Sustainability made simple

DIY Avocado Honey Face Mask Recipe

avocado honey face mask
Foto: CC0 / Unsplash / Slashio Photography

Avocado is an ingredient used in natural remedies for tired skin. When mixed with honey, it can be easily made into a DIY avocado honey face mask to clean and refresh your skin.

Although both are lauded for their nutritional properties, raw honey and avocado are helpful for your skin care routine as well. When combined into an avocado honey face mask, both of these ingredients act as a helpful natural remedy for moisturizing and revitalizing your skin, and killing excess bacteria.

What Look out for When Buying Avocado and Honey

Avocado is a common ingredient in many natural remedies and is famed for its moisturizing properties.
Avocado is a common ingredient in many natural remedies and is famed for its moisturizing properties.
(Foto: CC0 / Pixabay / coyot)

Despite not actually being vegan and despite possible ethical issues around its production via honeybees, using raw honey in your skincare regimen is still a good way to keep your skin healthy. This ingredient is used in a range of different skincare products, from facemasks to cough syrups. Similarly, pasteurized as well as raw honey are suggested to have many other benefits, such as wound-healing, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects.

    Avocado, especially in the form of an oil, is also a common ingredient in many skincare recipes, and can be used to hydrate dry skin, and thereby also to prevent acne. But how sustainable is it? Unfortunately, the average supermarket avocado has earned the label of ‘problematic superfood’ due to its unsustainable shipping and growing practices, including illegal deforestation and CO2 pollution. To avoid this, try looking for avocados with a USDA organic seal and a close land of origin to your own. Learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of avocado in our guide on the topic.

    Similarly, for your raw honey, try buying it locally from smaller or more sustainable brands. Not every brand of honey or avocado with ‘organic’ in the name is actually organic, however, so try to shop from explicitly certified USDA organic, fair trade and local businesses as much as possible.

    How to Make an Avocado Honey Face Mask at Home

    Raw honey is often used in skincare as a natural remedy for acne and premature aging.
    Raw honey is often used in skincare as a natural remedy for acne and premature aging.
    (Foto: CC0 / Pixabay / ExplorerBob)

    Yield: one small bowl of facemask

    Ingredients:

    • ½ ripe avocado (preferably organic)
    • 1 tbsp organic raw honey

    Equipment:

    • 1 small bowl
    • 1 fork or spoon

    Instructions:

    1. Pre-wash and dry your face with lukewarm water.
    2. De-skin your avocado.
    3. Mash the avocado in the small bowl until smooth.
    4. Stir in a tablespoon of raw honey, again until smooth.
    5. Spread a thick layer of the mask over your face.
    6. Leave the mask on for twenty to thirty minutes.
    7. Rinse your face again with lukewarm water until clear.

    Tip: You can also add a few drops of lemon juice or a small amount of cacao powder into your facemask for added acne-fighting and antioxidant properties.

    What to Consider When Using a Face Mask From Foodstuffs

    You might not feel comfortable putting a mask made of edible and nutritious ingredients on your face when you’re conscious about not wasting food. While you of course have the option of other DIY face masks containing no food, or face masks with an arguably less valuable foodstuff, like oatmeal face masks — consider that when swapping non-organic store-bought cosmetics for organic self-made ones, the latter may the more sustainable option, even when using edible components.

    Why’s that? Apart from considering the resources that go into the components of your cosmetics, like water for growing the avocados, and the bee’s efforts to produce the honey, also consider the after-life effects of your cosmetics: Many if not most conventional store-bought cosmetics come in plastic-packaging and thereby contain and create microplastics, which might end up in our waterways.

    With only organic and purely natural ingredients for your face mask, you can be sure of a 100 percent biodegradable and plastic-free cosmetic product.

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