Manuka Honey

A natural history

Manuka honey is made by bees from the nectar of the manuka, a hardy white-flowered tree of New Zealand and southeastern Australia long valued by the Maori, who used the plant itself in traditional care: a gum from the tree was applied to burns, and other parts were used on the skin. The honey gathered from its blossoms turned out to be unlike any other.

What sets manuka apart is a natural compound called methylglyoxal, which gives it a soothing, antibacterial character that ordinary honeys lack. So distinctive is this quality that manuka is one of the few foods sold with a numbered potency grade on the jar, marked UMF or MGO, a kind of certificate of strength found on almost nothing else in the kitchen.

What it does for your skin

Honey has been a skin ingredient for as long as there has been skincare, and modern review confirms why: as a humectant it draws and holds water, and it soothes and conditions, with manuka singled out for the antibacterial edge of its methylglyoxal.^[1] A review of manuka specifically traces that potency to its unique compounds, the basis for its place in soothing, blemish-prone-skin formulas.^[2] We use it for that hydrating, comforting touch.

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