Bee Venom... Yay, or definitely Neigh?

I was on my way home tonight when I received an email from Boxed Beauty about some products by Manuka Doctor for acne prone skin.

As someone who has been troubled by acne since I was 11 years old, I always have my eyes and ears open for something new to try. I know from working with horses that Manuka honey has great healing properties, and was excited to hear about a skin care range that incorporated it.

That was, until I kept reading, and found it also contains bee venom. What?!! My thoughts exactly - I've never heard of this being in skin products!
Turns out, I'm slow... it is this year's new trend. Of course, the first question that goes through my head is "How on earth do they collect that, and what benefit can it possibly have?". So I've taken to the land of the interwebz to find out, and it did not take me long to find out more.

MANUKA DR BEE VENOM COLLECTION

This video is taken from the Manuka Doctor website (I couldn't get this exact one to embed), which shows you how they collect it. I guess your feelings on exactly how cruelty free are dependent on if you think that electrocuting the little guys to make them angry to sting is mean or not. Myself, I'm not down with the idea.

Basically what they're doing is sending an electric pulse through the thin membrane which is laying over a sheet of glass. The bees are let loose, so as the pulse goes through, it electrocutes our little buzzers so they 'sting' the membrane - the venom is collected on the sheet of glass underneath and they wait for it to dry.

Now, the 'cruelty free' part is that they fly away after. That is, if they don't get their little stingers caught in the membrane so it falls off and they die. Or they don't go crazy and start attacking each other in their rage, and kill each other. My next thought is, if this really DOES get popular, will this 'harmless' way of collection get shoved aside for the cheaper option of killing them and removing the venom sacks completely for larger production?? Only time will tell on that one I guess.

The benefit part is that the venom is said to replicate the feeling of being stung when applied to the skin, so the rush of blood to the area increases collagen production to help with scarring and wrinkle appearance. As much as I hate my acne scars, I'm not convinced.

So, really I guess my hopes are dashed. To be totally honest, I haven't done much in terms of research on Manuka honey facial products, so I am unsure if there are any others out there that don't want Mr Bumble Bee's weapon of choice inside. I don't think we'll be finding Manuka Doctor on BUAV's leaping bunny lists anytime soon.

What do you think?