Chances are you’ve heard of manuka honey—that exorbitantly expensive honey native to New Zealand and made by bees that gather nectar from the flowering manuka bush just a few weeks each year when it is in bloom. But, aside from being rare, what is it that makes this honey truly extraordinary—and, in the case of Eighth Day, a powerhouse skin care ingredient?
Honey is a well-established natural antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-viral that has been used since ancient times to soothe sore throats, improve digestion, and aid the recovery of wounds and burns. Manuka honey, though, has proven to be in a class of its own.
“Studies have shown that manuka honey can enhance tissue’s ability to regenerate,” says Eighth Day founder Dr. Antony Nakhla, a leading dermatologist and reconstructive surgeon who specializes in skin cancer.
So exceptional are manuka honey’s reparative powers, Dr. Nakhla relies upon it as an alternative treatment option during surgery, using it as a protective dressing to help keep open wounds moist, infection-free, and to accelerate the healing process. “I’ve used it, and continue to use it, on complicated wounds that won’t heal,” he says. “This miraculous honey induces immune responses from the skin.” Indeed, in 2007, mighty manuka honey was approved as a wound healing agent by the FDA.
While many of manuka honey’s properties still remain mysterious to the scientific community, “we know it has bioactive effects on human cells,” says Dr. Nakhla. Inspired by the tremendous success he has had with manuka honey in his surgical work, stimulating skin’s natural repair process and aiding cell regrowth, he decided to add the precious natural ingredient to products like the Regenerating Serum. Combined with high-tech actives like Eighth Day’s patent-pending Peptide-Rich Plasma, “it’s amazing what it does,” says Dr. Nakhla.