Honey and Fenugreek Face Mask
- Laura Bee
- Nov 5, 2016
- 4 min read
For as long as we have loved the bees, honey has been used for ceremonial drink and medicine, food and treats. Bees love it, bears love it, young'uns love it and guess who else loves it? Your SKIN!
Honey is a humectrant, meaning it absorbs water, so when it is applied to the skin it brings a baby soft plumpness to even a tired sun dried face. It is also anti-microbial, so it helps clean up blemishes.
The other day I was stopped at a stop light and I saw this handsome young college student in the crossing lane. I smiled broadly at him and he averted his eyes. No doubt he was feeling some shyness from an extreme bout of very painful looking acne. I wanted to jump out of the car and tell him about honey! I wanted to rush him into my kitchen and make him a honey-yogurt-fenugreek face mask! There is no need to feel abashed at such a condition, through it certainly must be challenging to face life with such an extreme case of pimples and sores. But there is also a natural and fairly inexpensive flight of treatments that may be able to help heal; get a jar of honey off your shelf, buy and pre-prepare a few of these ingredients, put them all in a paper bag and march them over to that pimply teenager you know and tell them they are BEAUTIFUL.
(In fact, I am going to make one of these masks right now and write this blog post while wearing it! (Be right back!)
OK, I'm back and wearing a yogurt honey mask. Yup, yogurt and honey. Actually I made myself a bowl for breakfast and scraped the last bit out of the bowl onto my face. Not only do I get baby soft skin, I get to relive a minute of my high chair days! I feel deliciously naughty!
Below is a few recipe, just in case you have a teen, or yourself, that is struggling with this sort of condition. It may take a few weeks, but I just KNOW it will help. Fenugreek is also awesome for normal skin types, occasional spot treatments for blackheads and whatnot and even aging skin! I would love to hear about your honey beauty regimes.
Fenugreek-Yogurt-Honey Mask:
This is great for spot treatment or a frequent all over face, chest, back treatment for acne. Apparently it also gets rid of age spots and fine wrinkles! So this recipe might be a go to for the rest of your life! FTW!
The yogurt is soothing, the honey is anti-microbial and fenugreek is anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial!
Fenugreek is an herb used in Indian cooking, and if you are not able to find it in your grocery store, I am sure you can get it on the world wide web (looked online and it is inexpensive and even available at Walmart!). Look for freshness of course, and organic! It is inexpensive, especially compared to creams and such made from artificial ingredients and chemicals. There is rarely allergic reaction, but of course, if you are allergic to bee stings, check with your doctor before working with apitherapy. (Yes! Honey is a kind of apitherapy!)
To get going: wash your face and tuck your hair back in a kerchief or a backwards ball cap, get a little bowl and I like to use a small spatula, or my fingers, to mix and then slather the mask on my face. You don't have to worry too much about proportions but the general guideline is equal amounts yogurt and ground fenugreek with a dollop of honey.
Ingredients:
1 TBS plain yogurt. Greek yogurt is great because it is so thick, but any old plain yogurt will do. Buy organic-for all the obvious reasons! The lactic acid in yogurt is gently exfoliating. Any old milk or milk product will do, like sour cream or liquid milk, cow or goat or llama if you can get it! (wink) Yogurt is especially beneficial because of the living lacto bacilli and our first choice for this recipe.
1 teaspoon honey: any honey will work! Manuka honey is awesome because of an extra hydrogen peroxide molecule, but all honey has what it takes to fight infection. Using raw, local and unpasteurized honey will offer the most benefit.
1 TBS ground fenugreek: antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, Vitamin A, minerals! Some people soak it overnight first which makes it nice and squishy and makes it easy to mash with a spoon. Maybe you can even soak it in the yogurt, try that! OR if you get it in dry form and can't wait, grind it in a clean coffee grinder, mortar and pestle or if you have a sturdy bowl and a round rock you can use that!
Mix the ingredients together to make a paste. You can add more yogurt if you wish to make it smoother but this recipe should be good for 2 treatments or enough to spread on your beautiful face, chest and back if you wish.
Leave on for 20-30 min and gently rinse with tepid water. Use it as frequently as you wish!
Here's another website with more fenugreek recipes (I am interested in getting rid of some sun spots on my forehead, so I am going to go for it!):
While you are sitting there with your mask on, meditate on how lovely you are, or handsome! Because you are beautiful, no matter what. Whether we are pimply or wrinkly, everyone is capable of a smile and a twinkle in the eye! And THAT is the best beauty recipe there is.
Sending you and that handsome kid in the crosswalk, a big ole love bomb. You are beautiful: KNOW IT!
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