Bee-stung lips? Whynot try the whole face?
VENOM CREAM
There is nothing like a closeup mirror to cause a gal in her prime to feel the sting of aging. Ouch. Now, the sting of a bee can take the bite out of that unwelcome reality.
A new beauty product just being launched commercially in North America uses bee venom as an alternative to Botox. The Vancouver Island business launching the product says bee venom can work wonders on those age-defining lines. But unlike Botox, bee venom cream doesn’t paralyze facial muscles.
“It fools the skin into thinking it has been stung, and it releases certain chemicals that tighten the area to combat the sting,” explains Catherine Martin, co-owner of Wedderspoon Organics, a Duncan, B.C.-based organic manuka honey business. In particular, bee venom stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, she says.
“Gwyneth Paltrow and other movie stars [who import it from England for personal use] say they swear by it,” she says, adding it’s very popular in the U.K. and is a craze among China’s new middle class.
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has been applying it to her face for about five years. People say she’s looking good and, while marital bliss could be behind it, she claims it’s bee venom beating back years of smoking and horse riding. Duchess Kate is said to be using it, too, although it’s hard to imagine she needs it yet.
Wedderspoon’s Martin hails from England and on visits saw this product take the nation by storm. She and her husband, Sebastien Martin, decided to add the product to their line of manuka honey products.
“We thought the cream itself, the idea and the science behind it, was interesting, and we wanted to develop a more organic — more of a natural emphasis — with our cream because that is what Wedderspoon is all about,” she says. “So we have developed our own formulation, and we are really pleased with it.”
Besides the venom, the cream contains active manuka honey and wax, apricot, cocoa and avocado oils and lots of other organic stuff. It doesn’t contain sodium lauryl sulfates, petroleum, mineral oil or parabens.
When applied to the face, the cream feels nourishing and the venom provokes a slight tingling sensation followed by a tightening. It can be used as a mask or a day or night cream.
Vancouver allergist Ross Chang says there is logic to the product.
“It probably works,” he says, adding that he hasn’t had any experience with it yet. “What the body is trying to do is heal itself against this poison. As a consequence it starts making new tissues.”
The trick for the manufacturers, Chang says, is to use enough venom to stimulate the process but not so much that it would cause swelling.
People with bee allergies are urged to avoid this product. Chang warns even non-allergic people can become sensitive to toxins over time so that one day, even after years of use, they have a severe reaction. This also happens with hair dye.
Some say they notice a positive change in their skin after five to seven days using bee venom. Others say it takes weeks or months to make a difference. Martin says the venom has a cumulative effect. Each time it is applied, more collagen and elastin are produced.
No injections, no paralysis — and no bees harmed. To harvest the venom, beekeepers put a glass lid over their hives, preventing the bees from leaving. Frustrated, the bees sting the glass. Releasing its stinger normally kills a honeybee, but the stinger can’t penetrate the glass and remains in the bee. The venom collects on the glass.
“It is so expensive,” says Martin. “The going rate for the venom is $250 per gram.” One sting contains about 50 micrograms.