Does tea tree oil really work on lice?

how pure tea tree oil actually works

Here's what's actually in the bottle. Tea tree oil's reputation, for lice and for everything else people use it for, comes down to one compound family, terpinen-4-ol and its cousins, the natural constituents that give the oil its bite. The catch is that a lot of 'tea tree oil' on shelves isn't fully that. Cheaper versions get stretched with natural isolates or diluted fillers, which quietly lowers the concentration of the active stuff without changing the label. Handcraft Blends' whole pitch is that theirs isn't cut that way, it's lab tested for constituents and for the absence of fillers, so what's in the bottle is closer to what's actually potent. That matters more than it sounds. A pure, full strength oil needs real dilution before it touches skin or scalp, which is where the glass dropper earns its keep: it lets you measure drops into a carrier oil or shampoo instead of guessing from a wide mouth bottle. The amber glass does its own quiet job too, blocking UV so the oil doesn't break down sitting on a shelf between uses. None of this makes the bottle a labeled lice treatment, it's sold for aromatherapy, skin care, soap and candle making, the diffuser on your counter. But if you're reaching for it as a home approach to lice the way people have for years, potency and dilution are the two things that decide whether it does anything at all, and that's exactly what this bottle is built around.