These days, it seems like beauty enthusiasts are proponents of trying just about anything on your face. With your face being among the most gentle skin on your body, it’s a pretty good idea to treat it well—and to do some major research before applying anything, DIY or otherwise, to your face.
So that you don’t have to, I’m going to try one of the hottest beauty claims for a week: washing my face… with honey. Why is this supposed to work? Well, honey has antibacterial properties, is full of antioxidants and is totally natural, which means you know exactly what you’re putting on your skin, unlike many of the chemical-filled products you’ll find in the beauty aisle. So here’s how my little experiment went:
Day 1
I began by putting my hair in a tight ponytail with a headband and wetting my face with warm water to loosen up any dirt that might be clinging to my face.
Squirting the honey into my hand gave me an uneasy feeling because it’s crazy thick and all I could imagine was it getting stuck in my hair. Gross. Rubbing the honey into my face felt strange at first but after working it in a little bit, it became easier to spread.
Washing it off was SO much harder than it is to wash off normal face wash. You have to make sure to get all of it, otherwise you might be left with some sticky residue. Yep, I learned that one the hard way.
My skin is normally really, really dry—so usually, as soon as I wash my face, I literally make a mad dash to my moisturizer. But with the honey, though I still moisturized afterwards, my skin didn’t feel stripped of all moisture, which was definitely a bonus.
Now, cue all the lovely photos of me fresh out of bed in the morning!
Day 2
Today I decided to wash my face with the honey in the morning and at night. I found washing your face with a sticky substance is much more of a hassle. I also found myself not wanting to wash my face and actually dreading the process—and it was only the second day.
Besides me being lazy, I didn’t see any changes from the day before. My skin still felt pretty soft and hydrated. I did originally try to remove my makeup with the honey and it did not work at all, so I would stick to your makeup wipes for that.
Day 3
I woke up and washed my face before I started my makeup which seemed like such a chore. My life is so hard, I know. I still didn’t see much of a difference in my skin but the skin on my chin felt rougher than usual which usually happens before I break out so, I am not too thrilled about that discovery.
Day 4
I had suspected this was going to happen.
I woke up to find that I’d broken out not only on my chin—but on my forehead and jawline, too! I now had two pimples on my chin, one in between my brows and one on my jawline. I was not happy to see this (I don’t think anyone would be). I should mention, my stress levels aren’t especially high throughout this week and I was eating pretty much the same diet as I have always been, so there weren’t any other factors that could have affected my breakouts. It was interesting to see my skin go from clear to suddenly breaking out in just a few days.
I also got some honey stuck in my eyebrows and didn’t realize until I had already done most of my makeup and was going to fill in my brows. Talk about setting your brows, am I right ladies?
Day 5
I didn’t see many changes today in my skin. The little monsters on my face were not going away—they actually looked almost exactly the same.
Current thoughts: Honey as a facial cleanser? Probably not.
Day 6
Today the worst thing that could possibly happen, happened. I got honey stuck in my hair! Not my eyebrow this time—the hair on my head. It was partially my fault because I couldn’t find a headband and was too lazy to look for one but it was also 8 a.m. so can you really blame me? If I’m going to be honest, I don’t even know what my skin looked like on this day, I was way to focused on how to remove honey from hair without shaving my head because I really don’t think I can pull off Britney circa 2007 if you know what I mean.
Day 7
Today is the final day of this trial week and I’m really happy about that. I went full force and washed my face in the morning and at night to try to get the most of my honey-filled week. At night, I also tried to use the honey as a face mask by simply leaving it on longer and kept getting pieces of hair stuck in it and was just too annoyed to keep it on for so long, so I gave up and washed it out. The main thing I noticed today was that the pimples I had gotten during this week were not going down in size whatsoever. The honey seemed to bring pimples to the surface and then only help them maintain their status on my skin from there on out.
Final Verdict
Overall, washing my face with pure honey for a week was an interesting experiment. I don’t think it’s the best face wash for someone with dry skin. While it did leave my skin feeling surprisingly soft and hydrated, it also did cause me to break out. But not only that, the breakouts did not subside; that being said, I only tried this experiment for a week and to be fair, it takes longer than a week for your skin to react to a new product. Aside from the acne, it also seemed my face was getting a bit more blotchy as the week went on. I didn’t notice at first because sometimes when you wake up your face looks naturally blotchy but a couple days out of the week I didn’t wear makeup at all to classes and I noticed I was still blotchy throughout the day. Following this experiment, I would be interested in looking into mixing honey with other things to make a hydrating mask because I can see that working well.
For me, the biggest downside to washing your face with a sticky substance such as honey is how much of a hassle it turns out to be. You have to ensure you are extremely careful when using it as to not get it in your hair or on your clothes. Also, the process of washing it off is much more work than just splashing water on your face and calling it a night as you would normally.
This all being said, I cannot speak for people with other skin types so if you think your skin might be able to handle it, give it a try! It has also been said that using different types of honey such as Manuka honey may give better results. Do your research but make sure to take all skincare advice you find on the internet with a grain of salt—nobody’s skin is exactly the same.
Also, if you do decide to give this a go, prepare yourself for everyone who uses your bathroom to ask why you have a jar of honey at the sink.