Honey-Inspired Beauty Recipes

You might have the ingredients in your kitchen right now to whip up a luxurious, honey-infused spa treatment.  Olive oil, green tea and cornmeal are three of the common pantry items included in a collection of beauty recipes I've been trying.  Canned pumpkin and fresh pineapple are also on the ingredient list. 

Beekeeping educator Virginia Webb sent me home with a booklet of beauty recipes from the National Honey Board, and when I looked online I found dozens more from that source.  Here's how it went when we tried three recipes at home:

I combined sweet almond oil, natural liquid soap and honey in a mixture scented with real vanilla extract.  This created a rich bath oil blend that felt very soothing.  The recipe called for unscented soap, but mine already had real peppermint oil in it.  So, the result smelled like a candy cane.  This recipe is called Foaming Vanilla Honey Bath.

The Aloha Honey Hawaiian Delight included both pineapple and papaya for a sweet facial.  It felt mildly acidic on my face and even started to cause some redness on my daughter's sensitive skin.  I would still use this for myself on occasion. 



My favorite recipe of the three was the Harvest Pumpkin Exfoliating Mask.  It felt very mild and even soothing.  It includes several ingredients, some of which you may not have on hand.  For instance, I left out the optional frankincense essential oil, including only the cinnamon extract for scent.  Cornmeal made for a gentle form of exfoliation.  As with all of the recipes, a tablespoon of honey was a key ingredient.  When we were mixing this up, it looked and smelled like we were making pumpkin pie.

Of course, the beauty of using these fresh, wholesome ingredients comes with a need to refrigerate and use them within a short period of time.  As always, anyone could have sensitivities to an ingredient, even an all natural one.  So check with your dermatologist if you have concerns about what to use on your skin.