Honey as a face wash
Tiny Tortoise #2: Sticky, sublime or somewhere in between?
Hello mates, I’m back with you with another Tiny Tortoise post, where I share a very small change/experiment/tool that is either slow living related, or slow-adjacent.
This week, it’s something I mentioned a couple of months ago, but never really elaborated on — using honey as a face wash.
I used to do this about eight years ago, when I was deep in my super-crunchy phase. (A phase I never fully left behind, truth be told. A bit like my dirtbag ski lift operator phase of 2003, and the hardcore thrifting phase of 2010-2012. They’re all still rolling around in here somewhere.)
I can’t remember why I stopped using honey as a face wash but was reminded of it a couple of months ago when I read this post on
. I decided to give it a whirl and two months in: I’m a convert. Or rather, a re-convert.How?
I smear a blob of raw honey over my face (a twenty-cent-piece sized blob does the trick) and leave it on while I brush my teeth or wash my hair. Then I rinse it off with warm water and a face washer. That’s it. Job done.
Why?
Honey (especially raw honey and manuka honey) is:
antibacterial
antimicrobial
gentle on your skin, preserving the natural acid mantle designed to prevent infection
a humectant, meaning it promotes hydration
way more affordable than most commercial skin-care brand cleansers (I buy local raw honey at our bulk food shop, The Source, which charges $19.95/kilo)
natural, edible, sustainable*
*I know honey is not an option for the vegans amongst us. Pure jojoba oil is a great alternative cleanser, which I sometimes use to remove sunscreen and eye makeup and also use as a moisturiser.
But does it work?
Your answer to this would likely depend on how you go into the experiment. Me of eight years ago started using honey as a face wash with the expectation that soon my skin would shine with inner-health, just like the dewy-skinned Earth Mother Instagrammers I was enamoured with. So in that regard, it didn’t “work”. My skin remained my skin, with all of its perceived flaws — which, upon reflection, is probably why I moved on to try some other Insta-trend skincare solution, hoping to find the miracle that would replace my epidermis with someone else’s.
But two months into this version of the experiment and my skin is clean… so as far as I’m concerned, the honey is doing its job. It also feels slightly softer and no longer swings wildly between paper-dry and super oily, and I’ve had no significant hormonal breakouts, which is awesome and unusual for me.
This time round I didn’t expect that I’d miraculously develop Perfect Skin™ as a result of using honey as a face wash. And I was right. But that’s kind of the beauty of it. That this accessible, affordable, sustainable, unprocessed food is doing the same thing a more costly, mass-produced product might otherwise do feels like a status-quo-busting little win.
Not only am I saving money, avoiding some questionable ingredients, simplifying my skincare routine (honey and jojoba oil is pretty much it now) and cutting way back on packaging, I also get a ridiculous amount of joy out of bucking the beauty standards that I’ve been internalising since I was a little girl.
Honey as a face wash isn’t going to revolutionise anything, but if I learn to love my skin as it is, that’s a pretty big change with a ripple effect that reaches far further than the bathroom cupboard. Plus, I can now recognise that my skin is doing a bang-up job of keeping my face together, and I’m grateful for that. (Thanks, skin.)
Have you tried honey as a face wash? Or simplified your skincare in some other way? Let us know in the comments!
Brooke xx
Thanks so much for this article Brooke. So timely for me, brilliantly written. For about 10 years now I’ve mostly used ‘edible’ products on my skin, such as olive oil and coconut oil - in the last year or so I’ve whipped up a face cream with shea butter, olive and coconut oil (all bought in bulk), which is fabulous. More recently, as I’m getting older (more wrinkles!), I’ve found myself wondering if I should be spending more, buying products that promise the earth, blah blah blah (FYI I’m not on any social media, and don’t watch a lot of TV, but adds still seem to make their way to me). Thanks for reminding me of all the reasons I use natural products, and for reminding me it’s ok not to have perfect skin! With so much gratitude xx
When I was a teen with painfully inflamed acne and blackheads, I tried every product out there, hoping for a cure. None worked, most made it worse I suspect. Somewhere I heard of using honey to draw impurities out. I’d smear honey on my face, lay down for a while and then drape a warm flannel over my face before washing the honey off. It didn’t “cure” the acne but it definitely made my skin glow and, unlike what the beauty industry offered, feel soothed. It felt healing and kind for my poor face.
Mercifully I grew out of the acne but sometimes I’ll still use honey as a “mask”. It still leaves me feeling nourished with health and kindness