In 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.
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
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
