Okay okay...I'll fess up. I am NOT a good one at taking care of myself. I've never been in the habit of washing my face daily. No...seriously. Call it years of major depression? I was lucky to be dressed in clean clothes. Luckily for me, my genes are fairly decent and I've never suffered from major breakouts. I'm new to basic skin care routine, so I'm thrilled to find a fairly natural way to go thanks to Crunch Betty, because yes, I'm now 32 years of age and I'm noticing my face...needs a bit of attention.
So, my problem areas? My nose! It's covered with blackheads. Ewwww...I've done my steady best to ignore the problem in the past. I've picked at them or just pretended they don't exist, but I'm tired of this! I too...suffer a little bit of vanity. I'd like for the first thing people see about me NOT to be pores big enough to drive a mac truck into.
So, following Betty's advice, I'm doing a daily wash with honey. Nothing else, jut 1 tsp or so of plain raw honey into my palm, mixed with a tiny bit of water then washed all over my face. I let it sit a bit then rinse off with cool water. Not bad? I'm surprised by how it feels. It's not sticky like you'd think, and my face afterwards feels...nice! Soft and a bit glowy.
So, let's take this routine a bit further shall we? Betty has a wonderful post on doing an exfoliating wash with baking soda. http://www.crunchybetty.com/3-step-spring-cleaning-for-your-face. Now, do I want to exfoliate? Yes...apparently I do. It would seem after doing some research that in my quest to get rid of blackheads, this is an important step! It removes the top layer of (dead) skin cells off your face, so that they can't later migrate inoto those truck sized pores and aide in clogging them up.
Daily toner: 1/2 cup water and 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar. Use a cotton swab to apply daily to help keep your pores tight and the oil down.
After than we'll follow with a steam. I'm opting for a basic steam I found that uses salted water, and nothing else. Take the sea salt you bought, add 2 tablespoons to a pot full of hot water and let it come to a boil. When it's boiling away, remove the pot from the heat and set it where you can sit by it for several minutes. Drape your head and the pot with a large bath towel and....steam way. Stay like this until the water cools. This opens the pores so that more of that gunk can get out.
Alternative: Steep a couple of chammomile tea bags in the water instead of the honey and use this as your steam instead.
Finally...once a week or so a mask! So, I re-read the post up above and like the idea of Betty's mask. I have honey, lemons and eggs, so I'd like to give that a try. (1 egg white and yolk , 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp honey: all beaten together then smeared onto you face).
Other options are just plain honey left to sit on your face for 15-20 minutes or just plain whipped egg whites.
Alternative: You can use french green clay, made into a paste with water then smeared all over your face for a more costly, but super effective mask. (I've heard the clay is especially usefull for blackhead removal so I'll be trying it out.)
Any thoughts or suggestions? I'm trying this out as you do and I'll post later how I thought it came out!
I love the idea of steams. They open your pores so you can clean out the gunk. Would it be better to soften the blackheads with steam and then clay mask them out, then tone your pores closed? I've always heard of it being done in the way you have here...and I've wondered why in that particular order?
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