honey in the spotlight

by Mirte Gratama | Guest Blogger blue®m | Apr 3, 2019

If you’re little familiar with blue®m, you know we use honey as an active ingredient in our oral care products. That may sound a little strange to those who read this for the first time because if you say honey, you say sugar. However, blue®m uses honey because it is converted to hydrogen peroxide as soon as it comes into contact with your saliva (or any other damp substance). It disintegrates into hydrogen and oxygen. This is called the glucose oxidase process. The available glucose in honey is completely converted whereby there is no caries formation. The released oxygen is the secret of our products. That honey is a beautiful ingredient benefitting our oral health is as clear as day. Did you know you can still do so much more things with honey or even find it in a variety of products?

Honey Bath oil/Shower gel

Now that you know why a honey facemask is good for you. It’ll not be a surprise to you that this stuff works perfectly as bath oil too. For soft skin dissolve two tablespoons of honey in a hot bath. Only have a shower at home? Lubricate yourself from head to toe with honey before taking your shower. Fifteen minutes later you’ll notice that all the honey is absorbed (and therefore all the good properties as well) by your skin.

Honeyscrub 

A twist on the above mentioned products: a honey scrub. Mix two tablespoons of honey with two tablespoons of sea salt. The honey contains all good nutritional values that treat your skin and provide radiance to it. The salt removes your dead skin cells. A perfect combination!

Honey facemask

If you went to the store and found the shelf containing facial masks, you’ve undoubtedly found the ‘taste’ of honey. That isn’t a complete surprise. Honey contains large amounts of amino acids, enzymes and antioxidants that have many positive effects. Think of feeding your cells and regulating moisture in your skin. In addition, they help the recovery of cells in your skin. That’s not all. Honey also has rejuvenating and antibacterial properties. Want to experience these positive effects? Spread a tablespoon of honey over your clean, dry face and enjoy a simple but good and moisturizing mask. Leave the mask on for about 20 minutes and rinse it afterwards with warm water.

Highlighter  

Last summer I really wanted to give my hair a lighter touch lighter. I’d rather not use unnatural products. A friend tipped me to make and use a honey hair mask. As mentioned in the introduction: when honey comes into contact with moisture, a small chemical reaction is taking place in which hydrogen peroxide is the end result. Hydrogen peroxide can be used to bleach your hair. Do you fancy a summer glow? Mix three tablespoons of honey with a tablespoon of water and massage it into your clean, damp hair. Rinse it after an hour. Repeat this a number of times during a couple of weeks and voilà, a natural coupe soleil!

Honey cookies

Not completely matching with the previous care products but definitely a recipe that shouldn’t be missing on this list: honey cookies. Now, I honestly confess, these aren’t the healthiest of cookies. Even so, they’re definitely not unhealthy. They’re sweetened with the natural sugars from the honey. In addition, it applies here as well: you get the good nutrients of the honey on from the inside of the baked goods.  

Ingredients:

200 gr. flour, sifted
10 gr. corn starch, sifted
50 gr. butter
90 gr. honey
1 egg yolk

How to make honey cookies?

1. Preheat the oven to 160⁰C.
2. Mix the egg yolk, the butter and honey and knead together with the flour and corn starch until you’ve a smooth dough
3. Roll out the dough until it’s about half a centimetre thick. Then roll it onto the bubble wrap even further to about 2 millimetres thick. You’ll get a nice honeycomb pattern in the cookie.
4. Use the cookie mould(s) to make cookies out of the dough and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes or until light golden brown.