DIY #4: Honey & Cinnamon Mask

Disclaimer and Important:

If you have really sensitive skin, I would greatly recommend making a really small portion of this mask and applying it to a small on your skin for a reasonable 30 minutes or so to see if your skin is allergic. As I will not be held responsible for any skin irritation or infection. This mask has been tested on my oily/combination skin and it works on me, but it may or may not work on you, so please exercise caution at all times!!

Hands up if you are someone who feels skirmish on placing food products on your body in a bid to become more prettier. Or you could feel just the same when you are trying to improve your skin, body or even scalp condition. Don't worry a bit, as I used to feel the same way about slathering on food products on my skin when I was still in my early teens. My thinking at that time is simply, "Why waste food in this manner?" And it didn't help that I used to have a classmate (different class but same school) who developed a bad habit of bathing literally in milk everyday just to have fairer skin.

Which I guess I might have to take a little blame for it as throughout my entire school, I am practically the palest of them all. And this classmate was actually tanned looking since she's the sporty type. And being sporty generally resulted in tanned skin, as opposed to a bookworm like me who shun sports of any type and ended up looking paler than I wanted. And at the same time, I actually had zero acne and pimple woes during my schooling days too.

Which actually was a good thing, considering the fact that almost every single student in my school is always plagued with them, and I looked as if I am immnue to the pains of growing up. It's just that my skin looks oily, and I never realized that I needed facial moisturizer of any type either since my skin doesn't seem to be giving trouble.

Until recently, I have a bad bout of acne and pimple woes. If you are a frequent reader to my blog, you would have been aware of my stubborn acne and pimple troubles last year when I've been a little upset about my pimples being undecided whether they should go off or just ripen up and be done with. Until I chanced upon one of Michelle Phan's blog post on her "Honey and Cinnamon Mask". I tried it and can safely say that it works for me. So, here's a little tweak on her original recipe.

First of all, you need a small bowl and a spatula.

Cinnamon Powder. Doesn't matter which particular brand as long as you've used it before and trust the brand.

Honey, key word here being natural or organic and most importantly, unsweetened.

Scoop out roughly a tablespoon of cinnamon powder into your clean, dry and empty bowl. Followed by a teaspoon of honey.

Next, mixed both the cinnamon powder and honey together until you get a smooth paste. Michelle Phan stated that she microwaved it a little so that the cinnamon powder would be dissolved completely. But I can assure you that there's no need to, if you do not have a microwave.

Once your cinnamon and honey paste is of a smooth consistency and there's seemingly no undissolved cinnamon powder, go ahead and apply it to your cleaned face, which is devoid of any makeup or facial products. You need a freshly cleaned face for this mask.

Depending on how long you want to leave it on your face, I would recommend a decent 15 - 20 minutes. Whether the mask dried up or not within 15 to 20 minutes, it doesn't matter. If you added more honey, it will take longer to dry up. So, if you know you've went overboard with the honey, then don't worry if it doesn't seem to dry up even after 30 minutes.

Remember previously when I mentioned that you need not have to worry about putting the bowl of honey and cinnamon mixture in the microwave if you do not have one? Here's the fun part of it. As it's not been microwaved a.k.a warmed up, the cinnamon in the mask mixture will still be grainy. When it's time to wash it off, here's what you can do to get a little more "mileage" out of this mask.

Apply water to the mask, just as you would do to rub it off and wash it away. But before you literally wash it off, take a moment to rub gently in circles. You will feel this exfoliating feeling on the surface of your skin. Yep, you're right! This is the reason why I mentioned not to warmed it up if you do not have a microwave. You can still exfoliate your face with the same mask, despite your skin already reaping the benefits of the honey and cinnamon powder.

And once you're done gently exfoliating with the mask and washing it off completely, you will notice that your skin will also feel smoother than before using the mask. And as for me personally, I like how it actually tame my acne and pimples when it's starting to show on my skin as red angry spots.

If you are just starting to get new acne or pimples where it's still red angry spot(s), literally in it's early on "infant" stages, start with using the paracetamol & honey mask in the morning, at least once or twice a week. And at night, use this cinnamon & honey mask, also once or twice a week. You should notice that your stubborn acne and pimples clearing up slightly faster than it used to do so.

VERDICT: It definitely worked for me, but if you have really sensitive skin, it may or may not work on you.

Overall Thoughts: Initially, I thought this mask might not even work on me since Michelle's skin actually looked pretty good. But I am pleasantly surprised that it did it's magic. A brand new pimple actually subsided faster than it normally should, instead of seeing it lingering on my face for a week and beyond. Therefore, if you've never tried using food items as skin or body remedy of any type, I would urge you to give it a try. You might end up seeing better results as compared to using store bought products.