After dozens of hours spent researching Manuka honey’s acne-fighting abilities, our top pick for the best manuka honey for acne treatment is Steens Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+. Its UMF rating of 10+ and the fact that it’s raw honey means it offers some serious acne-fighting abilities at a reasonable price.
Best Manuka Honey for Acne
Our top pick for most people is Steens Raw Manuka Honey UMF 10+. It has a UMF 10+ rating meaning it has more than enough antimicrobial strength to fight the acne-causing bacteria in your pores. It’s also raw honey which means that the honey never reaches over 118 degrees fahrenheit while it’s being processed.
Most honey is heated to high temperatures to aid in extraction and processing, degrading the naturally occurring hydrogen peroxide found in honey. Raw honey has higher levels of organically occurring hydrogen peroxide making it more effective at fighting acne.
Steens typically falls on the higher end of the price range for quality manuka honey but their UMF 10+ manuka honey is surprisingly good value compared to other UMF 10+ manuka honeys.
Upgrade Pick
The Tahi Raw Manuka Honey UMF 12+ is a step up from our top pick and from an eco-friendly company to boot. Like our top pick, it’s a raw honey. This means higher levels of acne-fighting hydrogen peroxide. A UMF rating of 12+ means it has even higher levels of manuka’s special antimicrobial activity compared to our top pick, giving it some extra antimicrobial oomph. The drawback is that it has a slightly higher price tag compared to our top pick.
As a company, Tahi is about as eco-friendly as they get. They’ve achieved a carbon neutral status by planting over 250,000 native shrubs and trees where they place their hives. Tahi also follows responsible harvesting practices and only harvests a portion of the honey that their bees produce. Saving a portion of the honey for the bees is uncommon, as most honey producers harvest all the honey their bees produce and sustain the bees on a mixture of sugar water during the off season.
If you’re looking for a great quality manuka honey and interested in supporting a company with an eco-friendly focus Tahi’s UMF 12+ Manuka honey is a great choice.
Budget Pick
Manuka Doctor’s Bio Active 24+ Manuka Honey is our budget pick for treating acne. Manuka Doctor manuka honey is not UMF rated which means there is no guarantee that their honey has the special antimicrobial activity that’s unique to manuka honey (not all kinds of manuka honey have increased levels of antimicrobial activity).
The “Bio Active” rating they use refers to the hydrogen peroxide activity in the honey. While hydrogen peroxide activity can be found in all kinds of honey, a 24+ rating should be effective in treating acne. Having said that, its acne-fighting qualities aren’t as effective as our other picks.
How does manuka honey help fight acne?
Acne is caused by a bacteria called Propionibacterium acnes that feeds on dead skin cells and oil secreted from your pores. Overactive oil glands or clogged pores can allow P. acnes to multiply quickly, which can in turn cause the angry red inflammation and pimples associated with acne.
Manuka honey has some amazing qualities that makes it great not only for treating acne, but improving the overall appearance and health of your skin:
- Anti-microbial
- Anti-inflammatory
- Speeds up healing and reduces scarring
- Hydrates skin and antioxidant rich
Anti-microbial
Manuka honey has been scientifically proven to kill Propionibacterium acnes. Manuka honey’s special anti-microbial activity comes from a compound called methylglyoxal (MGO). MGO occurs organically in some honeys but is found in particularly high concentrations (up to 100 times) in manuka honey. The more MGO, the greater the anti-bacterial activity of the honey. No other honey has such high levels of MGO.
It should be noted that manuka honey with rating lower than UMF +10 does not have significant antibacterial activity from MGO.
In addition to manuka’s unique antibacterial qualities, honey in general has a low pH level. This makes it slightly acidic and makes it difficult for bacteria to grow.
Anti-Inflammatory
One reason that honey, and particularly manuka honey, is used as a salve to treat wounds is it’s anti-inflammatory properties. Reducing the inflammation and the associated redness and pain is something manuka honey excels at. Though researchers have yet to figure out exactly how honey reduces inflammation, it’s been thoroughly documented.
Speeds up healing and reduces scarring
Amazingly, honey can speed up healing and reduce scarring by stimulating tissue regeneration and creating a moist healing environment. A dry healing environment causes bumpy scabs to form, causing uneven scarring. A moist healing environment allows skin to heal smoothly, reducing the visibility of scars.
It won’t help with scars that are already healed over but if you have a bad breakout manuka honey can help speed up your recovery and reduce any scarring that might occur.
Hydrates skin and antioxidant rich
Manuka honey is a natural humectant and draws moisture into the skin. On top of that, manuka honey is also rich in antioxidants that can prevent oxidation and damage to skin cells.
How we chose the best Manuka honey for Acne
Minimum UMF 10+ rating
Finding a manuka honey with a UMF 10+ rating was our primary consideration when looking for the best overall manuka honey to treat acne. If manuka honey has a rating lower than UMF 10+, the antibacterial activity isn’t significantly better than that found in regular honey. While manuka honey with a UMF rating lower than 10+ can have antibacterial activity in the form of hydrogen peroxide (like our budget pick), it is the kind of antibacterial activity that all honey can have and isn’t unique to manuka honey.
Raw honey
Secondly, we looked for raw honey that hasn’t been heated above 118 degrees fahrenheit. Raw honey has higher levels of hydrogen peroxide which can be destroyed by the the high-heat extraction and processing of non-raw honey. Having a minimum UMF 10+ rating and high levels of hydrogen peroxide gives the manuka honey two ways to fight acne-causing bacteria –peroxide and non-peroxide. Researchers also believe that having both of these antibacterial activities working together gives them a synergistic effect and allows for a more effective treatment.
Price
Our final consideration was price. It’s possible to find manuka honey with ratings of UMF 20+ or even higher. While these certainly have more potent antibacterial activity, they are also much more expensive being typically at least twice as expensive as our top pick.
UMF 20+ manuka honey is typically used more to treat wounds with antibiotic resistant infections or with digestive issues. In these cases, a more potent grade is required due to the severity or because, if ingested, the honey becomes diluted in the stomach and a stronger honey needs to be used to get the same antibacterial activity.
Our picks represent what we believe to be the best balance between cost and effective acne treatment.
Hopefully this review has been helpful in your search. Feel free to check out our top pick on Amazon and see what other reviewers are saying about it.
