Spring has sprung here in Calgary! We’ve got blooming tulips, budding roses, leafy trees, green grass, and lovely bumbling bees again, and all of this makes me unbelievably happy. In honour of our recently returned bumbling bee friends I whipped up this silky honey bee face mask on a sunny spring day. It’s loaded with bee goodness and is easily made with a handful of ingredients you probably already have. Woo!
The liquid part of this mask is lovely raw honey blended with some warm water. There’s lots of honey; it’s a third of the liquid bit. This makes for a mask that goes on a bit like caramel and never dries out fully, so it’s nice and gentle on your skin. Raw honey is loaded with all kinds of beneficial active enzymes, and when blended with water it releases peroxide that’s great for cleansing skin and battling acne.
Up next, some added bee propolis and pollen. Both of these are optional, so no worries if you don’t have them, but they’re both pretty cool. Propolis is a powerful antibacterial and antiseptic healing ingredient. The bees make it by collecting essential oils, resins, and saps from the plants around their hive, and they use it to repair the hive and do things like mummify mice that sneak into the hive so they don’t end up with a rotting corpse on their teensy little hands (adorable, no?). Pollen, of course, is gathered from nearby flowers and is an amazing source of vitamins and minerals.
All that’s left now is the clay. I chose gentle white kaolin, but French green, French yellow, or zeolite would also be good choices. I don’t recommend bentonite or rhassoul as they’re both quite heavy and bentonite is just generally a very weird clay that is super different from kaolin and all other clays.
Once we’ve brought all of this together we’ve got a lovely, silky paste. Spread that honey bee face mask on your pretty face, let it dry for about twenty minutes, and rinse it off. This one does take a bit of convincing to rinse off, but some patience, warm water, and a wash cloth will get the job done.
I find this mask leaves my skin beautifully smooth without leaving it feeling too dry, making it a great choice for dry or sensitive skin. Give it a go!
Honey Bee Face Mask
1/2 tsp raw honey
1 tsp warm water
1/4 tsp powdered bee pollen
4 drops bee propolis tincture8 tsp white kaolin clay (USA / Canada)
Combine the raw honey and warm water in a small dish and whisk to combine. You may need to leave it to soak a bit before you’ll be able to fully blend the honey together.
Once you’ve got a uniform honey/water mixture, whisk in the pollen and propolis, and then begin whisking in the clay a teaspoon at a time. When you’ve got a thick, creamy, smooth paste you’re ready to apply the mask!
Smooth the paste over your face and leave it to dry for about twenty minutes before rinsing it offâyou’ll definitely need a wash cloth for this bit, and as far as face masks go, this one is a bit more difficult to wash off. Follow up with some argan oil.
Makes enough for one thick mask that can go down the neck a bit, or two thinner masks.
This mask is not a good candidate for pre-mixing in larger amounts and using over an extended period of time due to all the yummy bacteria food in itâeven with a broad spectrum preservative I doubt it would have much of a shelf life.
Hello Marie! I will try this honey bee face mask!
Your blog is very nice!
Thanks for sharing đ
Thanks, Amanda! Happy making đ
So where would I find bee pollen? Would any other type of pollen do the trick?
Hey Skyy! I got mine from a beekeeper at a farmers market. Bee pollen is really just pollen collected by bees from hundreds of different plants, so the advantage it has over a specific kind of pollen from a specific tree is that it’s very diverse in vitamins and minerals, but if you happen to have good access to some sort of specific pollen you can definitely use that as well đ
Thank you for so much for this website. Is so awesome! Since honey does not spoil and neither does clay it seems like this mask wouldn’t would last in the fridge. Couldn’t I preserve the water portion with little liquid?
Hey Brigitte! I’m not really sure what you’re asking here. The fact that honey and clay are shelf stable on their own doesn’t mean anything once you combine themâthink about bread. Salt, water, yeast, and flour are all very shelf stable on their ownâcombine them and they’ll spoil quite readily!
I’m wondering if you left out the water and combined the other ingredients and just added water when you want to use it if that would allow you to make a quantity and take out what you need to mix for each use without worrying about shelf life? Just a thought. đ
I have a whole FAQ on this with more details đ
I used Silk peptide in place of the bee pollen.
Neat! That won’t do the same thing as the pollen, which is really rich in vitamins and minerals, but silk is always a wonderful addition to all things skin care đ Thanks for reading and DIYing with me!
Wow! You almost have my favourite mask here! Instead of kaolin clay I use bentonite and apple cider vinegar with some honey, bee pollen, propolis and now that I’ve got royal jelly a nice dollop of that too!
I am really loving reading all the bee related recipes you’ve been putting out!
Nice! Enjoy all those bee goodies đ
Love this easy mask recipe! Just tried it yesterday without the pollen and I think my face like it, it’s definitely not drying but seems to cleanse pretty well! I used to just put raw honey on my face as face mask, but that doesn’t seem to be hydrating/ moisturising enough, at least I don’t have the ‘woo!’ moment like this face mask, so I’m totally surprised!
I have pretty dehydrated yet combination oily skin, my nose tip still has a bit of flaky skin even when I’m in such a hot humid climate (I’m from Hong Kong). Every time I use soap or red clay for face wash, my nose tip flakes obviously, but this honey mask doesn’t make it flake too much (still flakes a tiny tiny bit) and I don’t feel as dry as using soap/red clay!
I have just a few questions for you:
1) Can I use clay face mask instead of soap as face wash every day?
2) As I have quite dehydrated skin, I have been using hydrosols (mixing various hydrosols) plus a bit of hyaluronic acid as face mask every night (soaking cotton pads with hydrosols) to hydrate my skin, but it doesn’t seem enough. What do you recommend me to do? Or which face masks do you recommend for hydrating my skin?
Thank you Marie!
Hey Janet! I’m so glad you’re liking this mask đ You definitely can wash your face with clay instead of soap if that works for youâthere aren’t many rules in face washing (or lack thereof) as long as what you are doing works for you!
Are you using anything other than basically plain water to hydrate with? Some sort of an oil based serum will help lock in moisture for much longerâwater will evaporate pretty quickly. I LOVE this serum right now đ You could also try adding some silk to your hydrosolsâsilk helps keep the skin hydrated and helps boost healing đ
Great! I’ll definitely be using clay a lot more then, I was afraid that using clay mask too often will dry my skin out!
Yes I do, Currently my routine is face wash, then hydrosols, then oil. I put the oil on when my face is still damp. The oil I use during the day and night are different, and I diy the oil serum myself, using the oils I read should suit my skin type. For the day serum I use jojoba/apricot kernel, tamanu/avocado oil, helichrysum EO, lavender EO, tea tree EO/hinoki oil. For the night I use argan, sea buckthorn berry oil, helichrysum EO, lavender EO, tea tree EO/hinoki oil. So the EO bit is about the same since those are the only ones I’ve got and depending on my mood the EO I use will be different every time. But honestly, I haven’t really noticed significant improvement to my skin if not worse, my face is actually more dehydrated than using commercial moisturisers and my wrinkles are showing up (I’m only 23!) that my mum has been constantly objecting my use of oils and hydrosols (“stop putting those weird stuff on your face”)! đ So I’m not quite sure what I have done wrong!
I’m so intrigued to get some evening primrose to try, I’ll see if I can get some and source some silk to try them out!
Hmm… a thought. How about incorporating a bit of olivem300 into your serum? It’s an emulsifier made from olive oil that would help your oil based serum emulsify with the hydrosols already on your skin, making for a potentially better moisturizing experience. A thought!
Hi Marie,
Would Australian Beige Clay work for this recipe do you think?
Yup! Happy making đ
Hi..I’m having a Heck of a time finding her propolis. Where did you find yours please?
I got mine at the farmer’s marketâToronto’s St. Lawrence is lovely, but I doubt that it very helpful for you unless you happen to live in Toronto đ