Give Your Skin A Buzz: Is Bee Venom The Key To Anti-Ageing?

When Botox emerged as the new anti-ageing trend a few years ago, bee venom also arrived on the skin care scene as a natural alternative. Back then, it was boasted that bee venom could sting your skin into restoration and plump it back to life, especially in menopausal women, and now it looks as though these honey-lovers are set to make a sweet skincare comeback.

The reason why researchers, then and now, turn to bee venom is that it tricks your skin into thinking it has been lightly stung with the melittin toxin. This causes your body to react, directing blood towards the area and stimulating the production of collagen and elastin. In 1990, the ingredient first appeared in a few North American products, with our European manufacturers catching up in 2004, and sky-rocketing the trend.

Eventually, the popularity of bee venom gave way to newer and shinier discoveries, such as snake venom and other natural ingredients, but the Korean and European brands look set to revitalise bee venom once more. The Korean government is investing huge sums of money into research around the ingredient, and European skincare brands, such as UK-based Rodial, have now launched new lines purely based on the venom of bees.

The product released by Rodial is supposed to give the eye area a rejuvenating buzz with seven active ingredients, including bee venom. According to a company spokesperson, ‘Bee Venom works in synergy with plant stem cells to help visibly improve skin tone and elasticity, whilst Cyclopeptide-5 smoothes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles around the delicate eye area. Haloxyl diminished the appearance of dark circles for a brighter, wide-awake look,’ – and that’s only what three out of seven active ingredients do.

If you’re concerned about what this may do to the bee population, worry not. Wellness experts in this area say that a specialised glass surface, called a collecter, is placed alongside the gate of the hive to extract the venom. It features a weak electrical current to encourage the bees to gently sting the glass surface, but, as they cannot penetrate it, their abdomens remain intact and they don’t die in the process.