Honey for Natural Skin Care

If you’re only using the super powers of honey to sweeten your coffee or tea, you’re missing out on some of the best ways to improve the appearance and health of your skin.
Bees make honey from nectar found in flowers, and this natural product produced can help fight toxins and bacteria on your skin. Raw honey straight from the beekeeper is best as it hasn’t been heated and contains the extra benefits of enzymes and antioxidants.

Excess Heating Damages Honey

This is important to remember if you want to use honey for natural skin care, as heating honey is often carried out to stop it from candying. Candying is a natural process, and the honey (if candied) is a sign it is in its purest form. It is certainly not “off” as many people unfortunately think.

Candied honey can be warmed in hot water without harming it, but commercial honey processors often flash-heat honey at high temperatures to prevent the honey candying at all. These high temperatures kill many of the beneficial natural components. This leaves a visually-pleasing but inert honey that has few health benefits.

Applying Honey to the Skin

Use raw honey as-is by applying it to cleansed and dried skin, leave on for about 20 minutes and then rinse with lukewarm water. While the honey is on your skin it collects moisture from the air, as honey is hygroscopic. This helps the moisture be absorbed into the skin, and prevents further drying, for a perfect hydration remedy to parched, dry skin.

Make a Honey Exfoliant

The enzymes, antioxidants and other powerful nutrients found in raw honey make it an excellent base for an exfoliator. Mix a couple of tablespoons of raw honey with a tablespoon of baking soda for the perfect remedy to remove dead skin and encourage new ones to form. Your skin will feel great after this gentle exfoliation routine.

An Antibacterial for Your Skin

Acne scars? Your facial skin can benefit from the pore-cleansing and acne-healing abilities of raw honey. Use the powerful antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of raw honey to reduce scars, promote healing and help the skin tissues rejuvenate.

Mix the raw honey with coconut oil or olive oil and gently massage into your skin daily to promote cell regeneration. You have created a powerhouse of healing tonic to balance your skin chemistry and help prevent acne eruptions.

Bath-Time Luxury

Instead of purchasing expensive bath soaking concoctions, try raw honey mixed with a cup of hot water and then added to your bath, for a hydrating and healing skin treatment.

Heal Your Nail Cuticles

You no longer have to be embarrassed by tattered and torn nail cuticles. Use a mixture of a teaspoon of raw honey, a teaspoon of coconut oil and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to rub into raw cuticles. It’s full of the necessary nutrients needed to heal the skin and leave it hydrated and soft, to assist more rapid repair.

Remedy for Burns or Wounds

Raw honey is a great remedy for burns (including sunburn) and cuts or other skin abrasions. While most untreated honey has some level of antibiotic effect, some floral varietals such as manuka have proven to be almost miraculous in their ability to overcome skin and tissue infections. It has been used for healing ulcers and other wounds where medical treatments have failed.
Other Natural Skin Care Benefits

Eczema, Rosacea and Hyperpigmentation may also be helped by the use of raw honey. If you’re being treated for any of those conditions, speak to your health care provider about utilizing the benefits of raw honey for your condition.

Honey also contains gluconic and hydroxyl acids which help to reduce the appearance of age spots and balance skin tone. For skin repair, it certainly is a little pot of gold!