How to Use Honey in Your Beauty Routine

I’ve written quite a few articles about using kitchen items in my beauty routine. I regularly use baking soda, vinegar (as a conditioner), and “cooking” oils (always cold-pressed and organic), as well as essential oils in my beauty routine. Well I also know how to use honey for beauty reasons too. 

How to Use Honey in Your Beauty Routine

I like honey because it’s natural! It also has some great healing properties that are perfect for your skin. 

Start With Local, Raw Honey

This fall, I found some absolutely amazing local honey at the farmer’s market. Since (contrary to popular belief) I don’t eat a lot of sweets, the only thing that I was using honey for were Small’s Sunbutter and honey sandwiches. Until recently. I have half a dozen jars of beautiful local and raw honey.

I hate feeling like I’m wasting food, so I started looking into ways to add honey to other areas of my routine. I’ve been hearing tell that you can use honey in your beauty routine.

In fact, there’s a whole line of products that is bee themed (hint, hint) and relies on honey and honeycomb. Since I’m trying to spend less on pre-made products and make more of my own (partially cost control, all quality control), I decided to take a stab at this honey beauty thing. And you know what? So far, I’m loving it.

Honey is a Humectant

That means that it’s awesome as a moisturizer. Since I ran out of my regular body moisturizer, I whipped up a new batch of honey moisturizer, and I’m loving it. Since honey is also antibacterial, it’s great for zits (not that I would know anything about that personally…).

Honey Body Moisturizer

To make my honey moisturizer, I melt:

• 1 cup organic shea butter, and
• stir in 2 Tablespoons of raw honey

Then pour the mix into an airtight jar. I also add about 20 drops of frankincense because it smells delicious and it helps with the appearance of healthy skin.

Hey, I have a kid! You can also use the moisturizer to soothe cracked lips.

Honey Mask

Another of my favorite ways to use honey in my skin care routine is to make a quick and easy face mask to help clear your skin. To make my mask, simply measure out 1-2 Tablespoons of honey into your palm.

Gently (and I do mean gently, as you don’t want to pull your skin) massage the honey into your skin. Honey has amazing antibacterial and anti-fungal properties and will help to clear even the toughest breakouts.

Let the mask sit for up to 5 minutes, then run some hot water and gently use a washcloth to wet and wipe away the honey, being careful not to pull on your skin.

If you’re like me and you hate the smell of honey, I recommend adding a few drops of essential oils to the mask. I really love the smell of lavender, and 2-3 drops of its earthy goodness helps with the sweet smell of the honey.

Honey Face Wash

Digging the mask? Try wetting your face and hands and gently massaging the honey into your skin to make the most of its cleansing properties! Make sure that you’ve removed your makeup first.

Honey Hair Rinse

I also love using honey as a hair rinse. One thing that I’ve noticed about my hair since I decided to go no ‘poo is that it’s DRY. We’re talking Sierra desert dry, y’all. The ONLY (and I do mean ONLY) thing that works for me is this honey hair rinse.

It’s really simple to make, using only honey, vinegar and rosemary essential oil. I use:

• 2 tablespoons ACV,
• 1 teaspoon honey, and
• 20 drops rosemary essential oil

Combine everything in a peri bottle, and use that as the rinse for your hair.

It’s the only way that I’ve found in which my hair doesn’t feel like straw.

Can Honey Soothe a Sunburn?

My grandma used to tell me that honey could “fix” a sunburn, but since it’s currently snowing here, I’ll have to wait until July to test that theory.

As I said before, I only use organic, locally sourced raw honey. Do NOT attempt these natural remedies with the stuff in a bear-shaped bottle, since that stuff doesn’t even qualify as honey.

I hope that these ideas have given you another reason to love honey. I mean, did you even imagine that you could use it in your self-care routine in so many ways?

 

How do you use honey in your beauty routine? Share with me by commenting below!