The Crunchy Betty Honey Challenge: Day 1

So today was the first day of Crunchy Betty's honey challenge. So far, my face looks nice. My skin is soft and moisturized. I'm kinda waiting for my acne to go nuts though to be honest....let's hope it doesn't!

#1 best thing about it so far:
My skin looks nice, and is soft and moisturized

#1 worst thing so far:
Nothing yet

Verdict so far:
While my skin is loving the honey wash, I'm not sure how my acne is going to react to it. Hopefully it dies instead of thrives.

Good luck everyone!

I'm Taking The Honey Challenge! Will you?

I'm a huge fan of Crunchy Betty, a fellow blogger who blogs about alternatives to the icky cosmetics they sell in the stores (mostly with things in your kitchen). She's made a challenge for all her readers and beyond, use honey to wash your face for two weeks. Her challenge is below:

Put Pure, Raw (Unpasteurized) Honey on Your Shopping List

You don’t need a whole bunch.

In fact, each time you wash your face, you use maybe half a teaspoon. Probably not even that.

You just need to make sure your honey is raw and pure (and if you can, make it local!). If you needed an excuse to visit your local farmer’s market this weekend, here it is.

Otherwise, you should be able to find raw (unpasteurized) local honey at the supermarket (our King Soopers carries raw Colorado honey). It’s just right there in the honey section. Check it out.

(If you can’t find local, no biggie. Just go for the good stuff.)

Challenge Schedule

People can come and go throughout this challenge as they’d like, but let’s try to get as many people to start with us as we can.

Here’s the schedule of events:

• Monday, July 18th – An introduction into how to wash your face with honey and why you’ll do it. On this day, you can also “sign up” for the challenge in the comments.
• Friday, July 22nd – I’ll send out emails to everyone who’s participating in the challenge just to check up on you and see how it’s going (however, there will be a thread on it in the Crunchy Community, so you guys can chit chat about your experiences).
• Monday, July 25th – There will be a post about the Honey Challenge on this day talking about ways to modify it for easier makeup-washing, as well as a chance for you guys to talk about what you think so far.
• Monday, August 1st - We’ll do a wrap-up post, which will include a super deluxe linky-party where everyone who blogs about their experience with the challenge can link up, and we can go around and read from all the other crunchistas blogs! In addition, on this day, I’ll choose one person to receive some raw Colorado honey from one of my local farmer’s markets. (THIS fun giveaway comes courtesy of the 10 AMAZING ladies who have sent financial support to Crunchy Betty over the last week; if it weren’t for that, this wouldn’t be a fun perk. AND, if more people want to donate over the next week, I’ll TOTALLY buy more honey to give away.)

AND, OF COURSE:

The best part of all of it?

YOUR FACE IS GOING TO BE SO SOFT, CLEAR, AND BEAUTIFUL WHEN WE’RE DONE!

Are you excited?

Yeah?

Tell me about it!

Here's a link to her challenge page which will be up Monday. Crunchy Betty's Honey Challenge I'll be writing about my experiences starting Monday.

Good luck and let's take the challenge!!

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure: A Bust

This is the fourth day of using this regiment as a treatment for acne and I'm calling it quits. The reason it's a bust? My face is beginning to break out where there is almost never any acne. I'm going to blame the oatmeal on that one. There might be something to the apple cider vinegar though. It did seem to calm down already inflamed acne, but it made my existing acne itchy, which unfortunately makes me more likely to pick my acne. If you can withstand the itch it may be a good remedy for calming your inflamed acne.  If this solution works for you then that's great! But for those with severe acne (red bumps and cystic acne), this regiment probably isn't for you.

Good luck till next time!

Honey, Oatmeal, and Apple Cider Vinegar Acne Cure: Day 3

My face is looking and feeling basically the same. My face also doesn't feel as soft as it did the first day. My acne is starting to get smaller and size and isn't as red, but it's still definitely there and now it's itchy, although I've heard that itch in acne is a sign that it's healing. So far I'm not going to call it a bust but it's not a miracle either.

#1 best thing about it so far:

acne isn't as apparent and my face doesn't seem to need moisturizer after washing

#1 worst thing about it so far:

my skin isn't soft like the first day and my acne has gotten itchy

Verdict so far:

the full two weeks will tell if it works or not, so far i'm not really pleased with it but it hasn't made anything worse

Oatmeal and Honey Facial Scrub (Or Mask)

So as I've said in the previous post, I'm trying a new treatment to get rid of my acne. It calls for an oatmeal and honey scrub and while there are a lot of online recipes, they unfortunately either had no measurements at all, weird measurements (one cup of oatmeal to two tablespoons honey? For serious?), or other ingredients and cooking. I decided to make an oatmeal honey scrub of my own:

Ingredients:
Honey
Oatmeal (not instant or flavored)
Water
A very small water tight lidded container

So what I did was I filled a small plastic container I had (think like an individual dip container) and filled it almost to the top with oatmeal. Then I added enough tap water to saturate it (maybe a little on the runnier side). I then added a tablespoon of honey and stirred that in. It's best to take the honey off of the tablespoon yourself after stirring a bit as it will stay there for basically ever. I then put on the lid tightly and gave it a good shake. And voila! Oatmeal and honey facial scrub. To use, just scoop some out with your hand and rub it all over your face (make sure your hair is tied back or you might get oatmeal bits in your hair...). Rub it in a bit, then rinse with cold water and pat dry. If you wanted to use it as a mask you could leave it on for a while. I'm thinking you can store this with the lid on tight somewhere cool and dark like under a bathroom sink and use it till it's gone. Store in the fridge if you can just to be safe.

I found this worked very well. It was almost slimy from the oatmeal doing it's thing in the water but it felt nice. I suggest using a face cloth to aid in the rinsing.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!!