Health benefits of honey for human body already proven around the world, how about its benefits on face? Honey is well known as natural home remedy and one nature wonder. It has been used for a long time and by people around the globe. Honey actually is nectar that gathered from the flower by bees. It has sweet taste and it is used one of natural sweetener for food.
Honey is a powerful medicine. Even there are lots of chemical medicine today, honey never lose its popularity. Honey is produced by most of the countries in the world through honey bee farm. The honey bee is the only insect that produce food for human. Nowadays, honey is not only use for keeping healthy body and cure disease but it also being used as effective natural beauty skin care.
Honey is the main ingredients of most skin care and beauty product manufacture such as soap, face cream, cleanser, lotion and etc. It is the best option that you can use to treat your skin face.
History of Honey
The history of honey has begun since thousands year ago. Many scripts have mentioned honey in medicinal purpose. It is also one of the oldest food on earth. Honey is written in the oldest human script from Sumeria dating back 2000 BC. That scrips mentioned that honey is used to treat wound by mix it with powder river dust and other ingredients.
In Ebers papyrus script from 1550 BC, honey has been mentioned in more than 147 prescriptions especially those who used in external application especially to reduce inflammation. Another script, Smith papyrus ( date back on 1700 BC) also stated that honey is best remedy to treat wound.
Honey is also well known in China since many years BC and used by ancient Chinese medicine Shen Nang to treat almost all disease. In India, as we know the ayurvedic medicine is so popular there, also used honey for many purpose including wound healing, external infection, and other disease.
Honey as beauty remedy has been famous since Cleopatra age. Queen Cleopatra was fan of honey and she used honey as her beauty treatment. Even honey is the only and best healer food that mentioned in Qur’an, the holy book of moslem people.
Nutritional value
Honey is mostly consist of water and carbohydrates.m The main carbohydrate or sugar in honey is fructose ( about 38.5% ) and glucose ( about 31 %). The remain carbohydrate types that we can found in honey are maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrate. The carbohydrate in honey gives us energy, about 300 to 320 calories per 100ml of honey. Honey contain 17% water and other nutrients such as vitamin and mineral.
Honey also contains many nutrients like vitamin and mineral. Below are the list of vitamin, mineral and antioxidant content in honey. They are :
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B6,
- Thiamin,
- Niacin,
- Riboflavin
- Pantothenic acid.
- Calcium,
- Copper,
- Iron,
- Magnesium,
- Manganese,
- Phosphorus,
- Potassium,
- Sodium
- Zinc
- Chrysin,
- Cinobanksin,
- Catalase
- Pinocembrin.
- Amino acids
Honey Benefits on Face Skin
Honey is one of the best home treatment for beauty. It contains nutrients which provide a lot of benefits to maintain healthy and beauty face skin. These are some best honey health effect to face skin :
1. Moisturize dry skin
Honey is one of best moisturizer for skin especially for dry skin because it contains humepectant properties. It can be applied to face to keep it moist. Dry skin is a type of skin which is lack of moisture and looks dull. Dry skin usually occur caused lack of nutrient from food and genetic. Honey can be simply use to moisturize the skin by directly applying it on skin. Just apply pure honey on face skin for about 15 minutes and rinse it with lukewarm water.
2. Glowing skin
Not only effective as moisturizer, honey can make your skin glowing. If you want to have beautiful and glowing face skin, just use honey as face mask everyday. Honey contain antioxidant, vitamin and mineral that nourish your face skin and make it look fresh and glowing.
3. Minimize skin pores
Using honey regularly is effective to minimize skin pores. Open skin pores usually happen on people who has oily skin. Mixing honey with some tomato juice and use it as mask can slightly minimize the skin pores and effective to reduce the oil in skin.
4. Treat acne
Honey contains anti-bacteria and anti-inflammation properties that can be use to treat acne. Acne is usually occur cause P. Acne bacteria infection and clogging pores. Honey can get rid the bacteria from face and reduce the inflammation on skin. That why it is an effective way to remove acne. Just apply some pure honey on the infected area of skin and leave it for 15 minutes. Then rinse it with lukewarm water.
5. Heal scar on face
Honey is natural wound healer. As mentioned in most of ancient script that honey is best medicine to cure scar and wound. Honey can promotes the new skin cell regeneration and reduce inflammation on wound. If you accidentally have scar or wound on your face skin, using honey as treatment will be a great option. You don’t need to waste more money to treat it, just simply use the honey, it will clear your wound just in several days.
6. Make skin supple
Get rough face skin? Just simply try honey to make your skin feel smooth and supple. Mix honey with some milk and use it as face mask. By using this face mask regularly you can get beautiful skin in low cost and the result is just amazing. Many celebrities also use honey skin to keep their beauty skin.
7. Increase skin tone
Nowadays we can find many whitening products that is effective to increase skin tone and brighten it. But instead of using those face cream that contains many chemical, you can easily use honey to improve your skin tone. Even you don’t get the result faster than manufactured face cream, it still can brighten your skin if you use it regularly and it is totally save.
8. Reduce dark spot
Dark spot is usually annoying and can reduce confidence especially women. Dark spot usually occur caused by sunlight or acne scar. It is suggested that you shouldn’t touch your acne cause acne scar and leaves dark spot on your face. Apply some pure honey on the dark spot for about 15 minutes can be effective way to remove dark spot.
9. Remove sun tan
Skin tanning is a problem that usually occur due to overexposure to sun. This is why its so important to use sun block whenever you have activities outdoor. Skin tanning usually make face skin darker and some women doesn’t like it. It also can cause skin burn that is harmful for face. Honey can be used to treat sunburn or sun burn by apply it on face just after you reached home.
10. Get rid of comedo
Comedo is almost same case with acne and it can also be called as uncovered acne. Comedo usually happen due to clogged pore and excessive sebum or oil production. Rubbing some honey on the area which infected by comedo such as nose, chin and cheek and leave it for some minutes then rinse it with clean water.
11. Make red lips
If you want to get natural red lips you can use honey as lip mask. Just mix some sugar with honey and rub it to your lips. The honey mixture will promote the blood vessel appear in skin and remove dead skin on lips which make the lips looks dark and dull
12. Moisturize dry lips
You can use honey as lip balm if you don’t have it at home. Honey and beeswax is usually the main ingredients that can be found in lip balm. Simply rub honey on lips to keep it moist and prevent the cracked lips.
13. Prevent wrinkle
Honey face mask make the skin firm and it can prevent us from skin aging. Honey contains a lot of vitamin and mineral which is useful to fight free radicals effect on skin. Free radicals can cause skin aging because it damage the cell on skin surface and make it hard to regenerate.
14. Remove dead skin cell
Need some simple face peeling to get rid dull skin? Dullness is usually happen by the accumulation of dead skin cell on the skin surface. Removing these dead cell from skin can make your skin looks brighter and fresh. Just mix some honey with sugar and use it to peel the face skin. This mixture can remove the dead skin that accumulated on skin.
15. Clean the skin face
Honey is natural cleanser for face skin and it is totally save for all skin types including sensitive skin. It can remove dirt that you gain whole day after you do your activities without making your skin dry. Just take a half spoon of honey and warm it with your hand. Add some water then rub it to your face gently then rinse it with water.
16. Reduce oil on face
Oily skin is a type of skin which is easily infected by acne and attached by dirt. Use honey as face mask everyday can reduce oil by absorb the excessive sebum on face.
Honey Tips and Safety
Those are the benefits of honey on face’s skin. if you want to try honey as your daily treatment you can follow these tips :
- Try to get natural raw honey from farm or purchase the organic one.
- Honey that is manufactured and sold in store usually has been processed and it lack of its natural enzymes and nutrients.
- After use honey as face mask don’t wash your face with soap
- Use honey as face mask just before you go to bed. You can also use it as overnight honey mask.
- Honey allergy is really uncommon but some people may experience some reaction including itchy skin or redness even anaphylaxis ( severe reaction of allergy ) since honey contains some spores of flower. Don’t forget to consult your doctor before use it as your daily treatment.