I have to thank mother nature for oats 
I eat a big bowl of oatmeal just about every morning for breakfast and I love it! AND it can also be a great addition to your skin care routine.
Let’s be realistic - oatmeal is not going to preform miracles on your skin. It will not clear your acne or take 20 years off your life, but it is a cheap, natural and very effective exfoliant and even a great addition to a homemade face mask.
The good news (and what I love most about oatmeal for skin care) is it’s great for people with sensitive skin like me. Oatmeal is a great exfoliant for sensitive skin because it’s rough enough to exfoliate but also gentle enough not to tear or hurt thin skin. Oatmeal is also an astringent, so it seems to draw oil and impurities out of the skin.
Here are some of my favorite oatmeal skin care recipes that you can make at home. For the recipes that contain honey, try to use manuka honey because it’s a lot more healing than ‘normal’ honey.
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Oatmeal Exfoliant
Mix equal parts of oatmeal, honey and yogurt. Apply mixture gently to face and leave on for 10 minutes. Remove with cool water. Use exfoliant once a week to improve the texture of your skin.
Tip: Yogurt contains lactic acid, and this can help stimulate collagen production!
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Oat & Honey Mask
Ingredients:
½ cup plain oatmeal, cooked and cooled
¼ cup honey
Loving preparation
Combine the oatmeal with the honey and blend to a sticky paste. Use immediately by spreading thickly onto the skin, avoiding the sensitive area around the eyes. Leave on for 20 minutes, then rinse off with plenty of warm water and pat dry.
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Oatmeal Rosewater Face Pack
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons oatmeal
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rose water
Loving preparation
Blend the oatmeal with the honey and then stir in the rose water. Apply to the face and leave for 10 minutes. Remove with lukewarm water.
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Fran
Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.
3 responses ↓
I am starting to get into the habit of eating oatmeal almost every day. The important thing about the oatmeal that I use is that it’s STEEL-CUT. I make it once a day, 4 servings worth and I eat it all day long. The steel-cut oatmeal seems to get rid of my appetite for other foods. I like to put a spoon of raw honey into it sometimes.
By the way, I live near Little India and alot of the women from India use a cream, Turmeric Cream, on their faces. I heard that its very good for the skin. I just decided to go and get it and try it so that I can report back here with the results.
I am also starting to drink alot of tea (though I haven’t given up coffee). I enjoy green tea, along with a whole bunch of teas by Twinings (Earl Grey, Peppermint…). I find Twinings teasto be the best I have tried.
Turmeric is very good for healing acne. It’s best to put fresh turmeric into your diet if you can. I sometimes grate it into my meals when I’m cooking (it looks a bit like raw ginger).
It’s a well know ayurvedic acne treatment to make a turmeric paste and to put it onto the skin. HOWEVER, there’s a warning for people with light colored skin because it can make the skin yellow (which is why I’m not using it).
I’d be interested in hearing how your turmeric cream goes.
Of everything I have tried, I am sure that oatmeal soap has been the greatest help. Using the oatmeal soap (Aveeno) a few times a day, I have cleared up all my acne by about 85% within a week. It works amazingly. I think I will try one of those masks you recommended, maybe oatmeal and rose water.
I’m not going to use the Turmeric cream if it can turn my skin yellow.
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