I grew up pretty zit-free, so whenever I got the occasional pimple, I just had to wait it out for a bit and it would disappear. As I got older, my face got oilier, and the zits now came in twos and threes. This year, I found the magic solution—a natural spot treatment that was just under my nose all these years!

Presenting—The Body Shop’s Tea Tree Oil! Sarie said this got rid of pimples, and I’ve tried it on the first blemish sightings and away they go. Bigger, pus-filled (sorry) pimples are harder to get rid of with this, but it helps dry those out, too. I’ve noticed it’s best used on the beginnings of a pimple and blemishes.

Tea tree oil is a byproduct of the distillation of Melaleuca alternifolia leaves, a plant native to Australia. It has had a long aboriginal history of healing wounds and cuts. There are various other uses for tea tree oil, including getting rid of athlete’s foot. Here is a list I got from Care2, on the uses of Tea Tree Oil.

The Body Shop carries Tea Tree Oil in 10ml bottles for Php 499 a pop. I think that’s a pretty good deal, considering what you can use with it. I feel like a lot of the uses listed are due to its scent, which is quite strong. I personally like it, but I know some people might be put off by it.

Here are the full ingredients and their uses:

Aqua (Solvent/Diluent), Alcohol Denat. (Solvent/Diluent), Polysorbate 60 (Surfactant), Melaleuca Alternifolia Leaf Oil (Natural Additive), Limonene (Fragrance Ingredient), Calophyllum Inophyllum Seed Oil (Skin Conditioning Agent), t-Butyl Alcohol (Denaturant), Citral (Fragrance Ingredient), Leptospermum Petersonii Oil (Fragrance Ingredient), Denatonium Benzoate (Denaturant), Tocopherol (Antioxidant).

The applicator is a bit tricky to use, but I appreciate it as I believe it prevents spillage, especially when you’re a klutz like me who’s prone to knocking open containers over.

I hope this helps! It’s really a wonderful surprise to see something so simple work wonders for centuries-old problems like acne.

Note: I loved this so much, I decided to get a few more products from their Tea Tree Line, namely the Tea Tree Concealer and the Pore Minimiser. I only loved one of them—can you guess which?