Clinical evidence
The research behind our products.
Most natural skincare is sold on plausibility. Ours has been through randomised controlled trials — run independently by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, registered in advance and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Here is what each trial found, with links to the full papers.
Rosacea
A randomised controlled trial of 138 participants across five New Zealand sites, comparing a 90% medical-grade kānuka honey and 10% glycerine formulation against a placebo cetomacrogol cream. Both were applied twice daily for eight weeks.
- 65% of participants improved
- 34% improved substantially
- 13% cleared completely, against 2.9% on placebo
- Improvement was visible at two weeks and had increased by week eight
Fingleton J, et al. A randomised controlled trial of topical kanuka honey for the treatment of rosacea. BMJ Open 2015;5:e007651. Read the paper
Registered ANZCTR ACTRN12614000004662. Results also presented at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting, 2015 (poster 871).
An earlier pilot study found the treatment well tolerated, with most patients reporting improvement.
Fingleton J, et al. Topical kanuka honey for the treatment of rosacea. Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies 2013;18(4):221–222.
Cold sores
952 adults recruited through 76 community pharmacies across New Zealand between September 2015 and December 2017. Participants were randomised within 72 hours of an outbreak to either the kānuka honey formulation or 5% aciclovir cream, both applied five times daily. The primary outcome was time to return to normal skin.
- Comparable healing times — median 9 days with kānuka honey, 8 days with aciclovir; hazard ratio 1.06 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.22), p=0.56, not a statistically significant difference
- Comparable on every secondary outcome, including maximal pain, time to pain resolution and treatment acceptability
- No related serious adverse events
Why this trial matters. Natural products are rarely tested against pharmaceuticals at all, and almost never at this scale. Here a kānuka honey formulation was put directly against the treatment most New Zealanders are handed over the pharmacy counter, across 76 pharmacies and nearly a thousand people — and came out comparable on every measure the study looked at.
The comparison was against aciclovir rather than against a placebo, so the trial measures kānuka honey against the standard option rather than against no treatment.
Semprini A, Singer J, Braithwaite I, et al. Kanuka honey versus aciclovir for the topical treatment of herpes simplex labialis: a randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open 2019;9:e026201. Read the paper
Registered ANZCTR ACTRN12615000648527. Protocol published in advance: BMJ Open 2017;7(8):e017766.
An earlier study also examined topical kānuka honey for cold sores.
Fingleton J, Sheahan D, Cave N, et al. Topical kanuka honey for the treatment of cold sores. Advances in Integrative Medicine 2014;1(3):119–123.
How the research was done
The trials were carried out independently by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, based in Wellington and led by Professor Richard Beasley. Participants were seen by MRINZ staff and by general practitioners in Tauranga and Auckland, and for the cold sore trial through a network of community pharmacies.
Study protocols were peer-reviewed by a New Zealand dermatologist and by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. All trials were registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry before results were known, and the cold sore protocol was published in advance — so the outcomes being measured were fixed before anyone saw the data.
The research was funded by HoneyLab with support from Callaghan Innovation, the New Zealand government innovation agency. We think it is worth stating plainly that we paid for these trials. That is normal for product research, and it is exactly why independent conduct, prior registration and peer-reviewed publication matter.
How honey works on skin
Honey has several physicochemical characteristics that act at once:
- Osmotic effect. Honey is a concentrated sugar solution, mostly fructose and glucose. Few water molecules are available to micro-organisms, making it a poor environment for their growth.
- Hydrogen peroxide. Released slowly when honey comes into contact with body fluids, with antiseptic properties.
- Acidity. Honey sits at pH 3.2 to 4.5 — as acidic as some vinegars — which further discourages microbial growth.
- Antioxidants. Bioflavonoids and other antioxidants may contribute to its activity.
Where the honey comes from
Honey is classified by its floral source: monofloral if made predominantly from the nectar of one type of flower, polyfloral otherwise. Honevo® is made from kānuka honey, sourced from hives sited in dense kānuka plantations, then purified through a two-step process of filtration and thermalisation to make it pharmaceutical-grade.
Why glycerine
Honevo® contains a small amount of glycerine, itself a natural product. It makes the formulation less sticky than honey alone, and far more temperature-stable — it stays consistently fluid whether warm or cold.
One formulation, two products
The Honevo® skincare products all contain the same kānuka honey formulation. They are packaged and labelled differently so that each is named for the condition it treats, with application instructions to match.
Questions
If you are a clinician, pharmacy buyer or prospective distributor and want to discuss the evidence in more detail, email hello@honeylab.co.nz.
