My Thoughts: Psoriasis Honey
As most of you know, I suffer from Psoriasis. Essentially, psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder caused by an over-active immune system that speeds up the life cycle of skin cells. This causes my skin to be covered in red, flakey patches. It is dry and painful and not really something I enjoy talking about, but one thing I do LOVE talking about is lotions, oils, and scrubs that help my skin look normal. I had been seeing the advertisements for Eczema Honey pop up on Instagram and was curious if it could help my psoriasis when the EH team reached out about sending me their new product, Psoriasis Honey, to give a try. When I posted that they had sent me the product on my Instagram story, quite a few of you wanted to know my thoughts - so here they are:
I love the ingredients in this product. The majority of the ingredients are natural and all rank a 5 or below on the EWG website (side note: love using this site to look up how toxic ingredients are):
Salicylic Acid: I always look for products that contain SA, which is been used to treat psoriasis by promoting the shedding of skin cells. This is clutch when your body is producing skin cells faster than its natural ability to shed them, but also great for getting rid of any dead skin cells in normal skin.
Beeswax: I have been reading up so much on Beeswax recently. Word on the street is that is beeswax has so many inflammatory properties and is rich in Vitamin A which promotes natural moisturizing.
Honey: full of antioxidants and super moisturizing
Grapeseed Oil: High in Omega-6 and Vitamin E
Sunflower Oil: High in Vitamin E and has natural properties that help you retain moisture.
Optiphen: This is a paraben-free and formaldehyde-free preservative used in lotion or scrubs that helps protects against mold and bacteria in lotion. With this product being almost 100% natural, including a preservative like this makes sense. After some quick research, it looks as if this is a globally approved preservative system and ranks a 5 on the EWG scale.
It's multi-purpose!! While you can use this product as a lotion, you can also use it as a face mask - win/win!
It has a major cooling effect. The instructions on the bottle suggest storing this product in the refrigerator, which keeps the product cold and feels so good when applying to irritated skin.
After having it for a bit, I did notice that the product did start to separate. I find this to be a good thing because this means the ingredients ARE natural (think natural peanut butter vs peanut butter that has added preservatives.) I personally don’t mind this, but it is worth mentioning.
Because this cream is natural and suuuuper hydrating, I did find it to be a pretty "sticky" before it dried compared to other lotions. However, this can be better for my psoriasis because I know the moister is sinking into my skin and I don't mind waiting a bit longer for it to dry. If you have severely dry and/or sensitive skin and drugstore lotion just won't cut it, you know what I'm talking about.
Overall, I really do like this product. Because it is pretty sticky, I would suggest its best use would be as a face mask or as a moisture treatment when you have some time at home and know your body really needs the good stuff (vs using it as an everyday lotion.) When doing this type of thing, I find the best time to put it on is right before I brush my teeth and wash my face before bed. This way, it give the product time to dry out a bit and can work throughout the night to help moisturize and heal my skin.
You can find the product here with a website full of info, reviews, and other new products - including before and after photos. Also, the Psoriasis Honey team interviewed me and asked me to talk about how psoriasis affects me and what I wish others knew about it. You can find that blog here.
Happy healing!
