I find a mixture of ground, unprocessed oats or even chana flour (chickpea flour which can be found in Indian food aisles at supermarkets) & plain, unsweetened, unflavored, gelatin/artificial thickener free yogurt with active bacterial cultures in it is more effective for evening skin tone, personally. Almonds are great for exfoliating - love grinding them myself in a mortar & pestle to release the maximum amount of their natural oils - but I don't find they do much for evening the skin tone, per se. Although they still are very nice when ground to a paste & added to a mask mixture, they don't do much for skin tone when still chunky. The best yogurt for skin care is full fat, real yogurt. Check the ingredients. A best quality yogurt will always be free of any starches & thickening gums, as well as contain a very high amount of nothing but milk, cream & bacterial cultures. Think in terms of the best full fat Greek yogurt you can find. Even yogurt alone can make a great mask for people of all skin types. Yogurt & fresh, ripe mashed banana, papaya or avocado is also a great mixture. Papaya & pineapple have incredible natural enzymes in them which are great for digestion & topical application to the skin. Once again, fresh is always best. Freshly juiced carrots & lemons, or freshly decocted or steeped concentrated green tea are great too. You can even mix in some dry bentonite or kaolin clay to these mixtures. The possible combinations are endless & are spectacular for the skin. In regards to honey, fresh, raw, unpasteurized honey is far superior to regular, run of the mill honey as all the active properties in it haven't been destroyed by heat or processing. Raw honey can easily be found on Amazon, in Whole Foods, Choices, and perhaps iHerb, amongst many other online & offline stores. Great stuff for the skin. Even those of us with lighter skin tones can have pretty bad unevenness in skin texture & tone, which is one of the reasons I first started creating my own masks. I think I'm going to slather myself in one of these masks today, actually! Yummmmm!