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updated November 07, 2009

Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil is not necessarily the most popular acne treatment. In fact, it has only recently experienced a comeback in terms of acne fighting popularity. While it has been through just as many studies as benzoyl peroxide, and they were actually discovered around the same time, at some point people forgot about tea tree oil!

So you may be asking, if tea tree oil is so great, why isn't it more popular? Why doesn't every acne fighting product use tea tree oil and settle for nothing less? Because it's expensive. While benzoyl peroxide can be bought for extremely cheap prices and it can be found just about anywhere, tea tree oil is only found on one coast of Australia, making it rare and therefore more expensive.

With this in mind, you can see why cheap grocery store products are not going to use this particular ingredient. Likewise, ultimately, it is all about the bottom line. So even more expensive products like Perricone MD or Proactiv are not going to spend more money to use a better ingredient when they don't have to. After all, benzoyl peroxide is a prescription ingredient and yet it's found for pennies on the dollar.

This being said, let's learn a little bit more about tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is an extract of the Melaleuca tree, again found exclusively on one coast of Australia. It was first discovered in the early 1900's and used as an antibacterial, an antiseptic, etc. It has been used in the treatment of shingles, sores, fungal infections, dandruff, and other problems common to many people. This being said, it has also been used in the traditional medicine of the natives of Australia.

In studies, it has been shown over and over to fight acne. It has been tested in various amounts, and it has been found to be most effective in 5% concentrations in topical solutions. Since the early 1900's, it has been put through hundreds of rigorous studies to determine all of its uses.

But, many would actually find a more recent study to be more interesting. They officially compared 5% tea tree oil with 5% benzoyl peroxide in a study conducted at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Australia. They subjected 124 people with mild to moderate acne to treatment with both options. Both groups experienced a significant reduction in their acne. But while benzoyl peroxide 79% of users experienced redness, itching, stinging, burning, dryness, and other side effects. On the other hand, in the group using tea tree oil, there were no side effects at all.

Needless to say, tea tree oil is an extremely powerful acne treatment appropriate for many users. It is completely safe, and unlike many other acne treatments, it is by no means limited. It can be used to treat hundreds of other conditions as well. Therefore, honestly speaking, when looking for the best acne treatment, tea tree oil is without question one to be considered.