i'd read good things about using raw honey in place of over-the-counter face wash. one day about 2 weeks back, while cleaning out the cupboard in desperate search for a can of black beans, i came across a half-empty jar of the stuff. decided to give it a go. wow. i am very impressed.
raw honey is unprocessed, meaning it still contains pollen, live enzymes & bits of honeycomb. the super smooth stuff i'm used to has often been pasteurized, strained & filtered, a process which gets rid of all of the good "stuff" that the bees put in. raw honey crystallizes easily, with a nice gritty layer forming on top of the liquidy honey below. this makes raw honey an excellent exfoliant.
i keep the honey in a glass jar in my medicine cabinet. dig a bit out with my fingers, rub it in my palms with a bit of warm water & slather it all over my face. scrub-a-dub-dub. rinse clean. it's not as sticky as you might think. and if some happens to get in my mouth while washing, all the better.
seriously though, i was using clean & clear daily facewash. aside from having, like, 50 ingredients, clean & clear also cleans with "smooth round microsrubbers." you've heard the teenybopper on the commercial, right? anyway, come to find out that those "microscrubbers" are actually teeny tiny plastic beads (cleverly disguised as the ingredient 'polyethelyne' in that hard-to-read text on the back of the bottle). a common ingredient in lots of handsoaps as well, these minuscule particles are showing themselves with increasing frequency in our oceans and in the bellies of marine life. not something i want to be a part of, thanks. for more info on microplastics & our oceans, click here. http://www.slate.com/id/2193693/
so far so good with the honey. my skin feels as smooth as it always has, yet it's not dry after washing. jer commented that the little bit of rosacea i have isn't as noticeable. and i feel all radiant and dewy every time that i use it. i just love the idea of a 1-ingredient scrub... and supporting the california bumblebees too. bzzz.
2 comments:
ooh, i'm going to try this. i'm learning so much from you.
:)
I used to use honey for a wonderful and unusual facial. I haven't done it in years! Your post reminded me.
You apply a layer all over your face and then touch-pull, touch-pull, touch-pull. The honey gets drier and stickier and when you pull your hands away it starts to lift your skin. It keeps getting stickier and stickier and you just keep going until it's uncomfortable then rinse.
It leaves my skin tingly and soft. I assume that it purifies the skin by pulling oils out as it dries, and the lifting probably stimulates circulation. But I never just washed with it -- maybe it would be the same effect with less time. I see an experiment in my future! :)
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