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Nelson bee venom working wonders on UK A-listers - Source: Close Up -
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A group of UK-based A-listers are using a revolutionary face mask made from Nelson manuka honey and bee venom.
Dubbed Botox in a bottle, the face mask has been credited for knocking 10 years off Camilla Parker-Bowles and she is reported to have advised Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, to try the product.
Parker-Bowles is said to have given the former Kate Middleton some beauty tips for her big day and while the Duchess has a natural beauty she may have had some help from New Zealand bees when she married Prince William.
The owner of Nelson Honey is something of an inventor and discovered a small electric shock prompts the bees to sting, leaving behind venom.
The venom can only be collected from the stroppiest of bees and Philip Cropp says they need to be treated with respect.
"It's like they're getting a small electric shock so that shock is upsetting them and making them angry."
About 15 years ago the former electrician discovered that if you attach a car battery to wires on a pane of glass, the bees will sting it, leaving venom behind.
The venom is mixed with manuka honey to make Nectar Ease which was developed after the first batches helped one of Cropp's farming neighbours.
"His fingers were very big and tight...so he was quite excited when he found out he could move his fingers better," said Cropp.
Collecting the poison is a painstaking business - it takes 5000 stings to make one gram.
"It's like milking cows, it's a numbers game," Cropp told Close Up.
And the bees don't die.
"The current's very, very weak...we're just putting in pulses very similar to an electric fence. The bees are not leaving their sting behind, so they're still quite happy to go out the next day and gather honey."
Food scientist Grant Macdonald said bee venom can elicit an anti-inflammatory response in the body. "For some people with inflammatory conditions like arthritis it can be very beneficial," Dr MacDonald said.
But an English beautician has discovered the venom isn't only beneficial for your insides. Deborah Mitchell has been buying Nectar Ease for the last year and using it to make her own face mask - retailing for 55 pounds a jar.
Mitchell says if used twice a day for 20 minutes, the bee venom mask can knock 10 years off the appearance of a middle-aged woman. And she uses it on clients like Parker-Bowles, Dannii Minogue and actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
"It elicits an inflammatory response and that in turn increases the production of collagen and elastin in the skin, and that makes the skin firmer and makes people look younger," said MacDonald.
East Day Spa in Wellington put the product to the test for Close Up today and the beautician and client were pleased with the result.
"I was a little bit sceptical, I thought after just one application the results will be something but not as amazing as they have been," beauty therapist Angela Brownie said.
And now Nelson Honey has made its own version of the mask called Royal Nectar which will retail for around half the price of the British version.
* Here are the details of the company that makes the
product:
www.nelsonhoney.com
or freephone 0800 289 992.
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