Essential Oils For Acne, What Are The Benefits?

Aromatherapy, working with essential oils for acne, is one of the most powerful natural remedies. For infections and small wounds, essential oils are valuable because they can efficiently combat bacterial growth and prevent scars. When you use essential oils for acne, they will treat the inflamed skin and prevent further infection.

Because Acne Sucks. Big time. Lucky (and rare) are the ones who have never had to deal with it.

A skin condition expressing itself through a combination of blackheads and more or less (infected) blemishes. In variable amounts and placements, ranging from one very unwelcome spot inviting itself to your face at a most inconvenient moment, to a daily ongoing attack of infected discolorations.

Apart from attempting to decrease the skin’s oil production and calming the more tumultuous area’s, essential oils can be used to treat open blemishes in the same way you would take care of small wounds. Essential oils have strong antibacterial and anti-infectious properties. That makes them very helpful in healing skin lesions.

In some cases, when acne is hormonal, it may require treatment at the level of the body’s hormonal system. Conventional medication or herbal supplements that interact with these internal mechanisms can be used to treat severe acne. Most of the time however, your skin will benefit tremendously from appropriate skin care. Even people with hormonal acne have reported incredible improvement after a few days of using Just Natural’s Acne Skin Care.

Certain essential oils are absolute stars when it comes to handling spots and blemishes. No wonder the best organic skin care lines rely on essential oils in their key products for the treatment of acne. It is the most natural, healthy and effective way to heal blemished skin. Even if you can’t completely prevent pimples from starting, using effective natural skin care with essential oils for acne is what can make the difference. As a result, blemished smaller and skin clears up within hours or days instead of weeks.

Skin Care with Essential Oils for Acne in 3 Steps

You might have heard of these three steps for a basic skin care routine – cleansing, toning and moisturizing.

1. Cleansing

The right facial cleanser is very important. Acne is not caused by dirt, but regardless of your skin type, cleansing is a crucial step to prepare the terrain for treating blemishes. Makeup needs to be cleaned off, so the skin can breathe over night and yes, obviously that goes for organic makeup as well. 😉 Beware of the trap lurking on the other side of the spectrum though… over-cleaning! Many conventional facial cleansers are too aggressive. When the whole point is to achieve skin that is calm, composed and as minimally inflamed as possible, stripping it from all its sebum morning and evening is not the way. On the contrary, all that excessive cleaning gives our skin the message that it has to produce more and more oil. Resulting in a more greasy skin, enthusiastically over-producing sebum to compensate for all the stripping…!

So what is the ‘right’ way to clean oily skin with acne?

Well, I’ve had the best results with a gentle, natural facial cleanser. One that gently removes makeup and dirt, leaving the skin clean yet soothed. I’m very selective, but I’ve found some great organic skin care lines make delicious facial cleansers.

Purifying Cleanser by Miessence
Aloe Herb Facial Cleanser by Annmarie Gianni [Absolutely amazing. Here’s a review.]
Just Natural Organic Skin Care makes facial bars with essential oils for acne, such as tea tree, manuka, lavender and palmarosa. It’s the place to go if you like to use soap in a bar, but not lather your face with harsh chemicals.

Read more about facial cleansing: Best Natural Face Cleansers with Essential Oils for Acne.

One more thing. There’s yet another way to clean your face using essential oils for acne, diluted in a carrier oil. Efficient, economical and ‘homemade’, even though not everyone likes it. For more on that, go to the Oil Cleansing Method.

2. Toning

Second, use an all-natural toner to tighten the pores.

Miessence calls this step ‘conditioning’. Their Purifying Skin Conditioner contains sandalwood, lavender, tea tree and lemon myrtle (all great essential oils for acne, check the list further down) plus seven other botanical extracts. It holds the place of a toner, but this stuff is much more than a toner to me. In the quest for all-natural skin care to get rid of acne, this conditioner is not something you want to miss out on. Miessence Purifying Conditioner really is a super potent all-natural healing cocktail for acne. It has a thicker texture, more like a runny gel, than something totally liquid. Combines perfectly with the Miessence Purifying Cleanser and Moisturiser.

If you’re looking for an alcohol-free facial toner, Just Natural makes a Natural Acne Facial Toner which is not only packed with 11 different botanicals, on top of four essential oils for acne (tea tree, manuka, sandalwood and sweet orange), but also contains no alcohol.

Annmarie Gianni’s Rosemary Toning Mist is made with pure organic rosemary distillate. Did you know distillate is a by-product of the making of essential oils? It is the water that the essential oil floats on top of after extraction. This ‘water’ is elegantly named ‘distillate’ and has been infused with the beneficial properties of the plant in question. Annmarie Gianni’s ‘single-ingredient’ Rosemary Toning Mist is not to be underestimated… Rosemary is antimicrobial, purifying, hormone-balancing and it stimulates blood flow. This toner does not contain any essential oils, but it’s a great choice if you like to spritz on a refreshing liquid. There are so many beneficial ingredients in Annmarie Gianni’s Facial Cleansers and in the Herbal Facial oil… your skin will get all the extracts and oils it needs from there.

Tip – This one’s about money. Not a very glamourous subject. Who doesn’t want to save money & cut back on expenses?

Acne or no acne, I have to admit that a toner is the first thing I’ll replace with something cheaper. The more to spend on quality natural organic cleansers & moisturisers! 😉 Because cleansing the face is a crucial step towards clear, healthy skin and a healing moisturizer, serum or facial oil releases its ingredients for hours on end. Totally worth the investment i.m.o., whereas the toning part of a facial routine seems much more – uhm – ephemeral. No offense.

Frugal toning idea #1 – Instead of a toner, why not use herbal tea? It will keep in the fridge for a few days. Make it with herbs from your own garden, if you’re lucky enough! Otherwise, Mountain Rose Herbs has organically grown dried lavender flowers, rose petals and many other healing herbs. Try their organic facial steam mixture of restorative herbs to make a gentle and refreshing all-natural toner.

Frugal toning idea #2 – Just a splash of cold water, there’s another economical idea. Totally not glamourous at all, but hey – you were warned.

Frugal toning idea #3 – A simple hydrosol from Mountain Rose Herbs. With prices starting at $4.50they don’t break the bank. To fight infection and heal acne, chamomile or calendula hydrosols are both great options. Lavender or lime hydrosols are good for oily/combination skin with minor blemishes.

3. Moisturizing

Finishing with a natural, organic moisturizer is the third step of a basic skin care routine. Miessence uses the same essential oils for acne in the entire purifying face care line, called the Purifying Skin Essentials Pack. Annmarie Gianni’s Herbal Facial Oil for Oily and Acne Prone Skin contains passion fruit oil, carrot seed oil, petitgrain oil, clementine oil, litsea cubeba oil and frangipani oil. And that’s just the essential oils. Together with the infused vegetable oils and extracts, the list of botanical ingredients is long. I’m not the only one to be tremendously enthusiastic about the herbal facial oils in Annmarie Gianni’s organic skin care line. People are usually a bit reluctant to apply an oil to their face at first, but soon, very soon, stunned by the results – often after as little as a few days. Acne clearing up, overall better looking skin and comments such as “I might be able to go without makeup after all…!” are a good indication of the wonders these oils can do for your skin.

Tip: Is your skin sensitive to alcohol? Some organic skin care lines use natural alcohol as part of their formula’s. Weleda and Dr. Hauschka, for example. My skin doesn’t react badly to it, but if you’re looking for an organic skin care line without this ingredient.There are three great organic skin care lines to check out:

Annmarie Gianni organic skin care products are alcohol free.

If you’re not into the whole facial-oil-thing and prefer to treat your acne with the more ‘classic’ moisturizing cream, hop over to Just Natural to have a look at the Natural Acne Facial Day Cream. Alcohol free as well.

Organic skin care by Miessence is not alcohol-free.

In Summary

Both severe and mild acne can be treated with essential oils in skin care. As seen in these highlighted products made by some of the best organic skin care lines. If you enjoy mixing your own potions (or are willing to try your hand at this new hobby) – check out some of these homemade skin care recipes.

The bottom line is: After quitting all main-stream cleansers, moisturizers and cosmetics and switching to only natural stuff, my skin really cleared up. And I still eat chocolate. 😉

There are two things I like most about the use of essential oils for acne in both the top-notch organic skin care products mentioned above and my own natural skin care recipes.

First, the fact that they accomplish the mission. Incredibly effective ànd natural. Second, how good they smell. I’ll try to stay composed here – but really, the scent of natural, organic skin care relying on essential oils and other botanicals is nirvanesque. Beyond heavenly. There’s something about the smell of natural extracts and essential oils, a reminiscence of a luscious garden right after summer rain, and synthetics just can’t compete with it. You can leave it up to natural, organic skin care products to turn those brief, ‘stolen’ moments at the bathroom sink into little home-spa escapades!

Which essential oils for acne are used most?

Actually, it’s quite a list.

That’s good news – observe how your skin reacts and let yourself be somewhat guided by your nose too… It’s not fun to use something you don’t appreciate the smell of. Not everyone likes the particular odors of for example patchouli, ylang ylang and geranium.

When starting with a new product, or when using essential oils for acne in your own natural, organic skin care recipes, remember to:

Test a very little bit of any oil on the skin of your arm or leg before using it on your face. If no reaction occurs within twenty-four hours, it should be fine. Always blend a few drops of essential oil in a carrier oil, do not spread out any of the essential oils over your face undiluted. Essential oils are very strong and concentrated. Read the precautions for more information on how to use aromatherapy skin care and essential oils.