I am a firm believer in “what goes in, must come out”.
This is especially for our bodies and the food we eat. If you eat a crummy diet of processed foods, drink lots of sugary sodas, and don’t get enough rest or exercise, your body is going to show it.
You’re going to be more tired, cranky, and your chance for acne is much greater. Of course, we all know that one person who made it through high school with nary a blemish. I wasn’t that fortunate.
I have tried to make sure that my children don’t get plagued by the same acne that I had as a teen.
I mean, what parent would NOT go to any length to protect their children from that, right? They don’t drink soda, only water, kombucha or milk.
They eat a very healthy, well balanced diet that includes lots of fresh fruit, veggies, and a variety of fish, grass fed meats and healthy fats.
They get plenty of rest, have very little stress in their lives, and get lots of exercise. And, yet they are still plagued with pimples. Not terribly so, but enough that it makes them self conscious.
Back before I knew better, my answer would be to grab some acne cream off the drugstore shelf.
Since coming to the full realization that whatever we put on our skin gets absorbed into our bloodstream, I don’t want benzoyl peroxide on their faces.
Yet, they needed something to help clear their skin without drying it out. So, I researched some oils, and came up with this recipe that has helped them tremendously:
2 Tablespoons Apricot Oil (helps soothe irritated skin)
1 Tablespoon Beeswax (softening, and helps hold the oils together)
5 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil
5 drops Rosemary Essential Oil
(both oils are known for helping to clear skin blemishes while promoting healing of irritated skin)
Carefully melt the beewax and apricot oils together over low heat in a double boiler.
Once completely melted, remove from heat and add the essential oils and carefully stir together. Pour into chapstick container.
This recipe will stay hard in the container, similar to lip balm.
Allow to cool. To use, simply dap a bit of the salve directly to acne. A little bit goes a long way here. We use up to 3 times a day.
Heather’s homesteading journey started in 2006, with baby steps: first, she got a few raised beds, some chickens, and rabbits. Over the years, she amassed a wealth of homesteading knowledge, knowledge that you can find in the articles of this blog.
What alternatives to lemongrass do you reccomend? Is it effective with Rosemary alone? What if I used TTO instead of lemongrass?
TTO may be great in this as well. Or just lemon essential oil. Both are awesome at being antibacterial.
Just remember that citrus makes skin photo sensitive. So if using lemon EO, stay out of the sun 🙂
What is TTO?
Tea tree oil
TTO= Tea Tree Oil
great point! thanks Kimberly
This sounds great! I’d thought of making a balm with TTO for my husband, but I think this might have a bit of a milder smell (though admittedly I do love the smell of TTo;))
Sounds great! My skin doesn”t like lemongrass, but I bet TTO would go nicely.
I don’t think acne is completely just diet as I eat well and struggle into my 30’s. All girls except me in the family took Accutane. However, I finally found a temporary cure. All I need to do is put ocean water on it once a week and wala no acne. Of course, not everyone loves near an ocean…
The idea of that is ocean water has a high salt content. Salt has healing and disinfecting properties. Water with sea salt would do the same. There’s also sea salt scrubs.
kc – can you tell me more about your technique? How long do you leave the water on your skin?
I use apricot kernel oil for lip balm – it’s my favorite oil!
I love the many uses of essential oils! They are soo great for skin care and healing acne! Thanks for this recipe!
This sounds great and so easy! And truly, eating real food makes a huge difference in acne. I also add tea tree oil to mine if a person has stubborn acne while working on diet/liver 🙂
UGH – post pregnancy acne is the bane of my existence. Thanks for sharing, maybe it will help!
We have so many students ask us about acne remedies!
What a great idea!
I’ll have to try this. I don’t have apricot oil, but could add it to my list. Even though I’m almost 30 I’m still plagued by acne 🙁 Thank you for sharing at Merry Monday!
Sounds good. I should try this as my acne scars are probably way worst than anyone :/
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let me know how it works…and keep in mind, beauty isn’t what’s on the outside, you are beautiful on the inside, where the soul lives 😉
This stuff is great! I have used it for a couple years now. It heals very well; not drying like the usual acne medicines so no crusty healing zits. To melt my beeswax, I got a bit creative since I am also a cosmetologist. I have a La Petite wax warmer that I use for facial waxing I bought at Sally’s. In it I use, No Tweeze wax, that comes in a metal tin. Went online, ordered a plain tin like it to fit in the warmer. Put my beeswax in it to melt, removed the tin from the warmer. It was a bit tricky and I did wear kitchen mitts. Added the oils, stirred well and poured into chapstick like containers. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!
I’m so glad you like it!!!