Did you come here looking for something to cure your acne?
Have you spent cart loads of money on acne products only to find that they don’t work exactly like they say in the magazine?
Are you tired of googling for things to cure your acne?
I hear you!
Bear with me while I take you on a little journey.
During all the years when I was trying to find something to cure my acne, I never once looked to natural products. I don’t know who but I think it was a dermatologist who warned me never to try home remedies and that they do more harm than good.
No wonder for the longest time ever, I always trusted anything that came out of a tube or a jar that I got from the local pharmacy. Something that had multiple ingredients. Something that had ingredients that looked more at home in a chemistry journal, than on my dresser.
And I always thought I had sensitive skin. It would itch in the sun, itch when I sweated, get all red and break out for no reason. I was scared of even touching it. I avoided makeup for years because I thought it would aggravate my skin.
Never did I once stop to think that maybe the benzoyl peroxide or the myriad creams that had been prescribed to me by a dermatologist were the culprits. Why would I? A doctor had told me to use it and they knew better. At least that’s what I thought.
However, after a while, things did not make sense to me. The last dermatologist I visited 6 years back, gave me drying ointments for my acne and then rich creams to combat the dryness. Is it wise or even sensible to give a woman in her 30’s something that dries her skin? Needless to say, my skin went crazy. It was red, dry and peeling. The ointment did nothing for the acne and the rich creams did nothing for the dryness.
I reached my breaking point when I went to the same dermatologist for a follow up and she looked at my skin in disgust. She actually recoiled from me with a disgusted look on her face. Yeah, this was the woman I was paying a lot of money to, to help me heal my skin. The mess of my face was her work of horror!
I can’t begin to tell you how I felt.
That was the last straw and I decided to stop the treatment. I let my skin be. and did not touch it. I just let it break out and heal on its own.
Can you believe the clinic actually kept calling me back for follow ups? Not sure if they were actually interested or all they cared for was the money I brought in. It did not matter. I was never going back.
I then decided I was finally going to use natural ingredients on my face. Conventional treatments were not working. I had tried them for long enough to know. I figured that anything that was good enough to eat, was good enough for my skin. Getting out the bottle of honey I applied it on my face. This was normal processed table honey. I left it on for half an hour and washed it off. My skin looked much better.
The next day the active acne had calmed down considerably. Not healed mind you but they were definitely not angry. This was a real eye opener for me. After years of nothing ever working, the thing that healed my acne was right in my kitchen. And it made my skin look good.
Finally I had found something that was working for my acne.
Continuous use of this honey mask made most of my acne heal very quickly. Normally my acne would not heal for weeks and some of them months, but with this honey mask, they were healing within a week. This mask does not prevent new acne from coming in (at least for me) but it did reduce their life cycle. It also calms my skin down considerably.
Today I do not have sensitive skin. My skin is much stronger than it was. The constant irritation and redness have gone. I use makeup when I want.
So how do you use honey for acne?
Get any organic honey. Any raw and organic honey will do. “Under the Mango Tree” is a local Indian brand that I use. Start out using just the honey. See how it works. See how your skin feels after it.
Then you can add cinnamon powder. Start out with one teaspoon of honey and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon. This stings me a little but I normally push past it. If it starts to sting a lot please wash it off. It would be better to do a little patch test on your cheek or forehead before trying this out on your whole face. Leave this on for about half an hour. I normally do this in the evening or night.
Increase the amount of cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon for one teaspoon of honey. Do this after your skin gets used to this mask. I normally mix a batch that lasts me for 3-4 uses. The cinnamon might leave your skin looking red after you wash it off but this settles down after a while. You can use this mask daily or every alternate day depending on how bad your acne is.
After a week you will notice that your acne are healing much faster. You may not see much of a difference the first few days you use this mask. But after a week you will actually start to see a difference.
Continued use of this mask will heal your skin, improve your skin tone, reduce the redness on your face and even make the pores smaller. If you have acne, they will heal without leaving a scar. Your old scars will fade after a while.
Below are some brands of honey that I recommend. Note that these are affiliate links.
USDA Organic Mountain Ridge Honey – 22 oz of 100% Pure Raw Honey in Glass Mason Jar.
Wedderspoon Raw Premium Manuka Honey KFactor 16+, 17.6 Ounce
Cox’s Raw Honey – Unfiltered Liquid Honey | 100% Pure Clover Delicious Honey, 32 oz
Gita Vora says
May 12, 2016 at 1:11 pmMy daughter has black spots where she had the acne. What home remedy would you suggest to get rid of the spots? She is only 13 years old. Also she has very thick and wavy hair and gets tangles. Do you have any suggestions to get her hair smoother and not freeze?
Anjali Lobo says
May 12, 2016 at 5:35 pmHi Gita,
To get rid of the black spots, I would suggest adding nutmeg powder to the honey and applying it on your daughter’s face. That helped me get rid of my black spots left by acne. Alternately you can mix the nutmeg powder in milk and also apply it. For smoother hair do try to apply Avocado oil before a shampoo. I have been trying this recently and it has given me great results.
Maida says
February 27, 2019 at 2:14 pmAmazing article! I have acne for so long and this really helped me