I have the same brand of aloe vera gel and I tried using it in the past to reduce oil with no success. I noticed in another thread that you said you have also been using lemon essential oil. I wonder if the improvement you're seeing has more to do with that than with the aloe vera gel.

I can't answer all of your questions, but I would definitely encourage you to find ways to wean yourself off of BP. Aloe vera is a good start. Topical green tea is another option you might want to look into. Lots of people have had good results with green tea, and this study suggests that it has acne-fighting effects comparable to benzoyl peroxide:

"The present work showed that 2% tea extract lotion was effective in clearance of papules and pustules, especially in mild and moderate acne. This result was comparable to the therapeutic action of other topical agents like topical benzoyl peroxide . . . The tea lotion showed no side effects, and can be considered very safe when compared with other topical therapies like tretinoin and benzoyl peroxide"

http://ipac.kacst.edu.sa/edoc/2006/156542_1.pdf

Also, I don't know if you have ever considered trying to reduce acne through diet, but I and many others have had more success from diet changes than from any topical remedies.

I've been using Aloe Vera for about 2 weeks and it seems to work very well as a mild solvent on the topmost layer of the skin. I apply it an hour or so before I shower and seems to result in a more rapid improvement than anything else I've tried so far to soften skin.

If you want to see if BP and Aloe interact, mix a small batch at a 50/50 ratio, like in shot glass. If the Aloe mixture doesn't turn reddish or brown, then the Aloe hasn't oxidized and the combination is probably ok. Aloe oxidizes very easily, and then it's considered somewhat spoiled, like cut apples browning in contact with air. Even a small percentage of salicylic acid (0.5%) or essential oil (0.2%) will quickly oxidize Aloe. I havent found a research article about Aloe oxidation, and so I can't say whether oxidation is bad thing, but I'm guessing it is.

Jofo! I started using the Aloe a few days before by itself and the reduction in oil was decent. But you are correct. When I started using the lemon oil and aloe, the reduction in oil was awesome. No blotting the whole day. But, my skin might not love how strong the lemon oil is (i have skin colored bumps on my forehead now) and i'm starting to flake a bit. Going to play around with using half a drop of lemon oil/no aloe, then maybe lemon oil every 2 days or alternate lemon/aloe. Essential oils are tricky. Don't want to stop the aloe since my red marks are going away quite fast. Can you recommend a green tea lotion? I'll google some, but maybe you have one in mind.

Right now I've stopped using bp on just the left side of my forehead, I'll wait until that calms and then move onto the next section. I think I'm just going to have to suffer with that bp withdrawl but I don't want to do it all at once. When I did that in April, it was awful. I still have marks from it. I think I just don't understand the science behind why my skin is so reliant on bp.

Diet- Here's where I am still quite ignorant. I avoid anything with artificial colors/flavors/preservatives/hfcs/caffiene/nitrates (due to health issues, migraines etc..) I don't eat a ton of sugar and I drink Sierra Mist (Still can't give up bubbly drinks) but I only have maybe one a day. I feel like I eat well, but I don't know what to eat or what to avoid that will help with oily skin. Suggestions on this? I'll look for old posts and see if there's some answers there too.

Hopefully other users will at least try the lemon oil if they don't have sensitive skin because the results were so awesome, it felt like Christmas and unicorns on my face. I hope it works for other people minus any reactions.

Tom Busby- Thank you very much, I'm going to test that out. I reallly want to make sure i'm not combining things that interact or become ineffective. I see you put the aloe on before showering. Have you tried applying it after? It was an odd feeling for me. My skin was tight, like it should have been dry but it wasn't. A few hours later, my nose (that's where i can really see my skin's oil production working) wasn't pouring oil out of the pores. I really like the calming, conditioning and oil reducing properties of this. Thank you again for the tip. I never would have known about the oxidation thing.

Well you've definitely piqued my interest in the the lemon oil. I'm skeptical that it will do much for me personally, but I may give it a shot when I'm done experimenting with my current batch of essential oils.

I honestly can't recommend much in the way of acne products since I've used very few products that I feel are worth recommending. Your best bet is to do some Googling and see which green tea skincare products get the highest reviews. I'm using a product right now called SkinActives T-Zone Serum that contains green tea extract, among other ingredients purported to fight acne. I can't comment on its acne-fighting ability since, frankly, I hardly ever get acne anymore, but it's one option you can look into. Or if you want to try a simpler test, just brew some green tea and apply it to your face. Some people claim that this calms their acne.

As far as diet goes, it sounds like you already avoid a lot of unhealthy food. The annoying thing is that there is no holy grail anti-acne diet that works for everybody. Different people have success with different diets. I think my biggest improvement came when I severely cut back on dairy and completely cut out milk (I also exercise regularly and heavily restrict junk food, for reference). The diet success compilation thread is worth checking out to get some ideas:

I would say that green smoothies are a good start, unless your diet already incorporates lots of fruits and vegetables:

Wow thanks for those links. I cant stop reading what everyone has said. It seems like most people saw great results with cutting out grains and dairy. I really want to go on a diet like that. No dairy, no meat...but im unfortunately underweight and limited in what i can have. But i know that if i change my diet drastically, i might have to deal with some unpleasant adjustments. And who knows, maybe i will actually gain weight if my body were to process the right foods properly. my doc is trying very hard to help me gain 10-15 pounds, and she has advised that diet changes for me might not be a great idea until im at a healthy weight. She jokes and tells me to eat pizza or a big mac but i havent eaten fast food in over ten years. The smell of it makes me sick! Sometimes i wish i could eat crap food, being this thin sucks and its very unhealthy. But its another quest for me that i WILL conquer! Just takes time and a lot of research.

Id love to hear about what youre experimenting with as far as the essential oils. Im just getting into them now and its really fun to learn about. I use eucalyptus on my temples and nose for migraines. I have a lavender balm for sleep. Doesnt do much, but im sticking with it. Sometimes just a positive attitude that something will work can really help i think.

One thing ive read is that mixing essential oils with anything synthetic can be a bad idea. The carrier oils are important. Jojoba is said to be the best for oily skin since its a wax that resembles our oil, but my skin didnt like it as a moisturizer. I think i had a rash maybe? I dont know. I had skin colored bumps. But didnt itch or anything. grapeseed oil works very well for me. Doesnt clog pores, its very light and absorbs well. Even when i use too much, my skin is not greasy. Until my oil glands start doing their thing anyway!

I want to try lavender eo. Thats supposed to be a good one too. For acne and oily skin. Peppermint is said to be good but im really hesitant to try it after one of your previous posts. Ive gone totally natural and organic in my face care (minus bp) but even natural things can harm skin so im trying to be smart about it.

I just bought rose hip seed oil. Ive read wonderful things about it for acne scars, so hopefully that along with the aloe will work some magic on these purple marks i have.

Ive learned quite a bit from this adorable hippy chick. "The love vitamin" is her site. Blogs and videos. And endless posts from another great community like this one. Give it a look, its very cool.

What are your thoughts on glycolic acid? Have you ever used it? I just bought some and i havent used it yet. Im always so scared of things that exfoliate because i have hypersensitive skin and its very thin.

Oh man, i was just reading some of your past posts and i definitely did not need to explain about carrier oils. You know way more about this than i do since im a novice. Sorry about that! Im going to keep stalking your old posts and topics

If you're already on a restrictive diet, you would probably be better off trying to add more nutritious foods to your diet first before removing foods. Green smoothies are an easy way to add more vegetables and fruits to your diet. Some people see improvements in their skin by doing nothing new except drink green smoothies. Olive oil might be another good addition.

If that doesn't work, you can toy around with elimination diets (that don't put your health at risk). The point to remember is that different diets work for different people. You will see people say they reduced acne by eliminating grains, or by eliminating fats, or by eliminating meat, or by eliminating dairy, or by eliminating legumes, or by eliminating sugar, etc. That doesn't mean you should eliminate all of those things and live on a diet of leaves and twigs. Each one is an option that you can try individually if you have a hunch that it might help.

Regarding essential oils, I am currently experimenting with a concoction of lavender oil, tea tree oil, cedarwood oil, and argan oil, all mixed in a jojoba oil base. Each of those essential oils is purported to reduce sebum production, so I'm applying it to the right side of my nose to see if it helps my oily skin.

I'm curious to know which of my posts scared you off of peppermint oil? It's actually the only thing I've used that has had any noticeable effect on my oil production (besides Accutane).

As for glycolic acid, it depends on what concentration you're using, but I wouldn't recommend it if you have hypersensitive skin. I have personally used glycolic peels in the past and won't use them again. I can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten cystic acne in my entire life, and two of those times were the result of glycolic acid peels.

I think youre right about the green smoothies being the correct approach for me.

Im starting to see some improvement finally with the tea tree oil on my forehead. Also, after reading a little more about witch hazel, Ive been using regular witch hazel with the 14% alcohol but i just bought a new kind with rose water and no alcohol. Lavendar and aloe are also available so i may try those as well. Witch hazel works great for drying up my acne but i began to wonder if it was also irritating my skin causing new breakouts. Oily and sensitive is an annoying combination. Like the lemon oil, what a difference but its way too strong for me.

The mint thing- i made a mistake. We did discuss briefly about the mint teas, but i confused it with a post that i had read from a lionqueen or snowqueen poster. She lists dozens of things that are bad for skin and the peppermint caught my eye. My old cream cleanser had menthol in it and i loved the feeling and it never gave me a single problem. i may try the mint oils and see if i have some luck without irritation.

I found a line of green tea products from aubrey organics that have some good reviews. Im going to try them after i give the tea tree oil some more time.

Ive been using baby mild castile soap- and here we have again, it works in some ways but i believe my face still needs a cream cleanser. I had a problem with bubbles for years but i told myself that it was silly and tried this soap. Its not terribly drying at all but maybe i was right all those years. Bubbles and my skin simply do not mix. I think i have the right idea with some of my new products but i need to have the sensitive versions. Aubrey organics has a few cream cleansers and since i really like the aloe and the rose hip seed oil from that brand, i bought the rose cream cleanser.

All i really wanted to do was go natural and have less oil. Now im dealing with all sorts of breakouts from the changes but im trying so hard not to give up and go back to my old line.

I bought a night time glycolic cream. 10%. I will patch test first, but i wont do the peels. Youre not the first ive heard of having a problem. I really only want to use it on the spots and scars. I will steer clear of using it on my whole face until i really know how it affects me.

Are any of the oils causing trouble for you?

JoFo remember me? It's cool you're still updating your blog, thanks. Finished accutane a year ago and oil is normal for about 7-8 hours then I can just wipe away I guess, wondering if by next year if the oil will be in full effect again, still have plenty of sebacous filaments which I clean out once a day and look normal if done properly, still lurking this forum and it seems oilygirl is a really helpful member also.

Hey thanks! I hope so. I realize that i have a lot to learn but i hope something i suggest helps someone.

Oilygirl1980, I think switching to more gentle products is a worthwhile endeavor, but if a new regimen doesn't work then it doesn't work. Although it's a good idea to give any new regimen at least a couple of weeks, you may eventually find that your skin simply needs a stronger product like benzoyl peroxide. With that said, whittling down my arsenal of skin products and using more gentle solutions was the best thing I've ever done for my skin. It just took some trial and error.

To answer your question about the essential oils, they don't seem to be causing any trouble for me.

JoFo remember me? It's cool you're still updating your blog, thanks. Finished accutane a year ago and oil is normal for about 7-8 hours then I can just wipe away I guess, wondering if by next year if the oil will be in full effect again, still have plenty of sebacous filaments which I clean out once a day and look normal if done properly, still lurking this forum and it seems oilygirl is a really helpful member also.

I beginning to think i will always need benzoyl peroxide. Im glad ive found alternatives to the toner and moisturizer and im sure i can land on a good cleanser but youre right, it takes weeks sometimes even months to figure out what works.

Now that im pretty convinced my skin hated the castile soap, im going to try the lemom oil again and see if i have the same reaction or irritation. Maybe it was the soap this whole time.

The rose cream cleanser is nice so far and tone is better. Same with the rose water witch hazel as opposed to the regular witch hazel. The oil is back though so that sucks but id rather go back to dealing with just oil than irritated and acne filled skin.

More trial and error i guess...

JoFo remember me? It's cool you're still updating your blog, thanks. Finished accutane a year ago and oil is normal for about 7-8 hours then I can just wipe away I guess, wondering if by next year if the oil will be in full effect again, still have plenty of sebacous filaments which I clean out once a day and look normal if done properly, still lurking this forum and it seems oilygirl is a really helpful member also.

Yes, I do remember you! Nice to see you back on these boards, though that may not be a good thing lol. That's amazing that the Accutane had a long-term effect on your oil production. I think you are literally the first person I've ever seen who has said that. How much did you take and for how long?

80mg for 5 months (185 pounds i think, 140 to 150 now, stopped weight lifting), I have like 14 20mg pills left also. Been a year now, oil is bearable but I am 19 now so maybe hormonal effects may also benefiting now and more to come. Maybe I am one of the few cause people usually don't come back to post, I am grateful everyday I feel comfortable now and will not forget the 4-5 years I went through but also I empathize still but on smaller scale probably to what people feel and think about their skin and how I just wanted any1 with information to help in which I can help others, it's being a part of how interdependent people are and i'm playing my part, I was also thinking about getting laser or whatever for my scars but they are a healthy reminder for me now to understand other people everyday.

Hmm interesting. If I could get long-lasting effects from taking 80mg for 5 months I would totally do it. I'll have to do some more searching to see if I can find anyone else who reported long-term improvements in their oil production from Accutane. I'm glad you're enjoying positive results. I'd love to hear an update in the coming months!

Oilygirl1980, out of curiosity have you ever tried cutting those Sierra Mists out of your diet? I understand something like that can be really hard to do, but it might be worth experimenting with for a couple of weeks or so. If you even have any interest in modifying diet, that is.

Jofo- if only you could see my face right now-I'm hanging my head in shame! I tried this in March for 2 weeks after a new med caused a sweet tooth and I unconsciously starting replacing the sierra mist with way too many fruit juices which have just as much sugar. So I stopped the med, went back to my one sierra mist a day and all was right again. But now is probably a good time to try again-still very interested in diet changes esp since some of my meds are having some weird effects.

I've googled to find out why pop is so bad for you-do you know why? Because all I really every find is that diet pops are bad due to the aspartame and sucralose. Sierra's Mists refined sugar isn't awesome but I feel like it's better than HFCS. Is there something else in pop that is bad for us?

Yeah it's the sugar content that is suspect. A lot of people see improvements in both acne and oil when they cut out sugary foods and drinks. In one of my blog posts I compiled a small list of people who reported improvements in oily skin as a result of diet changes, and sugar turned out to be a culprit for many of them. You can also find a lot of discussion about sugar on the "Diet & holistic health" board.

Dropping the Sierra Mist might not even make a difference, but it would certainly be an interesting experiment if you ever feel like giving it a shot.

No time like the present. Ill start tomorrow. I will probably fail a few times, but i should just drink more tea.

I was perusing the diet board tonight actually. Some interesting claims. I still need to try juicing. Just nervous about it since certain fruits give me major trouble. I need to try it when i have a few days off to see how my stomach will take it.

This whole being underweight thing is very discouraging as well. Food and i have a finicky relationship.

Thanks for the good post and questions. I have used aloe before, but never for my oily skin or acne. I will have to try this. Is there any particular brand i should try? Thanks!

Hi Adavilla!

I did a ton of research on aloe vera after I bought a bottle of Aubrey Organics Aloe Vera juice. I only bought that one since it said it was 98% natural. I later found out that it was lucky to have picked that particular one. It seems the gels (which I don't think are actually that bad) have a lot of ingredients that probably don't need to go on our faces, mainly the ones that make it a thick gel.

The way I applied it was this- after cleansing, toning, moisturizing and using bp. I would wait for that to all dry and soak in really well and then I would just put the aloe vera juice on a cotton round and lightly dab at my oiliest spots. No wiping since I didn't want to wipe off my acne medication. It's quite calming and when it dries, your skin feels just slightly tighter but definitely not uncomfortable. After that dried, I continue on with my makeup. I noticed I was less shiny for longer and it helped lighten up my most recent acne marks. (I don't really have acne anymore, but when I have a cyst, the dark mark it leaves behinds stays for months)

I got it at the Vitamin Shoppe and I see it's also available on many different sites. Not super expensive and lasts for a while. I hope you have some good luck with it!

Any update or further progress with both external and internal Aloe Vera solutions?

Aloe is still working well. The lemon oil is better, but it causes a rash so I can't use it.

Right now, I'm experimenting with different herbs/tea like saw palmetto, black cohosh and spearmint tea to see if maybe working from the inside out is more effective. I saw a slight difference within a week and that has continued. I'm hoping the longer I'm on all of this, that maybe it will get even better. At least I'm off of all sugary drinks so that was a definite victory.

I may also try peppermint oil. Hoping I'm not allergic to that too...

Oilygirl1980, I just bought the most interesting essential oil -- Holy Basil (called Tulsi in India) -- a very pleasant clove and cinnamon smell with a touch of fresh cut grass.

Tulsi is not the same as culinary basil, or ordinary basil essential oil, but the two plants are related. I had to mail order it, and only found one US-based webseller that sold it, named Floracopeia. Tulsi is the number one plant in India, and the plants and leaves are used for all kinds of holistic and aesthetic purposes. It's slightly photosensitizing, so wear it at night or indoors, rather than in sunlight.

Five drops of Tulsi in 1.5 ounces of Aloe Vera doesn't oxidize the Aloe, and the two synergize so that the fresh cut grass smell becomes a slight "aquamarine" aroma (the principal characteristic of Chanel Blue cologne for men). It still smells primarily like clove and cinnammon though, just as a heads up before you buy it, but the clove/cinnammon smell recedes and includes a "clean" smell after an hour or so.

Wow this sounds great! What is it helping for you? Acne or oily skin?

I'm trying to tame a malassezia-induced skin condition, characterized by red bumps and white flakes. The generic diagnosis is seborrheic dermatitis but a better description would be oily dandruff caused by malassezia yeast and a kind of immune deficiency. This can be co-existing condition with acne, and the red bumps look similar but without any comedones.

I'm also getting good results with Aquaphor, which is 41% petrolatum. I just figured out how to blend Aquaphor, which is really simple -- heat 5 grams in a small bowl in a pan with an inch of water to 120 degrees F, and it changes from a gel to a liquid. Then blend in 5 grams Cetaphil lotion, stir for a minute, and then add the blend back into the full bottle of Cetaphil. This way, the Aquaphor becomes part of the emulsion instead of remaining a clump.

Aquaphor must be blended into something else because it is way too greasy by itself, but it's still an interesting oil, because its principal ingredient, petrolatum, is a very long carbon chain oil, running from C-25 to C-30. Most oils run from C-12 to C-20, which are the medium length carbon chain oils that malassezia feeds on. This Aquaphor blend is indigestible by the trouble-maker yeasts and it really softens my skin, more than anything else I've found. More than Aloe even.

Wow, i never would have thought of blending the two that way but it makes sense. Im surprised that doesnt clog your pores but im glad its helping with the issue. What causes the yeast infection? What is used to treat it?