I am by no means the queen of DIY facial treatments, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. This oatmeal-honey mask is one I just started using this fall, because my skin has been dryer than a British man’s jokes. It’s simple to make and relatively inexpensive, so long as you don’t go wild with the honey.
Ingredients:
-a quarter cup plain oatmeal
-a third cup water
-1 tablespoon honey
I use a spice grinder to mill the oatmeal as fine as I can get it. The first few times I made this, I left some of the oatmeal pieces whole or only halfway ground, thinking it might be easier to spread if it was a little thicker, but it just wound up clumping something awful. Even when ground into microscopic specks, the oatmeal is going to clump, just not as badly as when the grains are larger. If you don’t have a spice grinder, you can use a mortar and pestle or wrap the oatmeal in a paper towel and crush it with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.
I dump about 1/3 cup of water (that measurement isn’t very exact because I usually eyeball it) into a bowl with the oatmeal, then mix it thoroughly with a fork and microwave it for 30 seconds. Another boon of having finely ground oatmeal is that it won’t bubble up as much as larger grains of microwaved oatmeal will (I learned the hard way how difficult it is to scrape dried oatmeal off the bottom of a microwave).Take it out and assess the mixture–if it’s fairly gummy, add more water and microwave again.
Once you get it to the consistency of, say, a Slurpee, add your honey and mix vigorously with that fork. Then hie thee to the nearest bathroom, wash your face, and begin applying. This is definitely not the prettiest, nor the smoothest mask–to get it onto my face, I have to spoon (or fork) out small amounts onto my fingertips and dab them gently onto my face until it’s covered. And yes, it will lump up something crazy. Don’t worry if you look like a leper; just make sure you’ve spread the liquid over as much skin as possible and the lumps should make no difference.
I usually leave this on while watching TV or something, so for at least 20 minutes or until it’s hardened. It’s ok to lick your lips a lot; the stuff tastes really good. Getting it off can be a pain though: you don’t want to scrape at your skin, so just splash your face with water over and over until the oatmeal starts to give.
I just realized a lot of this sounds very questionable and non-beautifying, but I promise the oatmeal and honey will leave your skin soft and help loosen any rough patches!