How does Honey help Acne Treatment?
If you are wondering how a natural anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory agent like honey works upon your skin to treat acne, you must read on the following points.
- Honey fights off a bacterium that causes acne, thanks to its natural antibiotics.
- Honey heals the wound caused by acne effectively due to its antiseptic properties that it gets from its hydrogen peroxide. Yes, hydrogen peroxide is naturally produced in honey by the enzyme glucose oxidase.
- Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, honey is a very good remedy to get rid acne related discomforts. It effectively reduces swelling, pain and redness associated with acne.
- As your skin breaks due to acne, the natural antioxidants present in honey prevents the damage that caused by the free radicals present in the environmental. These environmental factors too are sometimes responsible for acne eruptions.
- When you consume honey internally, it reduces sensitivity of your skin apart from boosting your immunity. So, not only you cure acne with honey but also prevent acne breakouts in future.
- Consuming honey also cleans your blood and boosts metabolism. Proper blood circulation keeps toxins out of your body thus eliminating one of the causes of acne breakouts. Good metabolism ensures you absorb optimum nutrients from what you eat and keep your immunity at its best.
- Honey, being a natural moisturizer, is also capable of fading away the acne scars.
How to Use Honey for Acne Treatment?
1. Apply Raw Honey for Acne Cure
This is perhaps the simplest remedy of honey for acne. You just have to apply raw honey (it may be manuka honey too!) to your acne.
Get this:
- Raw honey (Unprocessed or even Manuka honey)
- Cotton ball or pad (optional)
- Warm water
Do this:
- Take some honey on to your palm.
- Using your fingers or cotton ball, apply this honey to your acne and the skin around it. You may also apply this to whole of your face.
- Leave it for half an hour.
- Now wash it off with warm water.
- If your acne problem is serious, repeat this daily else do it once or twice a week.
2. Use Cinnamon and Honey for Acne
Cinnamon has effective antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and microdermabrasion properties. It is especially effective against acne-causing bacteria like P. acnes and S. epidermis. So, when you use it with another very good ingredient honey which is almost equally (or more) capable of treating acne, you double your chance of getting rid of acne faster. Why not then use cinnamon and honey for acne as mentioned below!
Get this:
- Honey- 2 tbsp
- Cinnamon powder- 1 tsp
Do this:
- Combine honey and cinnamon and mix them well.
- Now apply this mask to your face focusing more on the acne affected area>
- Leave for 15 minutes.
- Wash off well warm water.
- Repeat once or twice a day when you have too many acne otherwise do it twice a week.
3. Make Strawberries – Honey Mask for Acne
Strawberries are loaded with the antioxidant vitamin C and if you didn’t know, antioxidants are the major defense against free radicals. Free radicals nowadays are one of the common causes of acne. Excessive free radicals damage your skin pores as well as the sweat-producing sebaceous glands present on your face. This makes acne breakouts more likely. So, the best policy would be to eat a lots of antioxidant rich foods daily. Strawberry is one of them. You can also make a mask for acne using strawberries with honey.
Get this:
- Honey- 2 tsp
- Fresh strawberries- 3-4
Do this:
- Mash the strawberries properly.
- Add honey to the mashed strawberries and mix well to get a fine paste like consistency.
- Apply this to your face and leave for about 25-30 minutes.
- Wash off with warm water and apply moisturizer.
- Repeat this twice a week.
4. Salt-Honey Scrub for Acne
Using honey with salt has an added advantage. While honey works to fights off bacteria, salt pulls out the toxins to reduce the inflammation and making your skin free of any toxic element. It also soothes the pain that you might be experiencing and the micro granules of salt exfoliates your skin to remove dead cells without being harsh on the acne ridden skin.
Get this:
- Kosher salt or Sea salt- 1/2 to 1 tsp
- Honey- 1-2 tsp
- Vanilla extract (optional)- few drops
- Cocoa powder or Coffee (optional)- 1/2 tsp
Do this:
- Combine all the ingredients. You can adjust the quantities as per your requirement and get the consistency that suits you.
- Apply this to your affected skin and scrub gently for 2-3 minutes.
- Wash off with warm water.
- Do once a week.
5. Brown Sugar – Honey Scrub for Acne
Sugar, as you might know, is one of the very gentle scrub having a very good effect on skin. This is more so in case of acne because you need to avoid harsh ingredients to protect the already broken and painful skin at your acne site. Sugar will melts quickly and thus you would also be saved from over scrubbing your wounded area. Mix it with honey and see how effective it can be for your acne.
Get this:
- Brown sugar- 1 tsp
- Honey- 1-2 tsp
Do this:
- Mix the sugar and honey.
- Apply this to your face or affected skin.
- Scrub in gentle circular motion for about 2-3 minutes.
- Wash off with warm water and moisturize the skin.
6. Oatmeal Honey Mask for Acne
Oatmeal has come to be known for one of the best ingredients for skin health. When it comes to acne, you can get benefits of oatmeal’s soothing and exfoliating properties. Not only will it remove the dead skin cells but will also absorb the excessive oil to relieve you of acne. Honey in this mask will fight off the bacteria and moisturize your skin. You may also use onion in this mask to prevent acne scar. Onion is anti-inflammatory and can prevent scaring well.
Get this:
- Plain cooked oatmeal- 1/2 cup
- Onion puree- of 1 medium onion
- Honey- 1-2 tsp
Do this:
- Add onion puree and honey to the oatmeal.
- Mix well and apply to your skin.
- Leave it for about 20 minutes.
- Wash off with warm water.
- Repeat 1-2 times a week.
7. Use Honey with Turmeric for Acne
Turmeric has excellent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric can destroy the P. acnes bacteria which causes inflammation. Turmeric also soaks up excessive oil from your skin, one of the causes that lead to acne. When combined with the anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory honey, turmeric can do wonders to get you rid of acne.
Get this:
- Turmeric powder- 4 tbsp
- Raw honey- 4 tbsp
- Milk- 1 tbsp
- Washcloth
- Hot water
Do this:
- Combine all the ingredients and mix well to get a smooth paste.
- Cleanse your face or affected skin by washing with water.
- Dip the washcloth in hot water, take it out and then wring out the excessive water.
- Place this over your skin and let it be there for about 5 minutes. This process helps bring pus in the acne to the surface.
- Pat dries your skin.
- Now apply the honey-turmeric paste to your skin.
- Gently massage for about 5-10 minutes.
- Leave the paste on your skin overnight.
- In the morning, wash off the dried paste from your skin. You can visibly find a reduced size of your acne.
Precaution- Turmeric stains whatever it comes in contact with, so be careful with your clothes and bed sheets etc. The yellowish tinge on your skin left by turmeric will go away in a couple of days.
Why Eat Honey to Treat Acne?
Topical application of honey may cure your acne but what about the breakouts that you will get soon! Honey can also prevent these acne breakouts by strengthening your immunity. So eat honey, daily. Honey is loaded with natural antioxidants. It contains many vitamins and other minerals. Eating honey also reduces sensitivity of the skin.
While locally produced honey is good for treating health problems like seasonal allergies, if you wish to eat honey to treat acne, you should opt for Manuka honey due to its extraordinary anti-microbial properties.
Now how much honey is sufficient to eat daily? You can safely eat 15-20 grams (about a tablespoon) of manuka honey daily.
Let your imagination work and find out more ways to eat honey for overall health. Yes, honey for acne is only one aspect of this miraculous natural gift that bees give us. You can in fact find a treasure of health in honey!
Read more here: Rapid Home Remedies
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Source: Rapid Home Remedies.
Sweet :/