Scientifically proven, backed up by thousands of years of use across dozens of cultures.

Honey has been used as a healthy diet additive for longer than some of our fossils have been around.

If it is so good for you internally, then might it have a positive effect externally as well?

In this article, we explore some of the useful facets of honey, what it contains, and how it works to get you the results listed below.

What Is Raw Honey?

Raw honey is a bit different than honey that you might buy in the store, generally in all the good ways.

Honey in the store often consists of more than just honey, sometimes containing less honey by percentage than other miscellanea in the jar.

Store-bought honey is often a watered-down version of what we think of as honey.

Raw honey is the honey substance that is in the beehive and is extracted straight out of it. It should not have been heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit or pasteurized.

This shouldn’t be a point of concern either, since honey is one of the longest lasting natural foods out there.

Egyptians used to have their own purifying process and would bury their Pharaohs with jars of honey to help make their transition into the afterlife a little sweeter.

When these tombs were being excavated, the honey was found and was still unspoiled, hundreds upon hundreds of years later.

Types of Raw Honey

The question is: Is all honey created equally?

Not quite.

The main three categories of honey are separated by their plants of pollen origination.

Local

Local honey is when the bees are allowed to harvest from a local area or region. The pollen can be collected from a wide area.

The honey is often labeled with the region instead of a certain flavor or flower.

For example it could be from “the California coast” or “Colorado Rocky Mountains” and may be anything from more generic to much more specific.

Multi-flower

Multi-flower is exactly what it sounds like. 

The bees are confined to more of a specific area with a lower selection of plants from which to harvest.

Harvesting from these plants may be useful for people that are looking for specific types of flavors or to reap specific benefits that may be collected via the pollen of those plants.

Single origin

Last, but not least, there are single origin honeys.

These are the most specific type of honey when it comes to the plant that they are derived from.

The bees will have harvested the pollen from only one plant.

For example, Royal Bee sells clover blossom and blueberry blossom specific honeys as their single origin honeys.

The Benefits of Using Raw Honey for Skin and Hair

Now that we know a little more about honey in general, what about its uses for external upkeep, for self-care?

There are a number of wonderful things that raw honey can do for you. We have some of the best ones listed below.

Please note, that using raw honey is important because of all of the potentially harmful additives that may be contained in other types of honey.

Fights Acne

While you might not use it everyday, the properties found in raw honey can be helpful to apply daily, for max results.

One of these results is honey’s ability to fight acne. 

For many people acne breakouts can be caused by bacterial infections, in the facial area as well as around the rest of the body.

This is when honey is able to work its magic.

Raw honey will have its chance to work its natural antiseptic power, soothing and healing skin from bacterial acne infections once you apply a thin layer to the face.

The only thing to be careful with, and this applies to all of the following ways we will discuss as well, be careful if you have allergies, or might have allergies, to honey.

Some people may be allergic to ingesting it and will generally be allergic to using it externally as well.

Apply a small dot of honey to your face if you are unsure and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

If there is no effect when you wash it away, feel free to carry on.

Wrinkle Treatment

Beyond working well for breakouts, it is also great for a longer-term problem, wrinkle formation.

Honey works as a natural humectant. In layman’s terms that means that raw honey is a fantastic moisturizer.

Applying honey to your face helps to improve the moisture levels on the top layer of your skin, which is the most easily damaged layer.

The addition of extra moisture helps to improve wrinkles and delay aging and smooth fine lines out of the skin.

To get the best results, you may want to experiment with different types of honey and methods of application.

Wart Eliminator

The treatment of warts with honey has been around since the 1980’s if not much further back.

Manuka honey, or single origin honey from the Manuka tree, is the best kind of honey to use for this, but any form of raw honey should also do the trick.

To make it work for you, apply honey to the site of the wart. Then, cover it with a bandaid.

You will need to refresh this daily for it to work as effectively as possible.

Practitioners of this method generally report success within one to two weeks. The satisfying process of dissolution should begin almost immediately though.

Creates Even Skin Tone

We are all after that beautifully smooth, even skin tone. Honey can help you to secure that goal a little quicker.

Due to its antibacterial properties, it helps to soothe away inflammation that causes red patches.

As was covered before, it also helps to moisturize the skin.

Skin Cleanser

We talked about some of raw honey’s abilities to fight acne before. However, even if you don’t struggle with bacterial infections, honey can still be beneficial.

Applying honey to your face will allow it to take in the impurities that might be resting in your pores.

Upon washing it away, the honey takes the impurities with it.

It does this without stripping any of the natural, and needed, oils from your face, like many chemically-derived products do.

If you are looking for a deep cleanse, check out this product made as a honey-based facial peel.

Dry Skin Treatment

One of the most useful properties of raw honey is its ability to treat dry skin.

Since it is a natural humectant, it serves to improve the levels of moisture that are found in your skin while still leaving on the beneficial oils that you naturally produce.

If the DIY route is for you, then honey can be combined with yogurt to actively treat dry and flaky skin anywhere on the body.

At the same time as it treats problems with dry skin, it will have a cleansing effect on any bacterial issues and impurities in the skin that may be causing some of the problem.

If the DIY option isn’t your style, these luxury honey products are incredibly useful to your self-care.

For the best skin care, look into the Queen Bee Overnight Therapy. If you are struggling with dry skin in general, you may want to opt for the Day Moisturizer.

Fights Dandruff

On this same vein of healing properties, we want to note that honey isn’t just helpful for skin care.

Honey is also effective if you struggle with scalp issues.

If you are one of approximately 50 million Americans that struggle with dandruff, then you may want to give raw honey a try.

Dandruff is often caused by extra, or simply the wrong kind, of bacteria on the scalp. 

Since raw honey has strong anti-bacterial properties, using a honey wash for your hair and scalp may help you to finally get rid of the problem.

Cleanses the Scalp

Due to raw honey’s humectant properties, using honey as a form of scalp cleanser, similar to shampoo, is quite effective.

Honey serves to soften the hair follicles, but also to soften the skin on the scalp.

This allows for deeper penetration into the hair, and, perhaps crusted, layers of skin that may be causing dandruff or other problems when it comes to completely cleansing the scalp.

Hair Shine

The way that humectants work is through binding to water molecules and then soaking into whatever porous substance they come into contact with.

Hair follicles tend to be quite porous, some more than others.

Applying honey as a hair mask allows the vitamins and humectants soak into the hair, making it healthier and bringing back some of its natural shine.

This treatment is especially useful for people that frequently dye their hair or have very dry hair due to weather or poor product selection.

If you want to know even more about the benefits of using honey in your beauty routine, as well as some diet benefits, check out this article by Stylecraze.

How to Use Raw Honey

You may be wondering how to harness the power of honey to reap the maximum amount of positive benefits.

We have laid out some great ways to use honey, mixing in a variety of DIY methods along with products to facilitate your journey to honeyed health.

Honey Face Masks

Using honey as a face mask is easy and gives your face a smooth after-glow. Raw honey that has a higher concentration of royal jelly is even more effective for boosting collagen, which helps to tighten your skin.

If you don’t want to go out and buy honey face masks, you can make your own by applying raw honey right on the skin.

Be sure to fasten your hair up from your face before application.

Proceed to leave it on for a maximum of 20 minutes, then rinse it off by massaging your face with water.

DIY Facial Cleanser

When working as a facial cleanser, honey is not meant to be used as makeup remover for eye makeup.

However, it is still a highly effective facial cleanser due to its ability to dissolve other makeup and absorb impurities.

Making it yourself is easy. All you need is honey and some sort of pure oil, like coconut or jojoba oil.

Mix these two together. You can add some cinnamon or other pleasant smelling herb to treat yourself.

If you don’t feel like taking the time to do it yourself, consider investing in this Cleansing Duo from Royal Bee.

Body Scrub

Using honey as soap holds its own charm as well. 

Instead of using a more liquid form of raw honey, though, you may want to find one that has been gently processed into a bar form.

For more body scrub ideas that you could make yourself, check out this article by Treehugger.

Honey Exfoliant

To clarify your skin and obtain a smooth feeling, try using a honey-based mixture as an exfoliant.

Using honey as an exfoliant will allow you to reap most of the benefits that were talked about above for skin care.

Simply combine 2 parts raw honey with 1 part baking soda to give it a little more grittiness.

Once mixed, rub it into your face like any other exfoliant product.

This can also be used as a full body scrub if you want to make it yourself.

Bath Soak

Using honey as a bath soak really means that you have upped your relaxation game!

Add honey into hot water, allowing it to dissolve and then pouring it into your tub of warm water will give you the effect you are looking for.

With little to no work, this will have your whole body feeling silk soft at the end of a relaxing session of you-time.

Shine-Boosting Honey Hair Rinse

Lastly, we thought it would be useful to add a recipe for glowing hair as mentioned above.

For a silky sheen to be returned to damaged hair, try taking a spoonful of raw honey and adding it into warm water.

Once you have shampooed your hair, rinse the honey mixture through.

For best results like it condition for an hour, then rinse it out.

You can also mix up your own version of leave-in conditioner by mixing 1 ½ teaspoons of honey into five cups of warm water and letting it dissolve.

Once you are done in the shower, rinse it through your still wet hair and finish your styling process as per normal.

For more specific ideas on ways to use honey in your beauty routine, check out this article written by Women’s Health Magazine.