Why Licorice Root Is Excellent For Oily Skin And Acne, If You Use It Correctly

Licorice is the poster child of candy. It’s the mascot of confectionary tastes, and it’s also used to flavour tobacco, teas, and chewing gums.

Firstly, many sweet black licorice sticks on the market contain very little real licorice; they often use anise seed oil as a near identical substitute.

Secondly, licorice is more than candy; there are no licorice mines or trees instantly producing the candy you know and love. The flavour comes from the licorice root, or Glycyrrhiza, which is native to the Mediterranean. 

Thousands of years ago, Ancient Greek soldiers marched into battle with licorice root in their pockets, to quench their thirst in the sun. Today, women like to use it for keeping PCOS symptoms down. Licorice is riddled with controversy too, since too much can lead to high blood pressure or even heart attacks. Healthy or unhealthy, licorice is undoubtedly a powerful substance…

…and another condition it affects is our arch enemy acne vulgaris. 

 

Licorice root – the cure for oily skin?

Over 400 active compounds have been identified in the licorice root, including glabridin, isoliquiritigenin and the unique licochalcone.

Yet only one is responsible for the distinctive taste that spawned a whole industry. Glycyrrhizic acid, or glycyrrhiza, which tastes approximately 50 times sweeter than sugar without rotting your teeth. Fascinatingly, this compound can also lower testosterone, and massively inhibit its stimulation of the sebaceous glands in your skin. The result is less oily skin and clogged pores, and this is licorice root’s main power for acne by far.

The reductions are very significant. Firstly, we have this 1988 in vitro study which applied glycyrrhizic acid to rat cells. Significant reductions in testosterone occurred, via inhibition of an enzyme called 17β-HSD, which is a vital catalyst for testosterone production. This occurred with a very modest dosage of the compound.

Of course, rat testicular cells don’t have much in common with a teenage acne patient. So fast forward eleven years, and we have an in vivo human study using very similar methods. 7 healthy men were given 7 grams of a commercially sold licorice candy containing 0.5 grams of glycyrrhizic acid.

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After just four days, their total testosterone decreased by nearly 45%, from 740 ng/dL to 414 ng/dL. On day 7, testosterone increased again, returning to 484 ng/dl, but their levels were still suppressed.

Removing the licorice restored testosterone to 704 ng/dl with lightning speed. Back in 2004, licorice root was tested on women as well; 9 women aged 22-26 years old were given 3.5 grams of licorice daily consisting of 7% glycyrrhizic acid. The methods were almost identical to the 1999 study on men, and after one month, their serum testosterone levels declined from 27.8ng/dL to 19.0ng/dL.

After another month, levels fell to 17.5ng/dL, and like before again, this reduction reversed rapidly when supplementation ceased.

Finally, several of the active compounds in licorice root are famed for their estrogenic properties, particularly glabridin and glabrene (study). According to this 2001 study, a whole licorice extract led to increases in an estrogen biomarker called creatine kinase. Estrogen is the antithesis of testosterone.

 

How licorice root affects acne

This common candy ingredient is clearly right up there with saw palmetto and green tea as one of the ultimate anti-androgen supplements. Furthermore, it works incredibly quickly. Testosterone plummeted by 45% in just 4 days, so a 20% fall within 2 days would be on the table.

Those Ancient Greek soldiers were extremely foolish. Maybe their licorice tonic would have rehydrated them, but during each battle they probably wondered where their aggression and urge to fight went. Every single time, the Ancient Egyptian armies probably thought “excellent, these fools are using licorice root again!”, and couldn’t help but chuckle to themselves.

If a friend of yours has ever told unlikely tales about licorice clearing his acne, then reduced testosterone was surely why.

 

Why you should never supplement with licorice

Despite that, I still wholeheartedly advise you to avoid this remedy, unless it’s in small candy-sized amounts.

Low DHT and testosterone is no joke – the side effects for men are decreased muscle mass, an unfocussed mind, and an empty well of physical energy. I never recommend lowering androgens internally for men, as such hormones fuel your existence.

For women, there’s no threat there. In fact, there’s a potential benefit, as there’s been a wave of excitement recently that licorice might prevent the acne from spironolactone, the king (or maybe queen) of PCOS drugs. It originates from this 2007 study, which tested either spironolactone alone or spironolactone plus licorice on 32 women, and found significantly less fatigue, one of the drug’s other classic side effects.

The problem is the sheer power of the licorice herb; it’s well known for high blood pressure and heart attacks.

The standard advice from doctors is to take licorice supplements for only one week. This limit makes licorice far inferior to saw palmetto, even though the latter takes weeks to reduce DHT. Licorice root might slash testosterone in two days, but it takes your skin pores weeks to free themselves from sebum and dead skin cells.

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Furthermore, there’s a hormonal side effect which affects both genders – increasing the stress hormone cortisol. This study found that licorice root raises cortisol levels in men, while this study found increased cortisol across multiple bodily tissues.

Even the mechanism is known, as licorice inhibits the 11 beta-dehydrogenase enzyme which normally converts the highly active cortisol into the inactive cortisone. According to this study, glycyrrhizic acid produces a metabolite which is responsible for this inhibition.

If you supplement with licorice root, then here’s what will happen. Your skin will become less oily as testosterone falls, and your pores will gradually unclog. Your acne will fade away. However, your skin will become exceedingly dull and lifeless looking due to elevated stress hormones.

 

Topical licorice is the best

The good news is that licorice isn’t beyond redemption. In fact it’s a fantastic acne treatment, if you use it directly on your face.

Licorice inhibits androgens just as superbly when smeared into your skin as when swallowed. An old Japanese study from 2004 tested several herbal extracts, and licorice extract was the strongest at inhibiting the 5-alpha reductase enzyme on the skin’s surface.

5-AR is the enzyme which converts testosterone to DHT. More 5-AR equals less DHT equals less oily skin, because DHT is far stronger than testosterone at stimulating sebaceous glands.

It’s believed that licochalcone is behind the 5-AR inhibition; that’s different to the glycyrrhizic acid which disrupts testosterone formation inside the body. A different mechanism, but the same result. Most importantly, applying licorice topically results in no increased cortisol, no sluggish sex drive and no low mood.

If you want to take advantage of licorice, then place an extract in aloe vera gel, grapeseed oil or jojoba oil and apply it directly. The study also confirmed a reduction in sebum, and diminished androgen receptor activity, meaning that the androgens you do have will be less damaging

Licorice reduces oily skin from multiple angles. This 2014 study revealed a bonus benefit, as 22 women had licochalcone extract applied to their arms. Two weeks later, there was a significant reduction in free radicals generated by the skin in response to UVA radiation exposure, beating a placebo group easily.

Essentially, licorice keeps your skin healthy in the face of blazing sunlight. Benefits were observed with small levels of licorice, whereas higher concentrations inhibited the free radicals from sunlight almost completely.

Our last study is more mixed, but 75% promising. Scientists developed a new skincare formulation containing licochalcone, l-carnitine, and 1,2-decanediol. They tested it on 60 volunteers with mild to moderate acne aged between 14 and 40.

The formulation improved almost every measurement tested. Sebum production, p.acnes bacteria and acne lesions fell, while skin hydration went up, compared to the control patients.

Why is the study a mixed bag then? Because of the presence of the l-carnitine and 1,2-decanediol. We cannot confirm that the licorice was the miracle acne substance.

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However, neither are famous skincare ingredients, nor ones with any brilliant studies (apart from this one obviously). L-carnitine is a protein compound derived from the amino acid lysine, whereas 1,2-decanediol is a research chemical.

Therefore, I’d judge that the licorice extract was responsible. What’s more, we have confirmation that the oily skin powers work in practise.

 

An acne-friendly hyperpigmentation remedy

Finally, licorice root is one of a handful of plants which are confirmed to have skin whitening properties.

You might have heard claims like this: “licorice root has depigmenting properties 75 times more effective than ascorbic acid and equally effective as kojic acid”.

None of those claims are confirmed, but the phytonutrient glabridin is a known tyrosinase inhibitor on the skin’s surface. Tyrosinase is an enzyme which is used to manufacture melanin, through conversion from the non-essential amino acid tyrosine. This pigments your skin white, olive, black, or whatever your genetics determine, but in people with hyperpigmentation, tyrosinase spirals out of control.

This study found that two types of glabridin extracted from licorice root could inhibit melanin synthesis. They functioned by inhibiting both T1 and T3 tyrosinase. A 0.5% glabridin cream was tested on guinea pig skin; it successfully inhibited UVB radiation-induced hyperpigmentation. As a bonus, the glabridin lowered inflammation levels effectively.

Then we have this interesting study. Scientists tested a whole licorice extract, and were shocked to find that its skin-whitening properties outstripped those of the detected glabridin concentrations.

So they discovered two new compounds, glabrene and isoliquiritigenin, which also had dose dependent anti-tyrosinase activity. The activity correlated closely to the compounds’ ability to inhibit melanin formation. The two compounds “may serve as candidates for skin-lightening agents”; licorice root contains them.

Licorice root also contains liquiritin, which has zero effect on tyrosinase, but does act directly on melanin to disperse and remove it. A liquiritin cream was tested on 20 Egyptian women and was found to be safe and effective in treating melasma, which is any tanning bed addict’s nightmare, a grey and dull tan instead of a brown and healthy one.

This is yet more evidence that topical licorice is superior to a supplement. 

 

Conclusion

Licorice has one of the strongest arsenals of unique compounds in any acne plant. The glabridin, the glycyrrhizic acid, and the licochalcone are found nowhere else.

Licorice is one of the most fascinating plants for acne overall. To recap, its main power is inhibiting DHT and testosterone and oily skin, followed by curing hyperpigmentation without the chemicals. With the unique compounds, there may be fresh acne powers to be discovered still.

But there’s little debate on your strategy – use licorice topically, and if you’re eating licorice, let it be in some tea or some tasty candy only.

NEXT: discover the root causes of acne and banish your pimples forever

 

 

Thanks for reading!