Ahh! Will the honey madness ever stop? (Yes. Yes it will. After Friday. So bear with me.)
So washing your face with honey is pretty perfect already? But what about those of you who are still having little breakouts? Still feeling a bit dry?
Answer: Herbal infused honey.
And, people of the internets, herbal infused honey isn’t just for your face. You can do this for your foods. And for your health.
SO HONEY ON, PEOPLE. Honey on.
Why You Want to Infuse Your Honey With Herbs (or Flowers)
As you know, honey is nutritious. Honey is also superb for your skin.
But if you infuse your honey with some herbs, it will do double duty for you, in new and fascinating ways. (Think I’m over exaggerating? Try it, sister.)
We’ll talk about skincare last here, but here are other reasons you might want to infuse your honey with herbs.
Sage Honey Is an Effective Cough Syrup
Did you know, studies have shown that honey is more effective than over-the-counter cough syrup at reducing coughing? If you add the mighty lung-strengthening power and antibacterial properties of sage, you get a homemade cough syrup that’s nearly unrivaled.
In fact, I make it a habit to infuse a cup of honey with sage every fall, just so I have some ready. (It keeps forever.)
You can take it just like you would cough syrup, or add it to hot teas for an extra immune-system boost.
Infused Honey Is Delicious In So Many Ways
How does vanilla ice cream topped with mint-vanilla infused honey sound? Or a vanilla-lavender infused honey over cream puffs? Or rosemary honey on toast with eggs? Rose honey in green tea? (Or even chili-infused honey … yowza.)
Your possibilities are literally endless. Be creative. Be daring.
Convinced yet?
Herbal Infused Honey for Skincare
Herbs and flowers. Your skin loves them. Add them to your honey to kick the whole honey wash thing up a beautiful notch.
With this basic list, you’ll be able to pick and choose, customizing an infused honey that is perfect for your honey face wash and just for you.
Normal Skin:
Any desired combination of the above. And, frankly, that’s just a small sampling of different herbs and flowers you can use in skincare, so if you have one you’d love to use, do some research. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.
How to Make Herbal Infused Honey
Before, I would infuse my honey with sage over low, low heat (which, in retrospect, still might have damaged some of the honey’s properties). From now on, I’m doing it this way!
Here’s What You Need
I’m making mine with lavender and rosemary, because it’s summer and my skin is a tiny bit on the oily side. But remember, you can use whatever herb/flower combination you’d like!
Herb Infused Honey – Step 1 – Add Herbs to the Jar
First, you need to find a jar that holds about twice the amount of honey you’d like to infuse.
Thoroughly clean (and sterilize via boiling water) the glass jar or container and allow it to dry completely.
Then, fill it up about halfway with dried herbs.
Herb Infused Honey – Step 2 – Cover the Herbs with Honey
Now you simply cover the herbs with the honey.
About a half-and-half mixture. (Unless you’re using vanilla beans, in which case I’d recommend using 2 slit beans per 1/2 c. honey.)
Really, how many herbs you use in relation to how much honey you want is up to you – more herbs = stronger infusion.
So you pour, and pour, and pour your honey:
And then, once you have enough honey in your jar to fully submerse your herbs, you stir it up.
Herb Infused Honey – Step 3 – Put the Lid On and Let it Steep
And you put a lid on it.
Then, you turn it over every day for a week or two. (I found myself turning mine over several times a day.)
But mostly you leave it alone. Or stare at it longingly. Or sing it sweet, sweet songs that go, “Kiss me, honey, honey kiss me …”
Herb Infused Honey – Step 4
After a week or two of letting your herbs/flowers steep in the honey, you’re going to want to strain all of it out. I only let mine steep for 5 days, so I could write this post. But 5 days was PLENTY of time to make a really fragrant herbal honey.
Make it easy on yourself: Warm your honey up for a minute by setting the jar in a bowl of warm water. This’ll help it drip through faster.
As I’m using mine on my face, I didn’t worry about straining out the smaller pieces, so I just used my mesh strainer. (Tiny lavender and rosemary pieces add extra scrubby power!)
If I were doing this for honey that I wanted to eat, I’d use a cheesecloth. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Cheesecloth for more clarified honey.
So all you do is strain it into another jar, pop the lid on, and keep it handy for whenever you need it.
And then you have … ta da …
Herbal infused honey, ladies and gents:
Store it in a tightly lidded jar, and your herb infused honey will keep indefinitely, but my guess is you’ll use it all up before you know it.
And that … is that.
Last Call For the Honey Challenge
Tomorrow’s post will have absolutely nothing to do with honey.
BUT TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY TO MAKE THE CRUNCHY PLEDGE TO WASH YOUR FACE WITH HONEY FOR 2 WEEKS.
Do that over in the Honey Challenge Introduction post, if you haven’t yet.
And bloggers – bloggy bloggersons – be sure to get your Honey Challenge post up on yer fancy schmancy blogs if you want to feature it in the linky party on Friday.
As if you need another reminder, here it is:
HONEY ON.
Removing Your Makeup the Honey Face-Wash Way
I have terrible teenage skin that’s red and oily. What herbs should I use and how often do I use the face wash???
Can infused honey spoil?
Making a calendula, rose, and yarrow infused honey as we speak! I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Great!Now (thanks to you) I know how to infuse honey with herbs.This article was very useful to me 😉
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! I have been looking for a way to infuse honey without heat! I can’t wait to try this!
Does anyone else want to make the kiss me, spank me honey just so they can bring it to in conversation?
Oh gosh, I feel like the tiny little weiner dog puppy that gets sooooooo excited about ANYTHING that it pee’s on the floor! Lucky for me I have better bladder control that a a tiny little weiner dog puppy, esp since I am using my valuable work time to peruse the Crunchy Betty site since I have been away from a computer for 3 days now. I don’t think my co-workers would like me very much if I had to explain why I just piddled on the floor and I’m so excited right now it would just comeoutasacompletelyjumbledmess! All I can say is I love you Crunchy Betty and all your crunchiness!
Thank you for this!
While I’m loving the soft skin that my daily honey wash is giving me, I’m still having problems with breakouts. Over the last couple of years my skin has reverted back to adolescent oiliness and I’ve been suffering with the worst acne I’ve had SINCE adolescence. I began a Juniper & Lavender Honey infusion yesterday thanks to your article. I can’t wait to try it!!!
Ok, I can’t stop playing with my jar of honey and herbs!
I infused my wild rose oil with fresh parsley and it started to smell funky so I had to throw it out. 🙁 It takes an insane amount of wild rose petals to do an infusion so I’m a little bummed. I guess it’s dried parsley from now on or put the whole thing in the fridge between uses. Cold oil will be a little sad.
In regards to all the fresh vs dried questions, I read somewhere (thinking Mountain Rose Herbs) that fresh herbs are good. BUT, let them “wilt” for 12 hours first in order to greatly reduce the water content. I let mine “wilt” for a few days and neither the sage nor the rose petals were “dry”, but both had shrunk considerably.
To be safe(r), I used my fresher herbs/flowers for my water infusions and sun teas.
From my reading, when you do oil infusions it is imperative the herbs are dry. Either purchased dried or allowed to dry completely. Therefore, I used my driest herbs and flowers for my oil infusions and I haven’t poured the oil in the jars yet.
Another one here wondering about using herbs fresh or dried for this infusion. I’ve got a bunch of sage and would love to have some sage infused honey on hand. Would you recommend I start drying it or use as is? Thanks!
Loving this honey challenge!
Here’s what I said above (right after you left this comment):
“So here’s my thought. If you’re using fresh herbs, you do run the risk of “infecting” the honey to some degree, because of the water content. HOWEVER, honey is so, so, so, so antibacterial and antimicrobial, I really don’t think anything “bad” could grow as a result (but I don’t know for sure). To be safe, I’d just use dried. If you DO use fresh, make sure they’re completely covered by the honey at all times (which might be hard to do, because they’ll probably want to float).”
In addition, I’ve had some yucky luck with fresh herbs so far, so for now I’ve decided to just use dried in everything I do.
Also, after lots of reading, it really changes the taste/nutritional content of herbs depending on how they’re dried. So I’m starting to think that, from now on, I’m going to buy fresh, local (or organic) and dry them myself. But that’s another conversation …
Thank you so much for your reply. I’ll start drying some sage today. And I think I’ll go up and check out that donate button. Thanks for all you do!
These sound wonderful! I too am wondering if it makes a difference if the herbs are fresh or dried. Also, on the yarrow… flowers or leaves?
I made some sage honey last winter and loved it… can’t wait to try some of these other ideas (esp. the lavender).
I would use the yarrow flowers (only because I’ve never had my hands on yarrow leaves). I know for certain yarrow flowers are nice and nourishing for dry skin. Delicately healing.
I’ve been thinking about you ALL evening. (Making coconut butter made me think about your almond butter.) Has your nose been itching? Or is it ears? Have you itched anywhere?
Um…not itching anywhere! But I did JUST do my honey wash so I’m of course thinking of you too. Coconut butter, huh? I don’t even know what that is yet but it’s terribly decadent sounding. If you find a way to add chocolate to it… just don’t tell me!
Off to go cut and dry my pretty yarrow blossoms now before the sun goes down (don’t want to wait another day)…
Have you seen this on The Nourished Life?
http://www.livingthenourishedlife.com/2011/07/raw-honey-mask-for-acne.html
I left a comment so that the people there would know about the Honey Challenge.
I did not see that on the Nourished Life. What synchronistic timing! She should totally join in …
Thank you for spreading the good word, lady.
I started four herbal honey infusions today: sage, rose, nettle, and raspberry leaf. Only the rose is for my face, but my face was very happy with plain honey. My honey is crystallized, so I did a double-boiler system on LOW heat (and turned it off completely whenever possible) to get the honey melted enough to pour into the jars on top of the herbs/flowers.
My sage came from a neighbor and was “wilted”…started out fresh a couple days ago and had been drying on the counter since. My rose petals came from several friends and were in a similar state. My nettles and raspberry leaf were organic dried herbs from a local health food store (Frontier Organics brand). The sage and roses were grown without pesticides. It took a LOT of honey to fully cover the two dried & cut herbs!!! It took a LOT of rose petals to fill a baby food jar!!!
Question: What are you going to do with the raspberry leaf one? Teas? Very curious!
The nettles and raspberry leaf are supposed to be good for you as infusions (strong teas–separately). I decided to make them into honey, also, in case the infusions are challenging to drink. I also made a sun infusion of the nettles and will drink it in the morning (supposed to also be good for energy). I have to look up the raspberry leaf again to see if it is better as a sun infusion or a moon infusion. I only bought very small amounts to try for now. I usually take nettles tincture in the Fall due to tree allergies, but would like to drink the infusions instead for all the great minerals. If I recall correctly, raspberry leaf infusions help balance the female hormones. I wasn’t planning to buy that one, so I don’t remember exactly.
I’ve used raspberry leaf tea for years to help with cramping in my period; in fact, until I drastically reduced my sugar/starch consumption, that tea was the only thing that got me through those few days each month.
Is is better to use dried or fresh herbs for infusing honey?
I will definitely try this, I need to get more honey over the weekend at my local farmer’s market.
Okay. So here’s my thought. If you’re using fresh herbs, you do run the risk of “infecting” the honey to some degree, because of the water content. HOWEVER, honey is so, so, so, so antibacterial and antimicrobial, I really don’t think anything “bad” could grow as a result (but I don’t know for sure). To be safe, I’d just use dried. If you DO use fresh, make sure they’re completely covered by the honey at all times (which might be hard to do, because they’ll probably want to float). Yay farmer’s market!
Awesome, thanks! Dried herbs are easier anyway because they keep longer. I already have some dried lavender that I bought to make sachets and I have a ton of it left over.
Can’t wait to go get more honey at the farmer’s market, the honey I’ve been using so far is from this great vendor that sells tons of different types honey from all over the San Francisco Bay Area. http://www.marshallshoney.com/ is their website, just in case anyone in the SF area is interested.
I officially have a container of honey infusing with anise, chamomile and rosemary. I’m thinking it will be a scrumptious delight for my face. The bad news is, I did not save any honey for my wash today. I have some mocha mask leftover, and it has honey in it… close enough?
The idea of sage was well-timed, as I have a sore throat, along with my two little guys. Because of my exuberant use of all my honey for the herbal infusion, I was left with none for my throat (priorities, right?) so I just threw the sage into my green tea, it tasted very green, but it wasn’t too bad.
I don’t think I can convince the boys to drink cold herbal tea with sage in it though.
So “Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me” has been stuck in my head pretty much ever since the video. I think you thoroughly got me back for “If You Like Pina Coladas.” 😛
Well. For what it’s worth, when I read this comment, the Pina Coladas got stuck in my head … again. It’s like a vicious virus we’ll pass back and forth between each other, yeah? (It could be worse.)
*evil chuckle* eeexcellent.
Ok so it took me a day to come up with a clever name for this song thing we have going on. Musical Mono: it’s catchy both ways. hahaha
Yeah, I’ve been pretty housebound, being sick and all, so I’m embracing my pathetic humor.
I read your blog religiously, and I just have to say: I LOVE YOUR PHOTOS!
Dude. THANK YOU. It’s one of the most time-consuming parts of all of this, and I cannot even begin to tell you how much it means to hear you say that. For reals.
I’m actually not doing the Honey Challenge, but this just looks soooo good. I’m getting hungry.
Speaking of Lavender, though, how is your plant doing? Mine inexplicably shriveled up and turned black the other day. T_T Any idea what I did wrong? Incidentally, my mint did the same thing, but sprouted anew unexpectedly. I don’t hold the same hope for the Lavender.
Lavender is an odd plant, it’s really picky, and it’s pretty prone to getting viruses. It sounds like yours may have gotten black spot (I know, what a name). That one is air born, which would explain why your sage came down with it to. Lucky you, sage is a bit stronger!
Anyway, if your lavender plants get black spot, there’s not a lot to be done for it. They just kinda die, unless you use some really strong chemicals that I wouldn’t recommend for anything that’s going on/in you. Good luck with the next one!
You mean mint? 😉
Haha, yeah, I did. D’oh! 😛
Ugh. My lavender hasn’t grown an inch. The tiny little plants haven’t died or anything … they’re just the exact same size as when I bought the seedlings. Now that lavender is blooming all over around here, I realized that perhaps one of my mistakes was the type of lavender I bought (which I don’t recall WHAT it was now). But … Russian lavender is the kind that grows like wildfire around here. And the leaves are exponentially different than the ones on my little plants.
Thank goodness mint’s a hardy plant, though I just went out to check on mine, and though it’s growing healthily, the bottom leaves are kinda yellowed. Don’t know if it’s because of all the rainfall lately (and it’s over watered, maybe?).
The sage is doing the best out of all of ’em. Going to have TONS of sage to dry soon.
I love the chart! Sending folks your way to figure out which herbs to use! Thanks for hosting this challenge…I’m sold. We just got some fresh local honey at the farmer’s market for the challenge so I have plenty here to infuse. Both wildflower and clover. I’ll have blueberry later.
Ooooh. Blueberry honey? Like, that’s what the bees pollinated? That would rule. RULE.
Oh my! I am sending you soooo much honey love right now!!!! I hope you can feel it all the way from San Diego… 😀
Guess what I have been doing for the past few days??? Trading herbs and veggies and flowers and fruits with friends in order to have a wide variety for a homemade day tomorrow (Wed) during which I plan to make a bunch of fun things — mostly for my own natural body care. Your herbal infused honey blog is not only delightful in and of itself but it is also PERFECT TIMING!!! (Since I’m on Pacific Time, I often see your blogs the night before.) Now I get to go to bed all happy and dreaming about infusing all sorts of wonderful things tomorrow!
I have lavender, roses, rosemary, sage, lemon verbena, thyme (2-3 types, one might be oregano), spearmint, and dried orange peels…and plenty of fresh fruits & veggies. Those are just the ones I had or traded in the last few days! I also purchased a few sample amounts of hibiscus, calendula, chamomile, nettles, raspberry leaf, and maybe a few others locally yesterday. VERY EXCITED! Thank you!!!!
Yay! This is the funnest news ever, Karin. Trading ROCKS THE HOUSE. You are going to love, love, love your herbs – I just know it. I bet you have sooooo many options in sunny San Diego. Lucky lucky!
I had such a FUN time!!!
Here is what I “made” today:
herbal infused honey (4), herbal infusions (3), and sun herb tea (4). I have my oil-infused herbs (5) ready, but I haven’t actually poured the oil in the jars, yet. Sterilizing all the jars took WAY LONGER than I expected!!! Lots of fun! ♥
I poured the oils over my dried herbs this morning and realized I had forgotten to do a rosemary infused olive oil, so now I have SIX oils sitting in a sunny windowsill.