Sweet Face, Bro

I have bad skin. There, I said it.

I don't mean that I occasionally get pimples or worry about laugh lines. I mean that I am approaching 30 and I still get deep painful acne nearly every day on my face and shoulders and back. I am so irritated by it I can't leave it alone... which means I am a 28 year old with red sores on my face and body on a regular basis. It's a constant source of shame.

I've tried every acne medicine I can find. I've tried tea tree oil, and I've tried medicated face wash. It helps for a few weeks before my acne adapts like an evil alien species, and continues to rule my skin with a heavy hand.

A friend recently sent me an article about the miracle of raw honey for acne-prone skin. A little research lead me to the idea of using honey and cinnamon as a face mask, and forgoing soaps and cleansers in favor of coconut oil. Now I know there's a lot of hype about coconut oil these days, but there also seems to be a lot of examples of people with acne problems who rave about it. I figure it can't hurt any more than this massive chin pimple does.

Reading natural skincare blogs (and all the comments- I broke my usual rule about never reading the comments) showed me that people predominately use coconut oil in two ways. First, they use it to replace soap. They remove makeup and "wash" their faces with it in the shower before rinsing with warm water. That surprised me. Second, they rub a small amount into their skin as moisturizer. This makes sense to me. I gave up moisturizer in favor or jojoba oil about a year ago but never noticed a serious difference in skin quality. So while I wasn't weirded out by the idea of putting oil on my oily skin, I was a little tired of not seeing progress.

So this leads me to my first 30 days experiment: The Sweet Face challenge!

I am giving up soap and medicated acne solutions for 30 days, and replacing my daily washing regime with a mixture of raw honey, cinnamon, and coconut oil. My face and body acne will face off with natural ingredients in a BATTLE FOR CLEANLINESS.

I accidentally started last night when I experimented with a couple face mask recipes using honey. So the clock began Feb 2nd. I'll keep you posted!