Oil For Your Face (instead of Honey)

A friend recently introduced me to this concoction of oil, almond and castor oil that’s only $1.99 for a 4 oz. bottle (you can find it at CVS) called Aceite 3. She told me she used it to give her hair that extra bit of shine, so when I tried it on my limp hair, it made it too greasy (I found that putting it only on the ends is much better).

However, you can also use this for your face since it’s an all-natural product. Since I ran out of honey in the shower (my man got hungry J) I decided to try this instead. Now, it doesn’t come off as easily as honey does, but it does leave your skin super soft and smooth. It’s a wonderful alternative for honey. Just a thought, but maybe try alternating both just to keep your skin supple. 

Getting Back Into A Routine

I’ve decided to try something a little different – for the next month I will religiously stick to a beauty routine – day and night. My skin has been acting a fool lately! It’s been dry, I have breakouts almost every other day; it’s just a mess right now so I need to take some quick action. And, I think the best thing is to go with more natural products to bring back the balance of natural oils to my skin. (FYI, I know this seems complicated, so you can always simplify it for your routine by doing only moisturizer/spf in the morning and cleanser/serum at night). Also, these aren’t even my favorite products, or ones that I know will work, but I’m all about testing different things to see how skin will react, so I’ll keep you updated.

Here’s what I’ll be doing:

Morning:

1. Cleanser: Cera Ve (in the shower)

2.  Moisturizer/Softener of Skin: Honey (in the shower)

3. Toner: Clinique Clarifying Lotion #2 (I need to start getting back in the habit of using a toner – a separate post to come about toners soon)

4. Dark Spot Eliminator: Clinique Even Better (I’m still testing this out b/c I don’t know how well it really works yet)

5. Moisturizer/SPF: Oil of Olay Regenerist UV Defense Regenerating Lotion, SPF 50

Night:

1. Cleanser: Cera Ve

2. Moisturizing Oil: 100% Jojoba Oil

3. Moisturizer/Serum: Olay Regenerist Regenerating Serum

4. Applying Castor Oil to my eyelashes and eyebrows (it’s apparently great for hair growth, so I wanted to throw in a little extra something into my routine)

2x/Week:  Moisturizing Mask: Greek Yogurt left on my face for 15-20 minutes

Daily:  Water, water, water! I’ve so been slacking on this!!

I’ll let you know how I’m feeling in the morning after tonight’s rituals!

Homemade Recipe/Ingredient of the Week: Honey!

     Moisturizing Face Masks:

      1. Honey + Avocado: Put one large, pitted and peeled avocado in a blender with a tablespoon of honey; Pat onto face and keep on for 20 minutes and rinse with warm water.

      2. Honey + Greek Yogurt + Olive Oil: Mix the Honey, Yogurt and Olive oil together, place in fridge for an hour then apply on your face for half an hour, then wash.

      3. Honey + Egg Whites: Beat an egg white until stiff. Add one teaspoon of honey. Stir together and fluff onto your face; After 30 minutes, splash off with cold water

      Moisturizing Hair Mask: 

      Honey + Olive Oil: Mix honey and olive oil and place in hair for 30 minutes for a natural moisture-packed hair mask.

      Body Scrub:  

      Honey + Olive Oil + Brown Sugar: Mix all together and lather it in the shower so you don’t make a mess!

      Lip Scrub:  

      Honey + Olive Oil + Sugar + Lemon: Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, then massage it into your lips. The sugar/rub part is what you should be using to scrub, while you can apply the juice of the scrub to let it sit on your lips for a bit. The lemon juice has properties to help lighten the skin (but it's not immediate and you can skip this step if you want either way). I've used this recipe without the lemon and it still gives excellent results. 

 Don’t sleep on homemade recipes – the Egyptians and Romans all had gorgeous skin for a reason – they used the natural ingredients that they had available and used them for all of their healing properties. I LOVE these masks - they are all sooo silky and leave your face smoother than a baby’s bottom.  Not to mention, it gives your face tons of good oils that is necessary to keep the moisture in your face balanced, therefore giving you that natural ‘glow’ we all crave. 

Winter Face Woes

Here are a few tips to keep soft, supple skin during the dry, winter months:

1.     Moisturize at night – this can be accomplished one of three ways:

a.     Use a thicker moisturizing cream (at night) for that extra umph of goodness or

b.     Use a face serum under your regular moisturizer

c.      Or hell, use both a serum and thicker moisturizer if you’re so inclined and see how your face looks and feels in the morning.

*If the result is that your face is too oily in the morning, naturally lay off of one product. If it’s still too dry, maybe try washing your face with a cold cream (Pond’s has the best) at night before your moisturizer.

2.     Use honey in the shower – NO, Don’t eat it! (Well, if you're hungry enough, but I wouldn't brag on that) TRUST ME on this - use it. It glides on and glides off under the hot water, so there is no sticky mess. And you can feel the difference right away. Manuka honey is recommended by most sites I’ve researched, but regular honey works just fine. Most celebrities swear by this and no freakin wonder. 

3.     Wash only once – at night. The mixture of water and dry air may be stripping you of your natural oils, and you are not as inclined to sweat during the winter days, so if you can, try washing only once.

4.     Don’t forget to mask once a week – this will get rid of dead skin cells that have accumulated and will keep you polished and smooth!

5.     Keep Drinking Water – it’s easy to forget and instead drink wine or hot chocolate, but this is one of the best ways to keep your skin looking vibrant and supple.

6.     Now is the time to use skin/spot brighteners – you don’t want to use them in the summer, because by that time, it will be too late and your spots will be getting some sun-tanning time that only makes them darker!! (Try RoC - Multi Correxion Tone Perfecting Treatment, $22, Target, CVS). I give this Five stars – it seems to work great on discoloration and evens out my skin tone, especially on my chin, where I have a lot of acne scars and dark spots.

7.     And last but definitely not least – SUNSCREEN!!! Even when it’s overcast or raining, the sun’s UV rays can still wrinkle that pretty face (and hands and chest) of yours. So make sure to cover any part that is exposed during the day, even if it seems insignificant – it does make a big difference over time.  And now Neutrogena has special SPFs designed specifically for face and hands so as not to be so oily.

Next time…my favorite face cleansers (for winter & summer)