Budget Beauty: Honey Recipes

We all wish we had extra money lying around to splurge on a monthly (sigh, weekly) trip to the spa, but most of us don’t have that luxury. The good news is that you've had a portable spa in your pantry all this time: honey. It’s going to save your skin, your bank, and the environment, since it’s all-natural and much better for the ecosystem once it goes down the drain than any chemical-laden beauty product.

Budget Beauty – Honey Recipes for Your Skin

Why Honey Is Great For Your Skin

1. It’s humectant, meaning it promotes moisture.
2. It’s antibacterial, meaning it kills germs on your skin while moisturizing it, so it’s acne-friendly, too.
3. It’s a source of antioxidants, meaning it slows your skin’s aging process.

Darker varieties of honey tend to have more antioxidants. Manuka honey from Australia, while more expensive, has been proven in various studies to contain more antimicrobials than other varieties.

The bottom line here is that honey in your beauty regimen is an anti-aging cleanser that doesn’t over-dry. That’s why it’s the key ingredient in countless skincare and beauty products, but companies make these products exorbitantly expensive. Why not buy the honey itself and try out these DIY recipes to be a budget beauty?

Basic Honey Mask for All Skin Types

• Just under 1 tbsp honey
• Optional drop of lavender or tea tree oil for troubled skin

Wear it during a bath (try the honey bath recipe below) or during your morning house errands routine. Just splash a clean face with warm water to open pores and apply honey that’s been mixed with just one or two drops of essential oil. Lavender is great for inflamed or troubled skin, and tea tree oil is a powerful antiseptic that helps with acne. Wait 15 minutes up to 1 hour and rinse with warm water.

Honey Mask for Dry Skin

• 2 tsp honey
• 1 egg yolk
• ¼ tsp almond oil
• 2 tsp organic yogurt

Combine ingredients and apply to face, washing 5 to 10 minutes later with warm water and a mild facial cleanser. The egg whites cleanse your pores, the almond oil moisturizes, and yogurt exfoliates. Use full-fat yogurt for dry skin and nonfat for combination skin.

Honey-Yogurt Face Scrub

No need for plastic microbeads in this all-natural scrub. The environment, your skin, and your wallet with thank you!

• 2 tsp organic yogurt
• 2 tsp almond or oatmeal, pulsed in a food processor to a fine consistency
• 1 tsp honey

Combine ingredients and gently apply to face, using almonds or oatmeal like any scrub. Wash with warm water.

Honey Bath

Legendary beauty Cleopatra used to take a concentrated form of this very bath!

• ¼ cup of honey
• 1 cup organic milk

A good way to mix the honey with the bathwater is to pour the honey directly into a jar and add warm bathwater. Screw on jar’s lid and shake vigorously. Once the honey is mixed in the jar, pour it into the bath with the milk. Maybe try the honey hair recipe below while you lounge in luxury.

Honey Hair Mask

• 2 tbsp honey (depending on length of hair)
• 1 avocado, peeled and stoned

Mash the two ingredients in a bowl and apply to hair, not neglecting your scalp. Put on a shower cap and wash as usual 30 minutes later.

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written by: Maria Rainier

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Image courtesy of Gualberto 107 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net