I don’t know what it is about honey, but I have always had this admiration for it’s usage in skincare products. I guess I just always really loved honey in general and began exploring manuka honey brands so I could use the best that I could reasonably afford. Not only is honey absolutely delicious, but it also has a lot of benefits beyond being tasty.
Honey can act as a humectant, meaning it can draw water to the skin. Something you want to happen if your skin needs moisture. It also has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to it that can help speed up the process of healing acne or wounds. Manuka Honey is the recommended honey of choice to truly reap the benefits of what honey is capable of. It has an entire grading system and with that, price points that reflect it. While Manuka is the best, using other types of honey can be beneficial for your skin too. So let’s take a look as some of my favorite skincare products made with honey.
Antipodes is a New Zealand-based skincare brand that I discovered a couple of years back. They make very sophisticated vegan and vegetarian skincare products using ingredients sustainably sourced from their fertile, pollution-free lands. I like the scientific approach this nature-based line follows so when I saw they had a manuka honey mask I had to buy it. The Antipodes Aura Manuka Honey Mask is truly a beautiful product. The formula includes wild-sourced manuka honey to moisturize the skin and treat blemishes, pohutukawa, a bioactive extract that helps with moisturization, and vanilla pod to enhance the tranquil scent of the product. I apply a fairly thick layer of this over my entire face and let it sit there for 15 minutes before rinse off. My skin always feels softer afterward and I will be buying this mask as long as it exists. I can’t say it makes pimples disappear overnight, but manuka honey can make a difference with continued use.
Since it’s super hot in AZ right now, I lean toward using gel-cream moisturizers over thicker options for daytime. Earth To Skin is a Walmart-based brand that has some really great, affordable products for the face and body. I also talk about them here. I have used everything from their manuka honey skincare line and loved their serum the most. Unfortunately, the serum is benign discontinued but the cleanser is great, the sheet masks are hydrating, and the Manuka Calming Day Gel Cream is perfection for summer hydration. You get a rather large tub and it absorbs really quickly which is nice when applying after your shower. Glycerin, Manuka Honey Extract, and Hyaluronic acid work together to quickly hydrate the skin while Vitamin E offers antioxidant protection. If you like a cool, lightweight, refreshing moisturizer this is a good one.
My favorite facial oil and I do truly mean favorite here is Farmacy Honey Grail. I use this one year-round and love everything about it. It’s a slightly thicker oil that uses a combination of buckwheat honey, seabuckthorn, and five flower oil blend to treat skin to a load of antioxidants, amino acids, and vitamins with each application. I generally save this for nighttime during the Summer but use both morning and evening in cooler seasons. The label says this can be used all over. I don’t think I’d ever be willing to “waste” this on my hair and seems like it may be too rich for that unless it’s for a slick back style. It’s worked well being mixed in moisturizers and tints really like what this brand is about. They actually do a lot of good aside from creating skincare. They work on reducing their carbon footprint by making all their product packaging 100% waste-free by 2022, and donate millions of meals to those in need across the US and Canada, and work with small farms in order to source their ingredients in a sustainable way.
I feel a little silly that I didn’t realize that CosRX had SO many other products beyond their pimple patches. I came across their Propolis Honey Overnight Mask and of course, saved it to my wish list for a later time. Fast-forward to now, I’ve been trying out this overnight mask (which to me is simply a nighttime moisturizer) and really enjoying how soft and hydrated my skin feels when I wake up in the morning. The product dispenses as a semi-thin clear gel and feels like what you’d expect a water cream to feel like. There is no tackiness or scent during the dry down, your skin just feels smooth afterward. The first ingredient listed in this product is propolis extract which is impressive, but it also uses glycerin (humectant to draw water), Honey Extract (humectant and antibacterial), Royal Jelly extract (boosts collagen production), and cassia obtusifolia seed extract (powerful antioxidant) to round out this skin barrier enhancing overnight mask. I’m glad I took a chance on this product because no one I know has ever mentioned this particular one before and I feel like I found a little gem on the internet.
Have you found any honey-based products that you love? I’m always on the hunt for new brands or products that I haven’t tried before.
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