The beauty of honey!

As you may or may not know, there are so many beauty-related uses for honey! To me, honey is almost like one of those miracle products that do everything. It can be used as a cleanser, a facial mask, a spot treatment, even as a moisturizer. It is also great as a hair treatment, although I won't be talking about that here. It is great for acne, acne scarring, hyperpigmentation, sensitive skin, dry skin, aging skin, and other skin issues such as eczema. It pretty much covers everything. It is amazing.
(Note that I am talking about raw honey here. You don't want to used processed honey here, because through the heat processing that many honeys go through, much of its beneficial properties are killed off.)

So what makes honey so amazing?
- It has antibacterial properties that kills bacteria, making it a great cleanser and treatment for acne.
- It is a natural humectant, meaning that it will draw moisture into your skin. Perfect for dry skin.
- It contains gluconic acid that can help even out and brighten your skin tone and fade acne scarring.
- It also contains many other nutrients that are good for the skin. But I am not a scientist so I don't know about every single nutrient in it and what they all do, so I'll just stick with the first 3 major ones that I talked about.

What about manuka honey? What makes that so special?
In addition to all the properties of regular honey, manuka honey is extra microbial, which makes it even better for fighting acne. I'm assuming many of you know about tea tree oil already, and how it can be used to fight acne due to its antimicrobial and inflammatory properties. Well, manuka honey is made from bees that feed from the manuka (tea tree) bush. So think of it this way - it creates a combination of all the beneficial characteristics of honey and tea tree!

Now, as I discussed in my skincare routine, I use honey mainly as a cleanser and mask. Right now, I mix it with rice powder, ground oatmeal, and a little bit of water and apply it all over my face. This not only helps to clean my face, but also acts like a mask because I let it sit on my face while I brush my teeth and do other stuff. Before though, I was only using the honey by itself for a few months, and it was still amazing. I just recently decided to add a few more ingredients just because I felt like I could benefit from them too, but if I'm lazy or really tired, I don't even bother with the rice powder and oatmeal, and I just use the honey alone again.

I have been doing this since last summer, so probably about 10 months now. And my skin has never been better. I rarely break out now, only when I am really stressed from school. And when I do break out, its usually only a small pimple, and I'll just put some honey on it directly and leave it on overnight. It has also helped me fade some of my acne scarring, although its not like I have a lot of scarring. Just two scars on my one cheek that wouldn't go away. Other than that, my face has been pretty much completely clear. And I no longer have any dry patches or any dry skin issues either! But these might have to do with my change in moisturizer as well, since I pretty much introduced both at around the same time.