Monday, March 12, 2012

One Honey of a Facial!: First Impressions on Honey as a Beauty Cleanser

Honey, baking soda, and a journal. Random!
As intended, this past week I started my journey of discovery for all natural, homemade beauty-care. I started shopping around for supplies and doing price comparisons on essential oils. I placed an order and will continue to accumulate supplies over time, thus spreading out the cost, until I have everything ready.

In the meantime, I got started with the one natural beauty product of which I have plenty available: Honey. I'm using Wegmans brand clover-leaf honey. Because it never spoils, we usually purchase it in the largest size we can afford at the time, which comes at the best possible price. It seems to last forever. Yes yes, I know this honey is heated and filtered and processed*. I wish it weren't so. I have to make sacrifices for my pocketbook somewhere, and commercial honey is, to me at least, less suspect than non-organic ground beef.

So, I took my honey and poured some into a baby food jar that I'd sterilized in the dishwasher. See how cute it is?

The First Big Test
It is Awesome.  Awesome!

I decided to give it a try in the evening, just in case I ended up breaking out into a rash or something. That way, my skin would have the night to recover. I paired it with a simple baking soda scrub, as suggested by Diane Kidman in her book. The scrub involves taking a small amount of baking soda (pictured in the tiny ramekin above) and gently, briefly rubbing it onto damp skin, then following up with the honey.

The baking soda scrub was wonderful. Having been burned by commercial products, I was indeed extremely soft with my touch and I didn't let it stay on my face for more than 45 seconds, if that long. It rinsed easily.

Next, I dipped my fingers into the baby jar - and immediately wished I'd kept my old honey dipper! It is so slick it's hard to "pick up" like lotion. Miraculously, I managed to get a small amount on my hands without it dripping in little gobs down the outside of the jar.

These little buggers make up for their stings
with smooth, silky honey. Thanks, guys!
The feel of honey on my skin is smooth and soft. There was no stinging, which I have learned to associate with some "sweet" facial products and applications. It was surprisingly moist and easy to spread -- "stickiness" was not an issue. As with the baking soda, I didn't leave it on my skin very long, but just gave it enough time for me to rub it around before rinsing it off, while carefully avoiding my eyes and my hairline. As I rinsed, I had the slightest taste of sweet come in from the corners of my mouth. Just enough to be pleasant, like a single lick of a really yummy lollipop.

Even more welcome than the feel was the ease with which it rinsed cleanly off my skin. It turns out that it is much easier to remove honey from skin than from kitchen countertops! (But that's only because it's not as easy to throw handfuls of water on the counter and let it fall into a bowl. That'd just be yet another mess to clean.)

As Kidman promised, I didn't feel the need for moisturizer. So for this first try, I skipped it. In the end, my skin was so smooth and soft, I was truly impressed. The next morning my skin felt slightly drier than usual, by by no means was it "dry".

Subsequent Uses
I'm starting small. I know that my skin is sensitive to moisture and I've been using the same Neutrogena product for YEARS. With that in mind, I've been switching out my washes - honey this morning with no lotion, then maybe a small moisturizer application in the late afternoon, followed with a regular cleanse in the evening. Or vice versa. I haven't used the baking soda again yet, I think I'll make that a once-a-week affair. It sure is easier to use than the other commercial scrub I'd been using - you know, the kind that's green, makes you wait 10 minutes, and freaks young children out to see you wearing it. (I nearly gave my 2 yr-old a heart-attack recently. "Mommy you're a monster!" Mmm hmm!)

What I am finding is that my skin requires far less of the Neutrogena. It has an SPF of 15, but my make-up is SPF 10, so I don't really need it for the sun-damage-prevention as I did ages ago when I rarely wore make-up.

I also find that, if I'm very careful, it is (thus far) safe to put on my eyes. However, I need another solution here -- honey does absolutely NOTHING when it comes to mascara removal. I mean, did I really expect it to? Um... Well, I had hoped... So, yeah, I need to find an alternative natural eye-make-up remover of the non-greasy variety, preferably one that doesn't require rinsing -- much like the disposable remover pads you can find in just about any store. A cottonball is just fine for me. Suggestions, anyone?

Next up: Oral care! Oooo, exciting! ;)

* I have yet to find Wegmans honey on the lists of the de-pollenated. If I do, I will seek it out elsewhere.

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