Pamper Yourself {Part I}

This is the first post in what will be a series of at home spa treatments.  I plan to try some various treatments that I have found and then share with you my results.  Today I have 2 items to share with you.

HONEY:

According to Benefits of Honey, honey has wonderful healing properties for your skin.  I have seen reports and comments about this for years, and I notice that a lot of skin products have honey in them.

• Honey is hygroscopic, meaning that it absorbs moisture from the air.  It helps hydrate your skin, it holds in the moisture.
• Honey is antibacterial.  When applied to the skin, it inhibits the growth of bacterias.
• Honey has antioxidants that help destroy free radicals and encourage rejuvenation of tissues.

Benefits of Honey has a page of several honey skin treatments HERE.  I did not try those recipes, but they very easy and luxurious.  What I did was a little different.  I read a comment by a skin care professional on a blog.  I can not find it back, but she said to apply a dab of honey to acne, cover with a band-aid and leave it on over night.  My ruling on this is ... It Worked!  I have an irritated spot on my chin (it was likely infected) and in the morning when I woke up the swelling and soreness had reduce radically!  It is almost completely cleared.

MICRODERMABRASION:

Over at Confessions of a Wisconsin Housewife I found a home microdermabrasion treatment that was simple and quick ... and most importantly inexpensive.   She says that she uses this treatment once a week and it leaves her with beautiful, glowing skin.  Since it was so simple, I decided to give it a try.  Her recipe is:

3 TBSP baking soda
1 TBSP water

mix well, apply to face in circular motion, let sit 5 minutes, rinse with warm water.

I found that the amounts were too much, I ended up with TONS left over.  Next time I will probably half the recipe.  My ruling on this ... Inconclusive.  At first when I washed it off, my skin felt yucky.  Then I remembered that other microdermabrasion treatments say that you moisturize immediately after washing the treatment off.  I pull out my favorite moisturizer from BeautiControl and applied according to product label.  After about 5 minutes, my skin felt amazingly soft and smooth!  I think that if I continue to do the treatment once a week, as the author suggests, I will begin to see great results.