Acne.org Products
Hey temp, it's probably in the thread somewhere but I don't want to search through 8 pages (lazy) so could you please tell me what brand of tea tree oil you are using and in what order to apply the iburofen gel and TTO, do you apply the gel, wait for it to dry and then apply the TTO? Many thanks.
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:
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To 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:
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The 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.
Ok cool, I've bought some Sainsbury's own brand ibuprofen gel, Skin Therapy face cream and a 5ml bottle of 100% tea tree oil from Superdrug. I've mixed the cream and the TTO together but it hasn't mixed together perfectly but I'm hoping it will still be ok. I'll report back results soon.
Ok cool, I've bought some Sainsbury's own brand ibuprofen gel, Skin Therapy face cream and a 5ml bottle of 100% tea tree oil from Superdrug. I've mixed the cream and the TTO together but it hasn't mixed together perfectly but I'm hoping it will still be ok. I'll report back results soon.
What I do is pour it on top, and then use a knife and make lots of cutting motions through the cream and slowly rotate the tub as I do it- the idea is you want to give it a really big surface area of contact between the TTO and the face cream to help it diffuse faster.
It will tend to diffuse in after a few days even if you haven't mixed it perfectly though, so it's probably not critical.
The trick with the gel caps seems to be working well, the mixture seems a bit greasier though, but it's giving really good clearance so far; I had a really bad looking breakout, it was pretty much gone in 2 days without much fuss or drama and the red marks are gone in less than a week and hid really well with cover-up in the meantime.
On the whole the TTO/Facecream/ibuprofen mixture is taking oh whole seconds to apply and is really effective.
Watsup guys.... I have been using the topical ibuprofen for about 8 months or so now. It works pretty well on my severe follicilitis of the beard and my small amount of remaining acne. WHat i have been doing for the past month though is add niacinamide 4%. You can buy 5 grams worth from skin activies. I then add 4 grams of the niacinamide to 100 grams of ibuprofen gel. It is working better than pretty much anything i have ever tried....
It's been about 2 weeks now. I'm still getting breakouts with about 4 or 5 new spots every 2-3 days. I'll keep at it for the 3 months though because it's cheap, quick and easy! I do find that I can't wear foundation on top of the gel though so I just wear concealer over any spots and if I'm going somewhere where I have to look non-ugly I clean my face so there's no gel and put on foundation. I find that if I try and put foundation on top of the gel, it "balls up" much like benzol peroxide cream or gel.
I've been using this for about a month now altho i do not do the tea tree moisturiser part as i am part Greek which equals very greasy skin and moisturiser just makes it more so.
Not sure about the results. I deal with cystic acne and they are still popping up. Went to my local pharmacy yesterday as i used to buy 100% tea tree oil there and was planning to start mixing that with moisturiser just at night but couldn't find any.
Also ladies, what make up are you using? Because i use Revlon Colorstay and have no problem wearing it over the gel at all. Just goes over and there is no balling or peeling. I can probably understand if your using minerals as that, i find, shows up everything on your face anyways. Maybe think of switching if your not happy just wearing concealer.
I use Max Factor Lasting Performance. But I had to stop this regimen because it just wasn't working 🙁
4 and half weeks isn't long enough to tell. You have to give it at least 6 weeks (ideally 3 months, but you will normally start to notice significant improvements, like 50% better after 6). That's true of really all decent treatments unfortunately.
hi all
being based in the uk this would be great for me if it works but i have one question, does anyone who gets good results with the ibu-gel previously got good results with dans products? i am currently using the BP and aha which is proving to work well. i wonder if anyone has successfully converted from dans BP to the ibu-gel and maintained their complexion. id like to use something that doesnt require expensive shipping or bleach my favourite clothes!
cheers
I found out some more information about acne; apparently when you get a spot the immune system swoops in and starts squirting in enzymes (metallloproteins or something like that) to break stuff down and try to fix the problem. Trouble is, the enyzmes break down the skin, but the skin has no enzymes to break down the keratin that's plugging the pore. So the body is doing entirely the wrong thing; the enzymes it uses will encourage scarring.
I'm thinking that might be why the ibuprofen works for me- if it damps down the reaction of the skin then there will be less enzymes and the zit will recover much more quickly.
That seems to be what I'm seeing, when I'm on minocycline or using the ibuprofen the spots usually last a few days and then they are pretty much gone; otherwise they can last weeks. So it may be that as soon as you get a spot you need to just slather on the ibuprofen 3 times a day until it's gone; also some kind of antibacterial (anything really) would help as well (I'm using tea tree oil).
I'm thinking that might be why the ibuprofen works for me- if it damps down the reaction of the skin then there will be less enzymes and the zit will recover much more quickly.
surely this means the ibu gel is a better treatment than a preventative? i need to choose between the ibu-gel or panoxyl, which I have had in the past... :think:
Excellent thread here guys...
How have i just heard of Tea Tree Oil just now?
Bought it yesterday in boots. (Rip-off - a11 for 25ml when it was a5 for 50ml in the health food shop next door)
Anyway - First wash yesterday with T tree oil was AMAZING. I could literally feel it cleaning my face. It was 15%, slightly diluted so it was strong. I loved that feeling...
Anyway last night i used ibuprofen for the first time. No new spots this morning. WOO!
TBH, my acne is pretty much gone (thanks to dans regimen, BP, and the baby brush) except for the odd MASSIVE breakout when i've not kept to the regimen.
Id like to replace BP as i think its tough on the skin.
I wonder if Tea Tree oil alone is enough t replace BP with?
I'll give Tea tree Oil + ibuprofen another few months then see...
Question? Does Tea Tree Oil work on blackheads? My cheeks beside my nose always clog even using Paulas Choice AHA... BP does nothing for this. Can tea tree oil help?
Thanks!
John
I think the high alcohol content in these ibuprofen gels is contributing alot to ppl skin staying clear. Alcohol is an antiseptic. The ibuprofen probably just helps when you get an inflamed pimple.
There is a cream I just found online that uses 15% Ibuprofen with no alcohol. They use liposomes for the delivery of the drug. The ingredients list looks to be very skin friendly. I may order some and cut it 3 ways: 1 part ibuprofen cream/2 parts regular moisturizer. If this works it would be a good indicator if the alcohol does or does not play a part in the clearing of acne.
Excellent thread here guys...How have i just heard of Tea Tree Oil just now?
Bought it yesterday in boots. (Rip-off - 11 for 25ml when it was 5 for 50ml in the health food shop next door)
Anyway - First wash yesterday with T tree oil was AMAZING. I could literally feel it cleaning my face. It was 15%, slightly diluted so it was strong. I loved that feeling...
You may find that's too irritating. I get away with doing that once in a while, but it sometimes gives a burning feeling. If you dilute it in a facecream down to 10:1 (facecream:TTO) it still works and you don't get that effect.
Id like to replace BP as i think its tough on the skin.I wonder if Tea Tree oil alone is enough t replace BP with?
Apparently it works about as well.
Question? Does Tea Tree Oil work on blackheads? My cheeks beside my nose always clog even using Paulas Choice AHA... BP does nothing for this. Can tea tree oil help?
Yes, but it's not magic. Generally I find blackheads resolve fairly slowly with any treatment; TTO does seem to greatly reduce my blackheads, but takes months for that.
I think the high alcohol content in these ibuprofen gels is contributing alot to ppl skin staying clear. Alcohol is an antiseptic. The ibuprofen probably just helps when you get an inflamed pimple.
Alcohol may have a small effect as well, but I think the TTO kills much more than the alcohol in the gel does. I tried just the ibuprofen gel on its own, but it didn't work nearly as well. I haven't tried a TTO and alcohol rub though, so it's not completely impossible.