Today, I’m sharing a favorite ritual tool: Hey Honey’s Come Clean Propolis & Minerals Facial Scrub — a creamy, grainy blend of dead sea minerals, propolis, and honey that buffs, smooths, and renews not just your skin… but your whole energetic field. Let’s explore the magic of exfoliation, the ancient beauty power of honey, and the mystical role of bees in spiritual practice.
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A Brief History of Honey in Skincare
Honey in Celtic Tradition, Myth, and the Legacy of Saint Gobnait
While honey is treasured across many ancient cultures, the Celtic world holds a particularly mystical reverence for bees and their golden medicine. In Ireland, honey wasn’t just a sweetener or a healing balm — it was a sacred bridge between the human world and the divine.
Saint Gobnait: Patron Saint of Beekeepers
One of the most beloved figures in Irish folk tradition is Saint Gobnait (also known as Gobinet or Gobnaid), the patron saint of beekeepers. She is believed to have lived during the 5th or 6th century and was born in County Clare, eventually residing on Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands. According to legend, Gobnait had a holy vision instructing her to journey until she found a place where nine white deer appeared. When she finally encountered them, she returned to the mainland and founded what is now known as St. Gobnait’s Monastery in Ballyvourney, County Cork.
Beekeeping became central to her spiritual calling. She was said to have used bees — and the honey they produced — to heal the sick, protect the vulnerable, and even ward off danger. Her connection to bees was so deep that medieval stories describe her sending swarms to defend her people. To this day, beekeepers in Ireland still regard her as a guardian of their craft.
The accompanying image of St. Gobnait’s Church on Inisheer represents this lineage. Although the current stone church dates to the 11th century, local tradition holds that it stands upon the earlier foundations laid by Gobnait herself, and some say it even preserves remnants of her original beehive-shaped hut, a structure style commonly used by early Celtic hermits.
Honey in Celtic Myth & the Land of the Gods
Beyond the saints and monasteries, honey permeates Celtic mythology as a symbol of abundance, purity, and the Otherworld. Ancient Irish tales described the divine realm — sometimes called Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth — as a place where rivers flowed with honey and mead, emphasizing its sweetness, vitality, and eternal nourishment.
In Celtic herbalism and folk medicine, honey was used as both a healing salve and a spiritual offering. Bees were thought to carry messages between worlds, and their honey embodied the blessings of the gods: protection, fertility, and physical renewal. Its natural preservative and antibacterial qualities weren’t just practical — they reinforced honey’s role as a mystical, life-giving substance.
Using Honey in Exfoliation
We often think of exfoliation as something harsh — scrubbing away dead skin cells with grit and grain. But exfoliation, at its heart, is a release ritual. It clears not just the physical layers of buildup, but also the energetic debris that clings to us throughout the week: stress, tension, and the dulling weight of doing too much.
Regular exfoliation helps:
- Increase cell turnover
- Minimize the appearance of pores
- Fade dark spots and acne scarring
- Promote a brighter, smoother complexion
- Improve absorption of serums and moisturizers
When you choose the right exfoliant — one that’s gentle, mineral-rich, and infused with healing botanicals — it becomes more than a treatment. It becomes a self-blessing.
If you would like to incorporate your lip products into your rituals as well, you can check out my blog post How to Show Up for Yourself: 9 Empowering Rituals + A Touch of K-Beauty Lip Magic
The Magical (and Scientific) Power of Honey & Propolis
Honey is a natural humectant — it draws moisture into the skin and keeps it there. It’s also antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and loaded with antioxidants that soothe and heal. Propolis, sometimes called “bee glue,” is what honeybees use to seal and protect their hives. It’s rich in flavonoids and has been used in folk medicine for centuries to treat wounds, infections, and inflammation.
Skin Benefits of Honey & Propolis:
- Soothes irritated or acne-prone skin
- Brightens and deeply hydrates
- Protects the skin barrier
- Speeds healing of blemishes and minor abrasions
- Delivers potent antioxidants and amino acids
When combined in a facial scrub, honey and propolis do double duty: gently exfoliating and calming your skin — like a warm herbal compress for your face.
Bees as Spiritual Guides
Bees are more than just pollinators. In many traditions, bees are considered messengers of the divine. Ancient priestesses at the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus were called “melissae,” meaning bees. In Celtic myth, bees were believed to carry messages between worlds — from this life to the next.
Photo Credit: “The Widow” by Charles Napier Hemy (Public Domain)
For witches and spiritual healers, bees represent:
- Community and sacred cooperation
- Fertility, abundance, and creation
- The balance between work and pleasure
- The sweetness of life after hard effort
As a familiar, the bee teaches us to:
- Protect our boundaries fiercely (like the hive)
- Move through life in rhythm and harmony
- Recognize the sacredness in everyday tasks
Earth Magic in Your Scrub
What makes this particular scrub extra special is the earth-born ingredients it contains. Beyond the bee magic, Hey Honey’s formula includes Dead Sea minerals — rich in magnesium, calcium, and potassium — known to detoxify, soften, and tone the skin.
To the forest witch, these minerals are grounding elements, connecting you to the body of the Earth itself. When massaged into the skin, they act like an energetic exfoliant too — helping you slough off psychic sludge and realign with the frequency of moss, bark, and flowing streams.
You might try using the scrub:
- After a forest walk to ground and reset
- During the waning moon to release old energies
- As part of a Sunday bath ritual with rose water and incense
- Alongside a visualization of old skin, old stories, old wounds falling away
A Closer Look at Hey Honey’s “Come Clean” Scrub
Let’s get practical for a moment and talk about what’s inside this product — and why it works:
“Come Clean” Scrub Key Ingredients
Propolis Extract
Propolis extract delivers powerful antimicrobial benefits, offering antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral protection that helps keep blemish-prone or compromised skin clear and balanced. Its rich concentration of flavonoids and phenolic acids provides strong anti-inflammatory effects, calming redness, swelling, and irritation—an especially helpful quality for sensitive or reactive skin types. Propolis also accelerates wound healing by promoting reepithelialization, enhancing collagen formation, and supporting tissue regeneration, making it particularly effective for post-acne recovery and barrier repair.
Its antioxidant capabilities help neutralize free radicals and shield the skin from oxidative stress, which can delay visible signs of aging and photo-damage. Additionally, propolis fortifies the skin barrier and improves moisture retention while soothing and regenerating the skin with compounds like caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), which aids cellular renewal after exfoliation, sun exposure, or irritation.
Dead Sea Minerals
Dead Sea minerals provide deep moisturization through magnesium and calcium, which help reinforce the skin barrier and improve hydration. Their anti-inflammatory properties reduce redness and irritation, making these minerals ideal for sensitive or reactive skin types. They also support skin barrier repair by promoting keratinocyte regeneration and lipid synthesis. In terms of anti-aging benefits, Dead Sea minerals work through three main mechanisms: keratinocyte rejuvenation, photo-protection, and the elevation of cellular energy.
Glycerin
Glycerin offers intense hydration as a humectant, drawing moisture into the skin and helping it stay supple and plump. It aids barrier repair by promoting lamellar lipid formation and strengthening the stratum corneum, enhancing the skin’s natural defenses. Regular use improves softness and elasticity, contributing to smoother skin texture over time. Glycerin also supports wound healing by aiding epidermal repair and regeneration, making it beneficial for conditions such as atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. By activating aquaporin-3 channels, it helps skin cells transport water and maintain hydration balance, and its antimicrobial properties support a healthy microbiome and help manage minor infections.
Sweet Almond Oil
Sweet almond oil provides deep moisturization through its high content of oleic and linoleic acids, which help restore skin lipids and prevent transepidermal water loss. It supports barrier repair by strengthening the stratum corneum, making it especially beneficial for dry or compromised skin. Its anti-inflammatory properties help calm irritation and soothe conditions such as eczema and dermatitis. Sweet almond oil also improves skin texture by enhancing softness and smoothness, making it suitable for both youthful and aging skin. With vitamin E and other antioxidants, it delivers protection against free radicals and oxidative stress, and its lightweight texture enhances penetration, carrying other active ingredients deeper into the skin.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E provides potent antioxidant protection by neutralizing free radicals and reducing oxidative stress, helping prevent premature aging and UV-induced damage. It offers photoprotection by absorbing UVB energy and minimizing inflammation, which makes it a valuable addition to sun care formulations. Vitamin E also supports the skin barrier by enhancing lipid structure and maintaining moisture in the stratum corneum. Its wound-healing properties promote tissue repair, reduce scarring, and boost collagen synthesis. With natural anti-inflammatory action, it helps calm redness and irritation, benefiting conditions like eczema and dermatitis. Delivered to the skin through sebum, Vitamin E also contributes to hydration from within.
Texture:
Creamy base with ultra-fine granules — satisfying without being abrasive. It rinses easily and leaves the skin smooth, glowy, and comforted.
Skin Types:
Ideal for normal to combination or congested skin. Gentle enough for 2–3x a week use depending on your skin’s needs.
Shop it here:
If you’d like to try Hey Honey’s “Come Clean” Scrub for yourself, you can find it here.
A Honey-Infused Exfoliation Spell for Clarity & Glow
What You’ll Need:
- Hey Honey Come Clean Scrub
- A small bowl of warm water
- A clean cloth or soft towel
- A mirror
- A yellow candle or crystal (citrine, amber, or tiger’s eye)
The Ritual:
- Light your candle and call in the energy of the bee — focused, glowing, sweet with intention.
- Gently massage the scrub onto damp skin in small circles.
- As you exfoliate, whisper or think: “I release what no longer serves. I welcome clarity. I welcome radiance.”
- Rinse with warm water, pat dry, and gaze into the mirror with gratitude. You are not shedding skin — you are revealing light.
- Anoint your cheekbones with honey (optional!) and seal your ritual with a deep breath.
Treat Yourself with Honey
There’s something deeply intimate about exfoliating — the circular motion, the transformation, the renewal. When you choose a product like Hey Honey’s Come Clean Propolis & Minerals Facial Scrub, you’re not just cleansing your face. You’re tending to your spirit. Calling in the energy of bees: structured, sacred, purposeful. You’re nourishing your skin with honey: golden, healing, ancient. And you’re reminding yourself that even in the mess of life, you are allowed to shine.
