Wash your face with honey for the earth, for your skin
10:44 PMIn honor of Earth Day I want to share a recent eco-friendly change I've made to my skincare routine.
For the past 2 months I've been washing my face with honey.
Yep, with straight-up honey. Nothing else.
My skin has never been better. Before I tried it, I had seen blog posts and forum threads all over with people positively gushing about how great honey was for their skin but I wasn't totally sure what to expect. Could honey really replace a normal face wash? Forever?
I took the sticky-sweet plunge for a couple of reasons: my skin had been going though a particularly bad icky patch and for awhile now I've been wanting to focus on greening-up my little corner of the universe.
The standard drug store face wash is filled with all sorts of chemicals that are terrible for your body and for the planet. Before I switched to honey I was using Olay Regenerist Micro-Purifying Foaming Cleanser because I'd read a good review of it in a magazine.
These are just a few of the potentially toxic chemicals in my old face wash:
1. PEG-200: PEG stands for Polyethylene Glycol and is derived from petroleum (gross!), used in oven cleaners, and can alter and reduce the skin’s natural moisture factor.
2. Sodium Laureth Sulfate: Detergent that poses serious health threats. Used in car washes, garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers – and in 90% of personal-care products that foam. Animals exposed to SLS experience eye damage, depression, labored breathing, diarrhea, severe skin irritation, and even death. SLS may also damage the skin's immune system by causing layers to separate and inflame.
3. Fragrances: Mostly synthetic ingredients - can indicate the presence of up to four thousand separate ingredients, many toxic or carcinogenic.
4. BHT: A preservative used in all sorts of things, it has been shown to be linked to cancer, developmental toxicity, allergies, neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, biochemical or cellular level changes and when it enters the water stream is particularly toxic to aquatic animals.
Pretty icky, right?
The one ingredient in my new face wash? Organic, raw, unfiltered honey.
Honey is both gently moisturizing and antibacterial meaning that acne-causing bacteria are annihilated and your skin is left perfectly balanced. Its really kind of amazing how different my skin feels after honey v. after a normal face wash. Most face washes would leave my skin feeling dry and tight, or, if it was a moisturizing wash, my skin would be too oily but with honey, my skin just feels clean!
When I first started I was worried that the honey would be messy and get stuck in my hair, etc but the raw stuff is thicker than the more common pasteurized honey so it's really more like a paste than a sticky liquid. I just scoop a bit out of the container, wet it in my hands, rub it into my face, and rinse off. I do make sure to have my hair tightly pulled back with an elastic headband just in case!
Its important that you only buy raw, unfiltered honey, preferably organic. Most "normal" honey has been pasteurized which destroys a lot of its beneficial enzymes and filtered for the natural bits of honey comb and pollen that hang out in honey, which are also good sources of nutrients.
This post on Crunchy Betty's blog was my first entry into the honey-as-face-wash-thing and I recommend you check it out, too!
She recommends giving honey at least 2 weeks before you pass judgement on it - it can take that long for your skin to get to used to any new routine but I felt and saw a difference after just a couple of days. My skin was glowier, clearer, and just felt... healthier.
What do you say? Want to cut a bunch of chemicals out of your corner of the universe and get better skin in exchange?
Sources:
http://www.organicbeautytalk.com/ingredients-to-avoid/
http://thegoodhuman.com/2009/09/24/what-is-bht-butylated-hydroxytoluene-and-why-you-should-avoid-it/
http://www.crunchybetty.com/honey-challenge
19 comments
I've never heard of washing your face with honey. It sounds amazing! I definitely would like to try it.
ReplyDeletexo
Ashley
Southern (California) Belle
try it! i've been spreading the gospel of honey to all my friends - everyone has loved it so far!
DeleteThis is so cool! Sometimes my mom will make facial masks with honey but I never thought of using it as a face wash. I definitely want to give this a try because I have very sensitive skin. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteOooooh, what else does she put in the mask? I'm really into DIY skincare lately, I'd love your mom's recipe!
DeleteThis is so great! I love seeing people swapping out their chemical-laden beauty products for more natural alternatives! I make face masks with honey (banana+lemon+honey), but never thought about replacing my face wash with it. I will have to try—thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeletehonestlyb.com
Never thought about hunny but will give it a try!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip!
Www.officialpink.blogspot.com
You've got to! It feels so clean and natural and it tastes good if it "accidentally" gets in your mouth haha
DeleteWhat?! This is awesome! I kicked face wash to the curb and have been using the oil cleaning method for 1.5 years now and love it. But I'm always looking for new ideas :)
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of oil do you use? If its lasted a year and half it must be working!
DeleteI haven't heard of it being used as a face wash, but it sounds wonderful! I've used it in masks before and it always leaves me face so nice and soft afterwards :) I've got to try this!
ReplyDeleteYou're gonna love it!
DeleteThis is really something to try, thank you, just want to add: Exfoliate your skin daily. Scrub away the dirt, pollutants, chemicals and toxins that get lodged in your skin – day after day. If you want a natural scrub then all you have to do is add white sugar grains to your favorite body wash. Of course, you will have to efficiently wash away and scrub off the sugar’s sticky feel. check helpful sizegurus site here
ReplyDeleteDo you follow up your honey face wash routine with any natural toner or moisturizers?
ReplyDeleteThank you for the info. It sounds pretty user friendly. I guess I’ll pick one up for fun. thank u
ReplyDeleteFacial Cleanser for Sensitive Skin
I would love to try this. I've been looking for organic facial cleanser but have't found any which make me feel satisfied... What would you use after you wash your face with this honey? any moisturizers?
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Hi all - an answer (finally!) about moisturizers: I've bee experimenting with natural oil moisturizing - another thing that sounds terrible but actually works. My fave has been coconut oil. I want to do a post about this soon!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi there, awesome site. I thought the topics you posted on were very interesting. I tried to add your RSS to my feed reader and it a few. take a look at it, hopefully
I can add you and follow.
Soap Free Cleanser
Be careful about the coconut oil for your face. It is known to cause milia seeds
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