Hello, my fellow beauty warriors, I do feel like I’m in the battlefield sometimes lately. I’ve had some mini breakthroughs in my regime and would like to share what I’ve been doing.

My winter routine was quickly replaced because I found various products to have made my skin worse or unchanged. For one I have completely stopped all commercial acne spot treatments — I just couldn’t find one that worked for me.

I watched a video on how to make your own scrub/mask to fade acne scars and all you need are green tea, honey, sugar, and apple cider vinegar (ACV).

I’ve tried applying manuka honey to cystic acne (thanks, Sonum!!) and it helps to bring it to the surface and the life span is shorter than if I left it alone, so this led me to be adventurous about this concoction. It turns out the “force” of this mask/scrub is really the ACV.

I used 4 teaspoons of green tea (I waited for the hot water to cool down to a warm tepid temperature before soaking my tea bag — didn’t want those precious anti-oxidants to be zapped), 2 teaspoons of ACV, 10 teaspoons of white sugar and 1 teaspoon of honey. I mixed them all into a bowl and it just smelled of honey to me. I thought of adding lemon but I figured ACV is pretty acidic already.

This would yield A LOT and give you two generous portions. I thought I could keep the remainder in the fridge but the sugar dissolved and it was no longer a scrub but you could use it as a mask.

So far, I have only used this twice. As a scrub, I was very pleased with it the first time round. My skin felt baby smooth due to the coarse granules of the sugar and I even used it on my face. I rubbed it in gently and then left it on while I washed my hair.

However, I will not use this on my face again because I think it makes it more sensitive. I usually spray Silk Naturals’ Strawberry Spritz on my face to set my makeup and my skin turned bright red. It took about two weeks for my skin to stop turning red with the spritz. Maybe I should’ve stopped the spritz? Yes I did but my skin was fine before the ACV treatment so I think I might pass on this on my face.

The second time round, I changed the brand of sugar that was an even coarser quality which made my shoulders, back and chest skin even smoother. I have to say that I’m someone who loves rough scrubs so if this is not your thing, you shouldn’t try this.

For the remaining green tea, I added one part ACV to three parts green tea to make a toner. After two weeks of using this toner once at night after a shower, I do find that it helps to prevent more acne from appearing and also heals active ones faster. I have also read that you can apply ACV neat on acne to help them go away more quickly but I have yet to try it. For MUA reviews on ACV toners, you can click here. The toner lasts for two weeks but I find that a bit of mould builds up from the green tea on the rim of the bottle even when refrigerated so I tossed it out after one week.

Now there is a second amazing use for ACV and it can clarify your hair from residue-buildup. You can read the raves on Makeup Alley here and Viva Woman did a comprehensive post on it too (and I have yet to try her aspirin and ACV remedy).

So what I did was to mix two teaspoons of baking soda with 1 teaspoon of ACV and the concoction frothed immediately — how fun! I added a touch of water so that I had enough to massage it all into my hair and scalp.

The raves at MUA were not unfounded at all — this is amazing! My hair feels super soft and light afterwards. I was worried it could dry my hair out but it didn’t! I used my shampoo and conditioner as per normal and then massaged the ACV and baking soda in which I left on for only a minute or two and then washed it all off.

I know it would be better if I left it on longer but I didn’t really have the time or patience to do that. I think you could massage it in, put your hair up in a towel and then step out of the shower, or treat yourself to a bath, and then rinse your hair 10-15 minutes later (will try this next weekend!)

If you suffer from heavy residue on your hair, I would highly recommend this with two thumbs up. And for the acne scrub/mask, I would only use it for my body and not my face since I have sensitive skin so you could give a go if you aren’t super sensitive.

Do you have any DIY beauty treatments you love?

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