Sweet treat

For spa clients who follow the principle of not putting anything on their bodies they wouldn’t also put in their mouths, honey-based skincare solutions seem like an obvious choice.

Honey is delicious, packed with antioxidants, and has many benefits for the skin as well. Honey is a natural humectant, meaning it draws moisture to the skin and plumps the skin cells, making it a perfect treatment for clients with very dry skin, says Oresta Korbutiak, founder of Oresta Organic Skin Care. “It’s really nourishing to the skin. I always say it’s like feeding the skin.”

Oresta Organic Skin Care offers the Laurel Sun Damage Repair Facial, based on Laurel Whole Plant Organics’ Honey Berry Enzyme Mask, at its four spa locations in Ottawa, Ontario. Korbutiak pays special attention to how the honey is processed when sourcing honey-based products. She looks for products that use organic, unfiltered honey, which she says are the best for the skin of her spa clients. 

Honey is also an antibacterial, Korbutiak says, but it leaves the beneficial bacteria of the skin intact. “It’s really balancing to the microbiome… the skin’s natural barrier,” Korbutiak says. “When your microbiome is not healthy… when your skin is inflamed, that’s when it produces problems like acne and sagging skin.”

Husband and wife team Teague Griffin and Sarah Richer, who run an organic skincare company Wild Hill Botanicals on Vancouver Island, created a honey-based skin treatment that proved very popular. Their Honey Myrrh Mask is a limited edition run because it depends on the harvest of wild plants on Vancouver Island, meaning they can only make it in small batches at a time. 

When she started looking for the honey to use in her new product, Richer discovered that not all honey is created equal. She uses raw beechwood honey from New Zealand’s South Island in the Honey Myrrh Mask, which she then blends with myrrh and balsam poplars right from her own backyard on Vancouver Island.

“On the South Island of New Zealand they have beech tree forests and those trees emit a sap, and the bees collect that sap and make honey,” Griffin says. “So it’s not blossom-based honey, it’s a sap honey; it’s also called dew honey for that reason.” Richer and Griffin liked the fact that the environment of New Zealand’s South Island is pristine and that the bees in the area don’t suffer from some of the issues that plague North America, such as overmedication and the result of problematic agricultural practices. 

It seems like a no-brainer: honey is a sweet treat you can feed both your body and your skin. Griffin says a blogger once asked his wife what advice she would give to someone who wanted to switch to green beauty, get rid of all their makeup and start over. Richer replied: “The first thing I would do is put nothing but honey on my face for 30 days.”

1. Antipodes 
Manuka Honey Skin-Brightening Eye Cream 
AntipodesNature.com

2.Honey & Myrrh Facial Mask 
WildHillBotanicals.com

3. Laurel Whole Plant Organics 
Honey Berry Enzyme Mask 
LaurelSkin.com

4. Wedderspoon Organic 
Manuka Honey Night Cream With Bee Venom 
Wedderspoon.ca