Hi beauties! Lets talk about honey today. You may not know about this yet, but honey isn't only sugar, but it is actually really beneficial for your skin. I use honey on my face all the time. I love doing DIY face masks or scrubs, and I always include honey and olive oil on it (
click here to read about olive oil). They are the best pair that you can get for healthy skin. So lets get started!
Benefits of Honey
Honey facial has been discovered for hundreds of years, and I heard even Cleopatra used it to keep her skin a glow. The first major thing that honey contains is its
antibiotic. You know bees use different enzymes to create antibiotic and antimicrobial environment to keep their honey fresh, so that they can feed their young. These antibiotic and antimicrobial factors are actually able to clean our skin and boost our immune system. So, honey is not only able to heal wounds, scrapes and burns, but also can heal acne. Honey is an
antibacterial agent, and do you know why we have acne? Acne is caused by bacteria, perhaps we touched our face too much, or we did not wash it clearly, and these kind of actions allows the bacteria to grow. And because honey has an antibacterial property, it will kill the bacteria. Also, honey is
anti inflammatory agent, so if you have redness, it will reduce the redness on your face.
In addition, honey contains a high amount of
antioxidant. The antioxidant properties can fight the free radicals from the sun and environmental damage. Remember how I talked about sun damage on the sunscreen's post before (
click here to read)? These free radicals can be found from many sources (the air, food, etc), but commonly it was from the sun UV rays, and they can cause skin aging and cancer. Honey is rich of antioxidant and hence can eliminate these dangerous radicals to support the body's immune system, reverse aging and prevent cancer.
Honey is an effective natural
moisturizing agent to your skin. Especially if you have dry skin, honey helps the skin to stay hydrated. Because honey is rich and thick, it is able to bind the moisture to your skin, smoothes dry, rough skin, and plumps up wrinkles. So no wonder if these days skin care companies always include honey on their moisturizer products, because it is really a powerful agent to moisturize our skin.
How to Use Honey on Our Face?
Like I mentioned above, I like to use honey for face mask and scrubs. There are tons of way to use honey for these, I am going to share with you my honey facial recipes! :) p.s. there are no exact amount of the measurement, just approximate the amount of how much it can cover your whole face.
Face mask
Mix honey with olive oil in a bowl, and apply it to all over your face. If you want an extra hydration, add a little bit of whole milk. Leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes, rinse it off, and ta-da! No more redness or dry skin! Sometimes I like to add sea salt into the mix because it is an effective agent to get rid of acne. If you have leftover from the mix, apply it to your body, and use it like a body scrub :)
Face scrub
Mix honey with olive oil and sugar (you can use oatmeal or ground almonds instead of sugar). You can use granulated sugar or brown sugar, but please no splenda, hee hee. You can also put these ingredients in a small container, so that you can save it for later use. After you washed your face with your regular cleanser, gently scrub your face with the mix. Rinse it off, and your skin will be as smooth as baby's butt! Hee hee.
Since it is only olive oil, honey and sugar, so it won't expire soon. And remember, don't scrub your face too frequent. Maximum twice a week, but I only do once a week, so that the skin has longer time to renew.
Lip Balms
Have chapped lip? Just put honey before you sleep, and you will have a smooth lip in the morning! :)
Hair mask
Just like the face mask, mix the honey and olive oil together. After you washed your hair with shampoo, apply the mix onto your hair and leave it for 5 to 10 minutes. Rinse it off, and your hair will be shiny and smooth like silk :)
Overall, honey can cleanse your face and add nutrients to your skin. It has rich natural antioxidant properties to keep your skin healthy and glowing. Most importantly, it will not rip off your waller ;) So, why not add honey to your skin routine to smooth and clear skin? :)
Have you ever tried facial honey before? If you have, share with me your recipe! :) If you haven't, will you try this out? ;) Let me know in the comment below! please follow me on Twitter and add me as your friend on Facebook, I'd love to get to know you more ;)
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I LOVE YOU,
Alexandra
Photo source is from here and here.
