Honey In Cosmetics

Honey In Cosmetics


The beneficial effect of honey on the skin has an age-old repute. Poppea, the comely wife of Nero, who employed a hundred slaves to attend her beauty, used honey and tepid asses' milk as a face lotion. The patrician women of Rome followed her practice for centuries. The famous beauty, Mme. Du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, used honey extensively in her toilet preparations; so did Mme. du Sevigné, Marguerite of Navarre and Agnes Sorel. The latter called honey "the soul of flowers."

Many face creams and lotions, even today, contain honey. Honey has a nourishing, bleaching, astringent and antiseptic effect on the skin. The noted beautiful hands of the Japanese women, devoid of all wrinkles, is attributable to their daily use of fresh honey as a hand lotion. The Chinese women use a paste made from crushed orange seeds and honey for pimples and also to clear their complexions. Crushed seeds of peaches or apricots with honey they use for softening their hands. Honey, yolks of eggs and sweet almond oil is the best softener of hands. For chapped lips and skin, honey (30 gm.) lemon juice (30 gm.) and Eau de Cologne (15 gm.) is an excellent remedy. Honey, glycerine, alcohol and lemon juice or citric acid are the ingredients of most lotions for sunburn, chafed skin and freckles. Many skin-soaps contain honey. The famous Balm of Gilead was made of mutton tallow, castile soap, honey, beeswax and alum. Honey as a cosmetic remedy has an advantage over cold creams because it does not grow hair. As a cleanser of hands, honey equals even mechanic soaps in efficiency without making the skin rough.

Honey packs, honey masks and honey facials are getting more and more popular. The Creole women of Louisiana rub their entire bodies with a lotion consisting of honey and water, to which all possible assortments of spices are added. They use it not only as a cosmetic but as a cure for all kinds of skin trouble and sore throat. This application is also supposed to have the power to drive away evil spirits and to accord a clear view of the future. The Egyptian women chewed perfumed pills made of honey and spices to sweeten their breath. In ancient Rome a high-priced semisolid paste, called "honey-mint," was used for bad breath.

Needless to say the cosmetic effect of honey is not restricted to its external application because the consumption of honey in itself will greatly improve not only the color but the texture of the skin. The beautiful complexions of Spanish and Italian women are due not solely to olive oil but also to honey. Many a "pimply-face" has blessed the author for suggesting honey as the principal sweet.