tea tree made acne worse
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enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 2:38 pm Quote

i have a bar soap made of tea tree oil from my trip to australia and at first i thought it helped. I used it 2 weeks straight and it not only didnt work - my breakouts seemed to go on and on until i used another cleanser which isnt even for acne and that cleared it right away.

i hadnt had time to use my contraptions (facemaster/dermaroller) so i really think it was this soap.

Could i be allergic?? why would it make acne worse"

thanks

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:47 pm Quote

Could be just the other ingredients in the soap or maybe the TT% was just too high. Soaps are usually made of pore clogging ingredients.

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:07 pm Quote

Do you have any reactions when you use products with salicylic acid? tea tree oil has salicylic acid in it. Many people, including myself, are allergic to this ingredient...so this may be the problem.

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:51 pm Quote

I posted on the tea tree oil thread about this happening to me. I don't believe my oil has anything but tea tree oil in it (100%) and I already had been using a BHA for a year w/ no problems. I don't know if mb's soap has any other ingredients in it tho.

My situation was very similiar in that I had been using the TT oil for spot treatments. It seemed to be working. But then, I started to see more pimples, so I began to use the oil more. I think that just compounded the situation and brought on more pimples. Like throwing gas on a fire, my face just exploded w/ new pimple after pimple. This lasted a couple weeks until I read that some ppl might be allergic to it. I stopped using it and my face immediately cleared up.

It's quite possible I had been using too strong of a solution of it (just applied a drop to a moistened cotton ball). It might be better to mix it at a small % w/ something else.

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:53 pm Quote

mb - I'm glad I'm not along on this

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:59 pm Quote

foxe wrote:

I posted on the tea tree oil thread about this happening to me. I don't believe my oil has anything but tea tree oil in it (100%) and I already had been using a BHA for a year w/ no problems. I don't know if mb's soap has any other ingredients in it tho.

salicylic acid is a natural component of tea tree oil, so all tea tree oil has salicylic acid in it.

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:21 pm Quote

[quote]Could i be allergic?? why would it make acne worse"

thanks[/quote]

If you're sensitive to it, it didn't make your acne worse. It gave you a reaction that resembles acne.

Who diagnosed your original problem as acne - you or a dermatologist? If acne is just an assumption on your part, then the entire condition could be from other things you're putting on that are too harsh for you.

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:21 pm Quote

Sounds like it could be an allergic reaction or an intolerance built up after using it a while. (And most bar soaps are suspect to begin with, no?)

I've had the same reaction foxe described, too, when applying tea tree oil - any time I've dabbed even a tiny amount to a breakout, it behaved (and felt) like throwing gas on a fire, and did the opposite of healing. I think I stubbornly believed that, "...well, that burning irritation certainly means the ancient tradition of its antibacterial properties is kicking in!" when, no, really it was beating my face like a gong.

I still use the tea tree oil on shallow cuts and scrapes and have no adverse skin reaction to that, but it's a no-no on my face anymore! Not sure it's the salicylic acid because aspirin masks don't bother my face, but tea tree oil sure does.

Instead, now I dab a little Retinol cream on blemishes, alternating with Neosporin and/or Ortho Neutrogena's Biafine cream. No more OMG I HAZ KEROSENE ON MY FACE entertainment. Rolling Eyes

enjoys freebies · Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:00 pm Quote

I have gotten breakouts from certain brands of tea tree oil, and not from others, so it could be the formulation, or it could be from something else in the soap.

Also, bacteria like to live on bar soap, so they could be the culprit too.

enjoys freebies · Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:39 am Quote

wow - thanks for all the responses.

I have no clue what else could be in it - i threw the box away - but I believe it did say 100% tea tree.

I have used an aspirin mask a few times and dont remember having this same outcome - from what i remember it cleared up the acne.

I diagnosed myself believing it was acne. all i know is the acne I did have (which caused me to go back to using the soap did NOT clear up).

I guess Im throwing it out!!

Thanks again!!!

enjoys freebies · Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:39 am Quote

A few years ago when I was having issues with acne I tried the tea tree line from the Body Shop. I really liked the smell but it did nothing for my acne. Like you, it seemed to make it flare up.

enjoys freebies · Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:31 pm Quote

Diana P wrote:

A few years ago when I was having issues with acne I tried the tea tree line from the Body Shop. I really liked the smell but it did nothing for my acne. Like you, it seemed to make it flare up.

Me too. Maybe it is just not for us?

enjoys freebies · Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:18 pm Quote

Coconut wrote:

foxe wrote:

I posted on the tea tree oil thread about this happening to me. I don't believe my oil has anything but tea tree oil in it (100%) and I already had been using a BHA for a year w/ no problems. I don't know if mb's soap has any other ingredients in it tho.

salicylic acid is a natural component of tea tree oil, so all tea tree oil has salicylic acid in it.

I don't believe tea tree oil has any salicylic acid in it, but if you have some source that states it, can you provide it? Perhaps you confused it w/ something else. Salicylic acid comes from the bark of a willow tree.

I found this on the composition of TTO and there doesn't seem to be anything on a BHA in it

Composition
Compound Tea tree oil ISO 4730 (2004) Concentration [%]
terpinen-4-ol 30-48
γ-terpinene 10–28
α-terpinene 5–13
1,8-Cineole 0–15
α-terpinolene 1.5–5
α-terpineol 1.5–8
α-pinene 1–6
p-cymene 0.5–8

I sure wish I hadn't reacted to it. All sources say it's good for acne. If some of you have had good results w/ certain brands, can you list them?

Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:52 pm Quote

I used 100% tea tree oil as a spot treatment.
I didn't get any bad reactions to it. However the spot + surrounding skin turns pinkish upon application, and it didn't help to bring down the swelling, so I stopped using.

Nonetheless, I would still consider using products such as mask which contains tea tree oil.

enjoys freebies · Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:44 pm Quote

foxe wrote:

Coconut wrote:

foxe wrote:

I posted on the tea tree oil thread about this happening to me. I don't believe my oil has anything but tea tree oil in it (100%) and I already had been using a BHA for a year w/ no problems. I don't know if mb's soap has any other ingredients in it tho.

salicylic acid is a natural component of tea tree oil, so all tea tree oil has salicylic acid in it.

I don't believe tea tree oil has any salicylic acid in it, but if you have some source that states it, can you provide it? Perhaps you confused it w/ something else. Salicylic acid comes from the bark of a willow tree.

I found this on the composition of TTO and there doesn't seem to be anything on a BHA in it

Composition
Compound Tea tree oil ISO 4730 (2004) Concentration [%]
terpinen-4-ol 30-48
γ-terpinene 10–28
α-terpinene 5–13
1,8-Cineole 0–15
α-terpinolene 1.5–5
α-terpineol 1.5–8
α-pinene 1–6
p-cymene 0.5–8

I sure wish I hadn't reacted to it. All sources say it's good for acne. If some of you have had good results w/ certain brands, can you list them?

Well, salicylic acid is a natural organic compound that is found in many plant sources, not just willow bark. That list is in IUPAC nomenclature, and I'm not sure what the IUPAC name of salicylic acid is. I feel like I read it in a textbook or something years ago. All I know is that I react to both salicylic acid and tea tree the same, and I avoid both like the plague.

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