Hi, I'm here to share a recipe I created for an acne treatment cream. The preparation combines two antibiotics, Oxytetracycline and Neomycin Sulfate, and Retino-A, and the best part is the antibiotics can be purchased without a doctors prescription. This is due to a loophole that allows anyone to buy veterinary grade antibiotics at your local farm & livestock supply store (I.e. Farm & Fleet, Fleet & Farm, Tractor Supply, Theisens, etc.). I'm sharing this because I believe it will help others, and want to talk about ways we can modify and improve it.
The primary thing I would like everyone to come away with is that antibiotics are available without having to see a doctor, moreover they are very cheap, at less than $10 for a lifetimes supply. I don't care about contributing to antibiotic resistant bacteria at this point, I'm 34 years old, and I'm done going through life with a face revenged by acne, hiding like a leper.
The recipe is made with the following products, substitute as needed:
* Bimeda Tetroxy HCA - 280 Soluble Powder (oxytetracycline HCl).
* Bimeda NeoMed 325 Soluble Powder (neomycin sulfate).
* Perrgio Tretinoin Cream 0.05% 30 grams.
* Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion 16 fl. oz.
* 91% isopropyl alcohol 8 fl. oz.
* Mixing whisk and bowl.
* Small cup, or bowl.
* Teaspoon.
* Water.
1. In a mixing bowl, add 1 level teaspoon of oxytetracycline powder.
2. Add in the isopropyl alcohol, and mix until the oxytetracycline powder has dissolved into a clear solution.
3. Add the entire bottle of Cetaphil into the bowl, whisk until it combines with the other components.
4. In a separate container, mix 4 level teaspoons of neomycin sulfate with 3 teaspoons of water.
5. Once the neomycin has dissolved into a clear solution, add it into the bowl and whisk.
6. Add the tretinoin cream into the mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.
Note 1: oxytetracycline is acidic, this is why you should mix it with the alcohol and Cetaphil first, this neutralizes any potential acid / base reactions.
Note 2: neomycin must first be dissolved in water, if combined directly with the alcohol it forms a solid blob.
Adaptations: I originally was thinking about using benzoyl peroxide, but wasn't sure if it reacted with any of the other ingredients. Does anyone know if these can be combined? I used the tretinoin cream instead because I already had a bottle of it in my cabinet, at full strength it always burned my face, so I figured diluting it would help with that. You may be able to use salicylic acid, but again I'm not sure how this reacts with the other ingredients. I picked oxytetracycline and neomycin because they were cheap and available at my local store, I figured two was better then one, and also knew that oxytetracycline was very effective against acne, and also knew that both did not need to be metabolized by the body to be effective. If you're so inclined, and understand dosing and risks associated with non FDA approved drugs, you can buy size 00 gelatin capsules online and take the oxytetracycline orally. The alcohol is a great antiseptic, this is my reason for including it. Ivermectin (Ivomec) could be added if you also need an anti-parasitic cream, to kill scabies, mites, or lice for instance.
I've just started using this myself, but don't foresee any complications, if anything the antibiotics may need to be reduced, the portions I used were best guess. Another thing I did was add some of the neomycin into my shampoo to mange scale acne.
Hopefully this is can help someone else. You don't need to use a lot, just enough to lightly cover the face; the viscosity of isopropyl changes with heat, so the cream melts into a liquid when you put it on your face. One batch should last you the whole year, six months at the least. I apply it once in the morning, you should start there and increase as needed. If you are allergic to antibiotics, it goes without saying that you should consult with a medical professional first; I'm not a medical professional, this is not intended to serve as medical advise, use at your own risk, and abide by all applicable laws in your jurisdiction. Best of luck!
I came across lincomycin hydrochloride today, this compound is fundamentally equivalent to clindamycin. Together with the oxytetracycline hydrochloride, these two compounds are the best antibiotics I have found locally for the management of acnes. They can be used together as they attack different structures of the bacteria. Neomycin can also be used, however it is better suited for managing gram negative bacteria; acnes are gram positive.
Anyhow I was researching what you can mix lincomycin with and sure enough benzoyl peroxide is one of them. Several clindamycin / benzoyl peroxide creams are produced under the brand names Duac, BenzaClin, and Clindoxyl. My recipe attempts to emulate them.
Ingredients:
- One packet of Bimeda LinxMed-SP (lincomycin hydrochloride). $3
- One 16 oz tub of Cetaphil moisturizing cream. $10.77
- Two 1 oz tubes of Clean & Clear Persa-Gel 10. $10.54
- 3 oz of 70% isopropyl alcohol. $0.50
- Take one level tablespoon of lincomycin hydrochloride and dissolve it with 6 tablespoons of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol.
- Transfer the Cetaphill and benzoyl peroxide into a mixing container. Once the lincomycin, from step 1, has completely dissolved, combine it with the other parts and whisk until completely incorporated. Shelf life is 2 months at room temperature and 6 months if refrigerated; do not freeze. Total cost is $25, $1.2 per oz.
I'll updated everyone on my personal progress in a week or so, my skin is already looking much better... zero new breakouts since starting, and the existing ones are in the process of healing. I like the way the cream feels in this preparation, it's very hydrating and doesn't leave you feeling like you're covered in oil.
I was talking with the manufacture regarding their oxytetracycline hydrochloride product. It turns out that in order to make tetracycline class drugs water soluble they need to add lots of citric acid. By weight, significantly more citric acid than active tetracycline is in these powdered products...
Durvet's Duramycin-10 contains 10 grams of active tetracycline hydrochloride and 171 grams of citric acid.
Bimeda's Tetroxy HCA-280 contains 102.4 grams of active oxytetracycline hydrochloride and 177.6 grams of citric acid.
Using citric acid to alter the pH on your face may be beneficial, but your guess is as good as mine. Of the powders I've found at the store, lincomycin hydrochloride is far and away the best choice for managing gram positive propionibacterium acnes.
I've dabbled in making homemade creams/solutions myself, but the issue was always the base/vehicle for the cream. I could never find something that I was sure would actually cross the skin barrier (the context was trying to get various alpha 5 reductase inhibiting plant extracts into a cream for topical application) to have any affect, and still preserve my creation's active components.
I've tried lotion and liquid solutions, and every time it seemed like the majority of the extract wasn't permeating the skin at all (it just seemed to sit on top as the cream dried/evaporated/absorbed). I see that use are using alcohol, and that will aid in absorption, and that's good. but how do you know that the cream is stable? Like I said, my limiting factor was the vehicle, ideally in my case it would have to be a water in oil emulsion; something I didn't have the resources at the time to make. The emulsion in my case was as much for good penetration/absorption as it was preserving the active polyphenols.
I'd just make sure that the active ingredients in your mix are actually still "active" by the time you are using it.
Hah, you are absolutely right that vet-meds are identical to human-meds but without the giant markup. Totally safe as a topical, but keep in mind that human skin is thinner or maybe more delicate than animal skin, and that other horses and humans, mammals do not sweat like we do. I don't know how this affects your mixes, but it's an interesting and perhaps relevant factoid.
I compound in Cetaphil too. It's much more durable than CeraVe, which turns into a watery liquid when you add more than 1.0% of 99% isopropanol alcohol. Cetaphil gets watery only if you heat it over 150 degrees.
As for citric acid, I add 0.3% to Cetphil and measured the pH to be 3.3, which is about as low as pH can go without making my skin temporarily red. Citric acid at a 0.3% concentration in 480 ml of lotion is only 1.44 grams, which is fairly small amount, and can't be measured in a teaspoon. You could buy a small digital scale for about $30, accurate to a tenth of a gram. A 600 gram total weight scale is a useful size.
It's also useful to weigh an empty container, and write the weight on the bottom of the container, so you can keep track of proportions when you alter your mixes and add something new to a previous-batch in a half-full bottle (or however much is left).
Also, you can make small test batches by measuring with the cap of an inner tube, which holds 0.4 ml of water. I think all valve stem caps worldwide are identical. You would multiply by the density of whatever you are mixing, but it's easier for me to measure tiny amounts of powder by volume. And CVS pharmacists will give you, gratis, a couple of plastic syringes that measure 1 ml of liquid, which is how you would measure a small volume of a container, for example, of a thimble, by measuring how much water it holds. The advantage of small batches is that you can see how the products react with each other. A small batch mixed in a shot glass allows you to can see if bubbles are forming in a reaction.
A nice product that helps skin penetration is Xylitol, which is a food grade, water soluble, artificial sweetener. It prevents fermentation but more importantly it dissolves biofilms. I use Xylitol at 2.0 percent because the lotion gets a little sticky over that, but you could blend it up to 5%. based on your perception of it.
You can order many raw materials from your local chem lab supply store. Check out TCI America's website for the wholesale prices, and then double it to cover the chem lab supply store's mark-up and shipping. You cannot buy direct from TCI without a HazMat Certificate and a non-residential address. WIth small chem lab stores, you generally have to order and pick up these supplies in person, so it depends on where you live if this is a viable option.
The FDA issued a non-enforement ruling in August 2012, so you can order prescription medication directly from China or India, without a prescription, and US Customs or the Postal Service will not stop delivery. The only legal limit is that overseas prescription products must be for your own use only, in small amounts, and you cannot sell or give away anything that you buy. India doesn't have prescription laws and their prices are a fraction of US prices, even with shipping. My experience is that they are legitimate companies.
This is an general update. The first cream I made, the one I outlined in my first post regarding the oxytetracycline and neomycin. That was a bad compound, it burned on the skin I think in part due to high citric acid content, also have a week had passed it separated and reacted into a to this brown fluid. I tossed the whole bottle.
My second compound, the one with the lincomycin hydrochloride is working splendidly. My face hasn't look this good in over a year. I'm taking internal antibiotics as well (oxtetracycline) and together they have knocked everything out. The really infected areas are still sputtering out, but overall no new breakouts. I added more lincmycin, like twice. I'm also thinking that this stuff doesn't last as long as I hoped at room temp. It my be wise to mix up smaller batches.
To nuke the acne quickly, I realized it is enough to just mix the antibotic in a 70%, or less, solution of rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle, and simply spray it onto problem areas. The oxytetracycline seems to do well in a solution like this. Spray it in my hair and chest. it works.