Disclosure: This post is brought to you by The National Honey Board.
Oh honey. It's sweet. It's golden. It's a natural gift thanks to its marvelous versatility and seemingly endless list of benefits. When it comes to natural and DIY skin care, honey is an ingredient that I reach for again and again.
Honey is a special type of moisturizer called a humectant. Humectants, like honey, draw moisture in and keep it there, which can help enhance almost any homemade beauty recipe. While nutritive oils and butters, like sweet almond oil or shea butter, condition the skin beautifully, pairing them with honey can help lock that moisture in making your natural skin care recipe even better.
I learned a lot about honey and its many virtues while touring with the National Honey Board last month. We visited three cities, spreading the joys of honey to local media and honey enthusiasts. During each event I helped guests whip up DIY salt scrubs using honey, fresh grapefruit juice, olive oil, and sea salt. You can check out the recipe that I used for that demo at Honey.com. I thought it might be fun to elaborate on the recipe a little showing how easy it can be to customize depending on ingredient availability and personal preference.
Scrubs are a wonderful introductory product for DIY skin care. They are easy to make and don't usually require exotic ingredients or exact measurements. This scrub, for example, uses fresh fruit juice to add scent and a boost of alpha hydroxy acid. You can use pretty much any citrus fruit to make the scrub, from tiny mandarins to huge pink grapefruits. I used plain sea salt for this recipe but you can swap that out for any fine grain (food grade) salt. Fancy salts like Himalayan Pink or Hawaiian Black can be used to create scrubs in a variety of lovely colors.
I added honey to the scrub to increase it moisturizing benefit. An added bonus of using honey is its sweet aroma and beautiful golden color. You can use any variety of honey in a DIY skin care recipe like this one. All varieties of honey have the same humectant properties so I usually use whatever honey I have in my pantry for cooking. Since you only need a tiny bit for most skin care recipes I'll even dip into my higher end honey stash without remorse.
Honey & Citrus Salt Scrub
Makes 1/2 cupIngredients
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon fresh citrus juice (grapefruit, orange, lemon, or lime)
- 1 tablespoon virgin coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon apricot kernel oil (or avocado, sweet almond, or olive)
- 1/2 cup fine grain sea salt
Directions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the honey and juice.
- Slowly drizzle the oils into the bowl while whisking continuously.
- Add the salt and stir to combine.
To Use
This scrub is best suited for the body. Personally, I find it to be a little too strong for facial use. If you'd like to make a facial scrub, check out my Besan Facial with Grapefruit and Honey recipe. Gently massage this scrub over the skin of your arms, legs, hands, feet, and torso. Rinse with warm water after scrubbing and follow with a cleanser only if you feel the need. Because this scrub includes fresh juice it should be used up immediately or stored in the fridge for up to seven days.
Check out Honey.com to find more natural beauty recipes!
