Hi, so I recently ordered some "Real Aloe Spray", it's certified organic, vegetarian, no animal by-products, all that good stuff. It contains "real aloe vera, purified water, citric acid, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate".
I sprayed it all over my face for the first time and within minutes, or less, my face was bright red, almost purple, in all the areas where I get acne (not along my jawline, where I never do). It stung a little bit and I was afraid I'd made a huge mistake. Within a couple hours the redness went down and my face looked fine later that day and the next day. But I still just figured I was allergic and put the bottle away, planning to return it ASAP.
But just now I tried spraying some on the inside of my arms, and no redness, tingling or stinging occurred whatsoever. So to me it doesn't seem that I'm allergic. Why do I have the feeling my skin went red because the aloe was attacking the acne bacteria/rash/irritation/infection/whatever's going on with my face? Why do I want to try it again? Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Any input is appreciated. Thanks!
Temporary inflammation is the normal first reaction of the body's immune system, where something needs to be treated. The reaction you had is not necessarily a bad thing, but you would need to try it for a week or two and see if the symptoms change and how they change, and if you are having some kind of healing response or just an inflammation response. It's easier if you keep a timeline
Could have been the citric acid that bothered your skin or sodium benzoate, both of which can cause skin irritation. I can only use one specific aloe vera without it burning my skin, this one - ( http://www.walmart.com/ip/Fruit-Of-The-Earth-Aloe-Vera-Gel-12-Oz/10314797 ) but I also have an aloe vera plant at home and no matter the brand, doesn't come close to how real aloe vera feels.
Thanks, you two. Both of your replies were things I was already thinking, but I'm worried they might be too good/easy to be true. If the reaction was indeed due to healing that'd be great, I'd keep using it until I'm healed. Or if it's just another ingredient, I could find a spray without it. But that may be a waste of time if Tom Busby was right. Anyone else care to comment? 
Anyone else? I've sprayed it on other parts of my body, no redness whatsoever. If I was allergic, there would be right? So I honestly think it must be just healing my face. Or irritating it because it's sensitive skin... that wouldn't be good. ARGH. But I want to try it. I guess nothing bad happened last time, I didn't break out afterward at all and it's been a few days. I'm just afraid it might be worse a second time.
Hey Exister!
I'm currently on holidays but thought I'd do some light reading around the web and acne.org and found this!
With anything new you put on your skin, at first your body will treat it as a foreign substance and your skin will react one way or another.
Most of the time, when people try new products like sacrylic acid, they think that their 'bad before good bit' is just sucking everything out at once and causing a bad breakout. Same with accutane where people who take it have the biggest breakout of their life (in most cases) during the start of their course.
Although there is some degree of truth to that, most of the redness, inflammation and new acne comes because the body is adjusting to the new chemical, vitamin or mineral or the like and making sure it isn't harmful to you. It is completely normal therefor to expect such a reaction and you should expect it to wear off very soon and start working well.
To explain why your body skin compared to your facial skin reacts differently, the skin structure has most likely changed due to how you've treated your face compared to the body such as BP, or oils, moisturizer, ect and again, that's perfectly fine.
Your skin will adapt so.. Keep using it!
Thanks for the reply. Since I've been pretty much water-only the past couple years, I don't know about the last little part of your post, but the rest makes sense. I put aloe on my face again tonight, same thing happened. I left it for an hour or so before rinsing it off this time. Now, a couple hours later, my skin looks fantastic. Going to keep applying it every night.
I've also been drinking fenugreek tea. It tastes really good so I'm definitely going to use up my 48 bags of it at least, see if it helps or not. Oh yeah, today I took the teabag after drinking it and just patted it around my face. Left it on all day. Didn't hurt, didn't seem to help much either though. Was just an experiment I guess.
The citric acid and preservatives are likely causing the reaction, not the aloe itself. I get a natural aloe gel at my local health food store that has no other ingredients besides aloe gel, and that's what I'd recommend looking for. It is food-grade aloe that is meant as a supplement. Look for nutrition facts or a daily dosage on the container, this will show that it is meant for consumption and therefore a lot healthier for your skin as well. Hope that helps!
I've been using the spray in the shower every other day and I'm pretty sure it's doing more harm than good. I have bumpy skin on my temples, which I never did before. And I just look really dried out and red. It helps dry out pimples but I don't think that's worth it. Not sure if I should try something without those extra ingredients or just give up on Aloe. I don't want to use a gel and I don't want to bother with taking care of and cutting a real plant.
I'm not sure if you saw my post about how I cured my acne, but there's is this great product called "Nature's Cure for Males" It contains morning and night pills and it's completely natural ingredients. There's a cream that comes with it that I figure you would be less interested in. It has 5% BP and contains Aloe Vera in it as well to soothe the skin from the BP side effects. Seeing as how you used water only, I assume you'd use the cream as a last resort. You can google it and find reviews on it. Most of them are really good reviews, which is why I was persuaded to buy it at first.