How to Give Yourself an All-Natural, Delicious At Home Facial

It was during my sophomore year in high school when, on an extremely rare afternoon where I wasn't wearing makeup, my uncle knocked on our front door. 

I opened it and greeted him, only to hear: (ah, the tactfulness of men...)
"What's that on your face? A rash?"
"Uh, no, Uncle Steve, it's called acne. Gosh."

(Don't be fooled by my haughty words. My southern-belle pageant-girl self (thank goodness THAT'S over) was mortified. This -well, not the literal conversation, but this sentiment- is why I wouldn't go to freaking 7-11 without a full face of makeup on!)

 I had mad concealer skills, true. But the tragedy was that I also had no idea what actually made a difference to one's skin clarity and smoothness:
1) Diet. The more raw green leafies you eat, the clearer your eyes are, the whiter your teeth grow, and yes, the more dewy and translucently beautiful your complexion is.
2) Hydration. Your skin is, quite literally, your body's largest detoxification organ. Junk comes out through there, and without a healthy amount of detox going on in the other parts of your body (like your digestive system and lymph system, both areas that NEED water desperately to work properly,) your skin will have an undue amount of pressure on it to get rid of your body's gunk - hence, clogged pores, especially on your face.
3) Maintenance. A person's face, especially for a woman who wears even a small amount of makeup regularly (I relinquished foundation after I went vegan, didn't need it anymore,) is one of the oiliest, if not THE oiliest, place on the body. Skin cells also turn over faster here than possibly anywhere else. For that reason, routine clearing and cleansing is really valuable if you want to have a glowing complexion.

When I first met Terry, my face was the clearest it had ever been in my entire life - and that's by far. I hardly ever had even one blemish, and for the first time ever, I would regularly leave the house without a stitch of makeup on (ok, maybe a little mascara) and feel just as confident as if I were made up. 


I wasn't eating especially well (I stayed away from red meat mostly, but was still having tons of cheese and the weekend evenings bar-hopping with my sister, having many a malibu & pineapple cocktail certainly weren't what was doing the trick...) - my secret was religiously regular, Sunday evening facials (I'd do a mani and pedi as well, usually whilst having a glass or two of wine and watching a chick flick - the single life did have it's perks.) 


Once we met, my Sunday nights were spent with him, and not in my living room anymore with cotton balls between my toes. 


My skin suffered. 


And in the years since, I've only recently (as in, the past month or so) started keeping my regular face dates. 

My skin is thanking me already.

Now, let's get to the facials. I've always had a love of self-pampering, and looked for the best products and practices. As women, we get the privilege of having lots of little tricks at our disposal (I'm sure many a perfectly masculine fella has wished he could use a spot of a concealer on a particularly zitty day) - and I also believe that we may as well use them.


In my opinion, all of the psychology books out there are basically written from a masculine perspective. One of the million things that my 5 million (seems like it) years in school taught me was that the feminine psyche is not understood at ALL. If they only knew what we were capable of, considering our powers of multi-tasking alone...


But I digress. The point of this is that, even if you doubt the veracity of the past couple of paragraphs here, try a month of regular pampering dates and see how you feel at the end of it.


I'll give you the recipes first, then instructions.


What You'll Need:

**Not pictured above, but necessary for the process, is cleanser for your face - just use whatever you normally do. I lately have been enjoying Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap, but I'm also a big fan of Alba's Pineapple Enzyme Cleanser.)

Sugar & Honey Scrub 
- A bowl and a spoon (for mixing)

- 3 heaping Tbsp Sugar (use granulated white sugar - raw or brown would be too sharp - and as usual, organic is best)
- 1 Tbsp Honey (use as natural as you can find, with humane, raw, and organic being the top of the heap)
- 1 Tbsp Milk (as a vegger, I use almond milk, but before I went off dairy I used regular moomilk and it worked just fine)

- Place 2 1/2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar in bowl. Add honey and mix until a thick paste is formed. Then add milk and stir. Check the consistency - you're going for applesauce. Usually I have to add that last bit of sugar to thicken things back up enough that the sugar doesn't dissolve and leave the scrub without any scrub.

I've tried to sub in salt for sugar with this scrub - with disastrous results. So don't do it! The honey is amazing for your skin, as honey has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years and your skin loves honey - it helps with the turnover of new skin cells as well (for a good burn remedy, put honey on a burn like you would neosporin and cover it with a bandage. You'll be shocked at how quickly the pain stops and the burn significantly heals.) The milk mostly helps with consistency, but Ive subbed in water before and the scrub didn't work as well. Personally, I believe that the milk adds some nice, natural nutrients to the mix. 

Indian Clay Healing Mask
- A bowl and a spoon (for mixing)
- 3 Tbsp Dry Indian Clay Healing Mask (this is the one I use:)

(Before I discovered this amazing product, which has lasted me over a year so far, I used a green mask that came in a tube from the drug store made by a company called Queen Helene, I believe. It's alright, but I like this one MUCH better.)
- 3 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar (You can sub in water, but I think that the apple cider vinegar works better, hands down.)

- Mix equal amounts clay powder with apple cider vinegar. Usually I do about 3 tbsp, which is good for 1 or 2 masks. The mixture will fizz like those volcano projects from Elementary School where you combine baking soda with vinegar (the clay powder is pretty basic.) As it's fizzing, this is what you'll see:

Keep mixing, and the mask will be all creamy, like so:

Ok. So now that you've got everything ready, here's your order of events...


Note before we start: Every time you use water, make sure it's as warm as you can comfortably handle it. That heat will soften your skin and open your pores.
1) Wash your face. Even if you aren't wearing makeup, oils accumulate on your skin basically all the time, and for this facial to work well, you need to be free of all that. So start with a clean face.
2) While your face is still wet, use the Honey & Sugar Scrub. Apply it to your face with your fingertips and lightly massage it into your skin with circular movements. Keep polishing in each spot until your skin feels sensitive, but not painful. At this point, if you were to keep going, it would start to sting, but stop before it does. You'll know it when you feel it.
Scrubbing this way gets off the top, dead layer of skin cells on your face. It also clears any gunk out of your pores that has remained after the washing, and that sensitive feeling is what tells you that the dead skin has been cleared away and you're down to your living, fresh, new skin.
3) Rinse off the scrub. This may take you awhile, and make sure that you also rinse off your arms, where the scrub may have dripped as you were using it. No one likes sticky forearms. Especially not person one who has them. Don't completely dry off your face - make sure it's still damp after you've quickly blotted it with a towel.
4) Apply your Indian Clay Mask. Put it on thickly enough that you don't see your skin through it, but not much thicker than that. Avoid the area. around your eyes - the drying action is a little too intense for that delicate, thin skin.

5) Wait. This one's up to you - as the mask dries, it will harden, pull your skin, and tighten up, making basically any facial expression impossible, which is an adventure itself. The drying, pulling action of the mask is what does the deep cleaning - it pulls toxins and similar gunk out of your pores. You CAN wait until the mask is totally dry (it will lighten and harden as it dries,) but you don't have to. I tend to leave it on there as long as I can - it's pretty uncomfortable there the end. Totally worth it though. 

6) Rinse off the mask. Use really warm water, like I mentioned above. With the first few splashes, you'll notice the mask soften and release its hold on your skin - which feels awesomely weird. Keep rinsing until the clay is gone - this will take you a little while. 
7) Wash your face again. Although you like the clay on your face for awhile, you don't want to leave little, invisible remnants of it in your pores. No bueno. So use your facial soap and use that hot water.
8) Gently pat your face dry. Here's where you'll feel how baby-soft and smooth your face is. If you tend to have dry skin, you may want to put on a little moisturizer, but wait a half hour or so before you decide because you may not need it.
9) Go to bed! Sleep and let your skin enjoy its new, cleared state. DEFINITELY DO THIS MASK AT NIGHT, BEFORE BED - you'll want to let the natural healing that happens at night reinforce the cleansing you just did.


Enjoy!
PS: All things considered, this whole process costs you less than $1. Not bad for a facial that works better than anything I've ever gotten at a spa!