 600 mg, all very well absorbed. That's a huge difference.

I find if you use topical ibuprofen/dilute TTO as a spot treatment, the spots are nearly always gone in a few days to a week. If I don't use this then they can hang around for weeks or months. Others have found the same.

Edited by temp123, 11 November 2010 - 01:08 AM.

[blistersister69]

After reading your posts I've been using this for the past 2-3 weeks and it seems to be working really well.

I'm using neat tea tree oil then nurofen gel, then a neutrogena moisturiser with salicyclic acid on top.

I'm getting slightly dry skin but nothing too bad.

Edited by blistersister69, 25 November 2010 - 09:37 AM.

[temp123]

I'm glad it's working for you.

But it's nearly always a bad idea to use tea tree oil neat. Even if your skin tolerates it, it's cheaper to mix it, and there's much less chance of a reaction.

I would mix it with the neutrogena, 10 parts to 1 part of tea tree oil (that's a 5ml teaspoon of tea tree oil in 50ml of face cream and shake or stir until it's gone, use within a month. It will make the neutrogena more liquid though, I don't know how bad that will be (you could try half a teaspoon initially, and see how it goes.)

Edited by temp123, 25 November 2010 - 10:52 AM.

[temp123]

Incidentally, I've got a new theory about how this works.

I think the ibuprofen acts as an anti-irritant, a pain killer.

What that means is that normally as a spot initially forms, it will probably itch, and you'll probably scratch it; just without even thinking. If you've put ibuprofen on it, it probably won't itch. Just not touching it when it initially forms means that the spot won't be nearly so bad and will heal up really quickly.

Edited by temp123, 25 November 2010 - 10:51 AM.

[JayQ]

Incidentally, I've got a new theory about how this works.

I think the ibuprofen acts as an anti-irritant, a pain killer.

What that means is that normally as a spot initially forms, it will probably itch, and you'll probably scratch it; just without even thinking. If you've put ibuprofen on it, it probably won't itch. Just not touching it when it initially forms means that the spot won't be nearly so bad and will heal up really quickly.

How is you tea tree oil mixed again and with what? Sorry using a phone to check website and would take forever for me to go thru all search pages again to see.

Also i can not really tell if this is working yet for me or not, it really doesnt seem to be taking the inflammation away at all for me and ive applied it to stubborn cysts/nodules forming in the beginning stages. I did have on nodule forming thou out of about 5 that did actually go away without turning red and inflammed, but only one. The rest still stay, also mine rarely itch and its more painful feeling like a deep bruise feeling when i feel one cropping up. Im impatient also so it could be because i am hoping 2-3 days worth of applications would make a difference but i guess not :S

[temp123]

It will take a few weeks.

You're using clindamycin though, you probably don't need the tea tree oil; JayQ. Tea tree oil is just to kill bacteria, but clindamycin does that.

[JayQ]

It will take a few weeks.

You're using clindamycin though, you probably don't need the tea tree oil; JayQ. Tea tree oil is just to kill bacteria, but clindamycin does that.

Im not using the clindamycin anymore. I am using Sulfur Sulfacetamide at night and then using a 2 % SA Concealer stick from Murad to cover up the redness.

[blistersister69]

Thanks for the feedback.

I did try mixing some tea tree oil in with the moisturiser but it didn't mix well at all. I'm not sure if it's because the neutrogena is oil free??? or that I got the ratios wrong and was trying to mix in too much tea tree oil???

[temp123]

It may not dissolve if it's truly oil free, but usually there's enough emulsifiers there to dissolve it.

How hard did you try to mix it? It will usually take a couple of minutes to go in. Sometimes screwing on the lid tight and shaking it hard will get it. Also leaving it to stand will often improve it.

If all else fails, adding a tiny smudge of a detergent, shampoo or cleanser and shaking it will get it to go in, but it's not as good for your skin if you add that.

[blistersister69]

I'll give it another try and with the measurements you gave and let you know! Thanks very much!

[blistersister69]

It was the shaking that did it! Perfect!

[temp123]

[PLONKER]

BTW, it's worth noting that some UK sellers selling ibuprofen gel on eBay.co.uk, ship the USA!

(Sorry I can't do quotes, as I've been restricted by Org mods with no explanation!)

Edited by mellow_gold, 02 December 2010 - 12:44 PM.