Rule of thumb for initial break outs?
December 3, 2012 4:43 PM   Subscribe

At what point do you decide that the initial breakout is now a reaction breakout?

I began using sea buckthorn seed oil as a treatment for my rosacea. I also suffer from moderate acne, but my biggest skin concern is redness and inflammation. I've gotten a few recommendations for sea buckthorn oil, so I purchased it and started applying a few drops morning and night. While my skin is definitely much more moisturized and less flaky, I'm breaking out. I've gotten a few cysts, and alot (more than a dozen) of other small bumps. (The pimples definitely aren't related to anything else, as my acne is hormonal and I am familiar with the timing.) The acne is making my skin even more irritated and red.
Since it's been a week, I'm wondering when I should give up the ghost and accept that the product isn't working? For this oil's case, and just in general for all skin products.
posted by flying_trapeze to Health & Fitness (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This forum page, where someone is self-treating keratosis pilaris with a load of sea buckthorn products, describes a really long reaction process that they attribute to killing demodex mites.
posted by zennie at 5:16 PM on December 3, 2012


Breakouts aren't super-common with sea buckthorn oil, but they're not unheard of (it is an oil, after all). The oil is definitely not causing your skin to "purge" the bad stuff... only actives do that. So if you really trust the regularity of your acne, then I'd say that a dozen bumps is quite a lot and you might be having a reaction. Check with the Makeup Alley skin board for more advice-- they're likely to have a hundred posters who have used this oil whereas I'd be surprised if there are more than five here.
posted by acidic at 6:20 PM on December 3, 2012 [1 favorite]


Are you using this straight, or are you diluting it in something else (a carrier oil, or a cream, etc.)? If so, what dilution are you using? Also, are you using sea buckthorn seed oil or sea buckthorn fruit oil?
posted by UniversityNomad at 10:40 PM on December 3, 2012


Response by poster: I'm using it straight, 3 drops. I read in a few places that sea buckthorn seed (which I'm using) doesn't need a carrier.
posted by flying_trapeze at 7:51 PM on December 4, 2012


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