Our top choice for the best manuka honey for face and skincare is Steens Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+ after hundreds of hours of studying the beneficial skincare qualities of manuka honey. It’s raw honey and has a ranking of UMF 10+, meaning it has all the qualities that make it perfect while still being affordable for your skin.
What Is Manuka Honey?
Manuka honey is a special form of honey native to New Zealand that comes from bees collecting nectar from the Manuka plant (Leptospermum scoparium). All real Manuka honey, therefore, originates from New Zealand. The shrub of the Manuka tree has a brief flowering season, making this form of honey even rarer. The bees know what to do, good for us, and they’re not called busy bees for anything. Every year they get to work gathering the pollen and making the honeycomb that our Manuka honey gives us. Nature is in such a way that cool.
Best Manuka Honey for Face and Skin Care
Steens Raw Monofloral Manuka Honey MGO 263+
For most individuals, our top face and skincare pick is Steens Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+. Steens use a cold-pressed process to extract their honey, ensuring that the honey is only heated to 96F. This means that high temperatures are not denatured by the beneficial enzymes, antioxidants, and other nutrients in the honey.
The honey also has natural antibacterial properties and serves as a cleanser, destroying the bacteria on your face and living in your pores, with a UMF ranking of 10+.
When they extract the honey and during processing, it is normal for most honey producers to heat their honey to temperatures over 150F. This makes it easier for the honey to work with, but it has the effect of breaking down the honey’s antioxidants and enzymes that help keep free radicals from harming the skin cells.
When you remember that Steens manuka honey typically commands premium prices due to the care they take in minimally processing their honey, our top pick is a particularly good value. Steens Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+ is consistently priced lower than other UMF 10+ manuka honey, so you get a competitively priced high-quality honey.
Tahi Manuka Honey UMF 10+
Our choice for people interested in supporting an eco-friendly business is Tahi’s Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+. It’s a raw UMF 10+ manuka honey, so it’s just as good for your skin, but on top of that when it comes to looking beyond its bottom line, Tahi has a wonderful track record:
- Carbon neutral sector
- Supports cleared farmland reforestation
- Engage in harvesting responsibly
They constantly calculate and independently check and monitor their carbon footprint, and Tahi is serious about reducing their environmental effects. They’ve gained a carbon-neutral status as part of their efforts.
From the bees that produce their honey to the natural habitats that their bees forage in, Tahi considers nature as their greatest asset. They participate in the reforestation of land previously cleared of native bush to be used for cattle and sheep as pasture land. This helps foster biodiversity and reconstruct the natural habitats in which their bees and other indigenous species flourish.
They also participate in responsible harvesting processes. Just a portion of the honey that the bees produce is harvested by Tahi, leaving the majority of the honey to support the bees that produce it. Most honey produces all their honey to extract and support their bees on a sugar and water mixture that deprives the bees of their nutrient-rich honey.
Check here for more Products on Manuka Honey for Face and Skin Care
How does manuka honey benefit your skin?
Manuka honey has some special qualities that make it great for your skin:
- Antibacterial
- Anti-inflammatory
- Promotes healing
- Naturally hydrates skin
Antibacterial
Many kinds of honey may have antibacterial effects, but to get rid of bacteria, manuka honey is particularly strong. A variety of studies have shown the unique ability of manuka honey to kill various kinds of bacteria, including those that cause skin infections and those that live in your pores and cause acne.
Anti-Inflammatory
Honey has natural anti-inflammatory properties that can help alleviate redness from dry, irritated skin and adult acne, as well as inflammation. It also helps to soothe the skin and minimize pain from swelling, in addition to reducing the redness of the inflamed skin.
Promotes Healing
Honey has a low degree of pH, which makes it slightly acidic. Although it may sound counterintuitive, by helping cells consume oxygen, the quality actually helps to facilitate cellular regeneration. Antioxidants in honey also help to avoid free radicals from cellular damage.
Naturally Hydrates Skin
Honey serves as a natural moisturizer and can remove moisture from the atmosphere, helping to moisturize your skin.
Also, See Manuka Oil and Honey Acne Treatment
How we choose the right honey manuka for face and skincare?
Raw Honey
Our first requirement was to find honey that was raw at temperatures over 118F and not refined. Heating honey above these temperatures degrades the enzymes and antioxidants naturally occurring in manuka honey that are good for skincare.
Raw honey also has hydrogen peroxide that exists naturally, which can help kill bacteria living on your skin. Hydrogen peroxide, like the enzymes in honey, is also heat sensitive and rapidly degrades under high temperatures. Honey manufactured at temperatures above 118F has slightly lower levels of hydrogen peroxide, which occurs naturally.
UMF 10+ Rating
The UMF rating of the different manuka honey we were looking at was the second thing we considered. The honey’s UMF rating effectively tests the efficacy of the special antibacterial activity of manuka honey. The greater the number, the more antibacterial it is.
Manuka honey does not have any antibacterial activity greater than normal honey at levels lower than UMF 10+. So, we looked for a minimum rating of UMF 10+ to benefit from the unique bacteria-killing antibacterial nature of manuka honey.
In particular, given the steep price jump between different grades of manuka honey, higher grades above UMF 10+ do not provide much additional value. For UMF 15+ manuka honey, it is not uncommon to be close to double the price of UMF 10+ manuka honey from the same brand.
UMF 10+ manuka honey is the best bet for most individuals who use manuka honey for skincare.
Price
Price was our final concern. Manuka honey can be costly, so we also searched for manuka honey that provided great value in addition to only looking at our first two requirements.
How to Use Manuka Honey for Skin?
Cleanser
This is how this magical honey was first introduced to me! Simply spoon a small amount on clean fingers and massage your skin (makeup-free) for at least a minute, if you’d like, go longer. Rinse and pat dry with warm water. This is my go-to moisturizer, complete with your moisturizer of choice.
You will love this if you have acne or breakout-prone skin! I washed my face with manuka honey in the morning and at night when my skin really broke out last year and it made a huge difference. I noticed that because it was so soothing, my skin, in general, was less reactive. Blemishes healed more quickly and were often less visible.
Face Mask
It can also be used for treating breakouts, relaxing inflammation, reducing redness, and soothing the skin as a face mask. It’s also very moisturizing and leaves the skin feeling balanced and supple.
Simply spoon a small amount on and rub it all over your face mask in order to mix up a simple mask. For 10-20 minutes, let it sit and rinse.
Because of the natural probiotics, you can also blend manuka honey with organic green tea powder or a high-quality yogurt. Combine a teaspoon of brown sugar and a little bit of coconut oil if you want a nice exfoliating mask.
Dark Spot Treatment
This one is new to me but one I’m going to try as soon as I have any dark spots on my forehead (thanks to pregnancy!).
Combine and combine a teaspoon of raw manuka honey, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of organic cane sugar. Rub the clean skin all over and let stay for 20 minutes. Fully rinse and finish off with a moisturizer.
Too many dark spot remedies require bleaching and harsh additives, so I love that this perfectly natural product can be used to minimize dark spots, plus a few other kitchen staples.
Final Thoughts
Manuka honey is one remedy for sweet skin. But it’s important to choose high-quality Manuka honey from a reputable retailer, as with all items, whether natural or otherwise. Be sure to verify the date of “best by too. This will make sure that the benefits of the compounds that make Manuka honey so unique can be reaped.
Also, See The Best Manuka Honey Brands of 2020 – Buying Guide