Clear Skin Max

In the world of acne treatments, acne systems are generally preferred over individual acne products.

That could be due to a variety of reasons:

• It's implied that a system will work better together than any individual product.
• It reduces the amount of work someone has to do to find worthwhile products.
• It's marketed better than any single acne product individually.

Regardless of the reason, most people suffering from acne are familiar with many different types of acne systems. One of the newer and more popular acne systems is Clear Skin Max.

In this Clear Skin Max review, we'll take a look at what the Clear Skin Max system is, why it's popular, and whether or not the research supports the idea that Clear Skin Max is an effective acne treatment.

Clear Skin Max Review

Clear Skin Max touts itself as a 6 part cleansing system. It's the biggest feature compared to other acne systems is its use of natural ingredients. The system is made up of the following six parts:

• Tea Tree Oil Daily Cleansing Gel
• Skin Soften & Melanin Expel Essence
• Acne Vanisher Max
• Pore Astringent Conditioning Lotion
• Acne Treatment Emergency
• Clear Skin Max Anti-Acne Tea

Many of these use similar ingredients but are designed for different types of treatment.

In general, the goal is not to look at whether or not any acne treatment helps one individual cure their acne. The goal of any Clear Skin Max review is to determine if the ingredients have any research or medical basis for believing they can cure acne.

When looking over the Clear Skin Max system, the following represent the ingredients that the company claims will reduce acne:

• Tea Tree Oil
• Bladderwrack Extract
• Chamomile Extract
• Algae Extract
• Vitamin B3
• Allantoin
• Witch Hazel
• Wild Chrysanthemum, Licorice Root & Peppermint (in the tea)

Clear Skin Max claims to base their product on current research. Presumably, there will be evidence that most or all of these ingredients benefit those suffering from acne.

The best course of action is to break them down individually and see what the research has to say.

Tea Tree Oil

Tea Tree Oil is an encouraging choice for the Clear Skin Max acne treatment system.

In several studies, this extract has been compared to benzoyl peroxide in terms of both efficacy and side effects. Within these studies, it was found that tea tree oil was not generally as damaging to the skin, but took longer to work than benzoyl peroxide.

This would conceivably indicate that tea tree oil is simply a weaker, but still effective method of treatment compared to benzoyl peroxide. As a natural replacement for the essential drug, tea tree oil is useful.

It's important to remember that the oil can still cause skin irritation, just as benzoyl peroxide can. It's simply believed to be less severe overall, especially for those with sensitive skin.

Bladderwrack Extract

The Clear Skin Max company claims that bladderwrack decreases skin thickness and improves elasticity, making it beneficial for acne.

It's not clear how improved elasticity or decreased skin thickness benefits acne sufferers.

Research does not appear to support the idea that bladderwrack has any effect on acne. However, bladderwrack does contain iodine, and some believe that iodine may be beneficial for acne, due to its effects on hypothyroidism (a condition that is known to cause acne).

Many people use topical iodine treatments to improve their acne, though it's not clear how much iodine is in the Clear Skin Max system.

Overall, this ingredient does not appear to affect acne, although the research is still unclear.

Chamomile Extract

In the Clear Skin Max system, chamomile is believed to have antiseptic and healing qualities.

There is insufficient evidence to support this theory, with few to no studies indicating that chamomile is beneficial for the skin.

Some studies have supported the idea that chamomile may be beneficial for acne and other skin conditions. However, most of these studies were completed with an inadequate sample size. The most often sighted study is reported to be "partially double-blind" (meaning, not fully double-blind), and used a sample of only 7 men and 7 women – too small to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Still, it is unlikely that chamomile extract makes acne worse, and there doesn't appear to be any evidence of side effects, so this ingredient should be harmless to the skin and not interact with the rest of the system.

Algae Extract

Indeed, dry skin is not a solution for acne.

In general, if you dry out your skin oils, your face will simply create more oil to compensate. This defeats the purpose of drying the skin and could make acne worse.

Clear Skin Max uses algae extract to provide the skin with more moisture.

There is not a great deal of evidence that algae extract improves skin moisture. Some small studies have shown some effect, although rather than test algae specifically, most of those studies combined algae with other ingredients. Many of the studies used a very small sample and no control.

Algae extract may have some effect, but whether that effect is meaningful compared to other potential moisturizers is unclear.

Vitamin B3 – Niacin

Another ingredient in the moisturizing formula is niacin.

According to the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, Vitamin B3 (Niacin) does appear to have benefits for both acne (reducing inflammation) and moisturizing the skin.

Interestingly, one of the side effects of vitamin B3 supplementation is dry skin.

But a few studies have linked Niacin topical creams to increased moisture. Niacin cream appears to have some benefit to skin moisture and skin health. Some studies also claim that niacin benefits acne as well, though this is less clear.

As is, unfortunately, the case with much of this research, all of the samples used within these studies are small, and few of the studies have been replicated.

Allantoin

Allantoin can be found in the Clear Skin Max vanishing mask.

Allantoin is a chemical compound found in both plants and animal urine, but in the case of Clear Skin Max, they use the plant variety.

Allantoin is a surprisingly common ingredient in many natural skin treatments.

Clear Skin Max claims that Allantoin is used to clear out pores. Interestingly this is not the claim that most natural medicine supporters claim. Most claim that allantoin is better for relieving irritation and possibly wound healing – not necessarily clearing out pores, as claimed on Clear Skin Max.

There's little research evidence to support any of these claims since allantoin is generally added to medicinal mixtures with other ingredients, even during testing.

Its widespread use, however, does indicate that there may be some truth to the uses of allantoin – although none of these uses appears to be clearing pores as is claimed in Clear Skin Max. Regardless, research appears to show that allantoin is safe for regular use.

Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel is a popular astringent for acne.

Astringents are generally used for two purposes:

• To reduce the number of oils that build upon the skin.
• To reduce the size of acne lesions by reducing inflammation.

Once again, there isn't much research into Witch Hazel. Most natural medicines have little research. However, witch hazel is more supported by the evidence than other types of ingredients.

The only problem is that most astringent benefits of witch hazel rely on tannins. It's unclear whether Clear Skin Max's formula has tannins. If so, likely, their witch hazel pore astringent lotion works effectively.

Anti-Acne Tea

Finally, Clear Skin Max provides an anti-acne tea, designed to treat acne from the inside.

The tea is made up of three ingredients:

• Wild Chrysanthemum
• Licorice Root
• Peppermint

These types of treatments have been used for centuries. Chrysanthemum was especially common in Chinese medicine.

Unfortunately, there is little reason to believe that any of these tea choices have any effect on acne. There's no research evidence supporting these claims, and the medicinal effects of any of these teas are unlikely. The good news is that there is no harm in drinking the tea, but it's doubtful that the tea affects.

Clear Skin Max Review – Final Thoughts

In many ways, it appears at a glance that Clear Skin Max is part research, part marketing.

Research has shown that some of the ingredients are effective at clearing acne – particularly tea tree oil and astringents in general (assuming that the witch hazel has tannins). It's also important to keep your face moisturized, so presumably, if any of the moisturizing lotions work your skin should benefit.

On the other hand, several of the ingredients seem unnecessary.

Most of them have user reported benefits, but none of them have any research confirming any claim about their medicinal properties. Generally, if good research is unable to confirm that the medicine works, it's not that likely to work.

Essentially, those that use the Clear Skin Max system are paying an expensive price for a few valuable tools and a lot of likely less valuable acne fighters.

Those that trust herbal medicine, or prefer to use a natural medicine system rather than buy the products individually and have extra money to spend may prefer the Clear Skin Max system. Others may prefer to save a bit of time and money and get their products separately elsewhere.