Skin Care Review: Tea Tree Oil

Rating
Satisfactory

Benefits
Natural, inexpensive, readily available, few/no side effects

Drawbacks
Possible allergy/sensitivity in some users

Details
Tea tree oil is a plant extract which has natural anti-bacterial activity. I bought pure tea tree oil (available from any pharmacy). I used water and a little glycerine to make up a solution containing 15% tea tree oil. This is the level commonly found in commercial acne formulations, but these often have other chemicals added as well. I used the 15% solution as my night-time moisturizer. I also used the neat tea tree oil on individual blemishes. After about 4 weeks, my acne lesions had decreased by approximately 20-30%.

Conclusions
This worked at least as well as benzoyl peroxide for me, and was less irritating.

Price (paid by reviewer)
$8

Where to find it
Any pharmacy