Honey, I Shrunk the Integrity

I’ve made a lot of enemies on the internet lately, and all I did was tell the truth. You’d think after everything we’ve been through, greenwashing, misinformation, the US president,  people would crave honesty. It turns out that people want the truth. The brands just want to keep sweeping their dirty secrets under a “sustainably” sourced rug.

Apparently, nothing enrages a “clean beauty” brand faster than a woman with Wi-Fi, a backbone, and a background in formulation chemistry.

I’ll admit, I was getting discouraged. My feed looked like a digital landfill of ads: Skims is selling pube panties, Anthropologie is hawking decorative rocks, and somehow, I’m supposed to compete with that? I have no pubes to spare, sadly. So I did what any underdog with receipts would do: I started commenting, spilling a little tea right under their polished product advertisements.

And that’s when the swarm came (pun intended). My feed is filled with “bee venom serums” pushed by clean girls, trad moms, and pharmacists with ring lights. Every time I explained that their formulas, lacking any water, were chemically nonsensical, my comments disappeared faster than the Epstein files. I’ve been blocked, shadowbanned, and scrubbed off ad threads like a bad review. Curious, right? If you’ve got nothing to hide, why the panic? Is it because your marketing budget is on the line? 

The problem isn’t that these brands use bee venom, it’s that most of them don’t use it correctly, and MANY are sourcing from unethical practices. 

Here’s the chemistry: bee venom, propolis, and royal jelly are all water-soluble. So if your so-called “bee venom serum” doesn’t contain a single drop of water and it's all OIL, it’s about as real as a polyester pube panty. 

Chemistry doesn’t bend for marketing. However, it appears that marketing often yields to chemistry in Q4 during the holiday season. 

This is what happens when trends outpace truth. First snail mucin, then salmon sperm, now bee venom? Each one is another shiny distraction for marketers with the attention span of a parakeet. But the real question is: what are we doing to make sure we’re sourcing responsibly, so we’re not just following the next miracle ingredient off the edge of species collapse?

Why Bee Venom Can Be Incredible — When It’s Done Right

Let’s give credit where it’s due: bee venom is one of the most fascinating natural actives out there. It’s loaded with powerful bioactive compounds, including melittin, apamin, phospholipase A₂, and apoxin, which can help increase circulation, boost collagen, and even reduce inflammation when properly formulated.

In simple terms, melittin acts like a micro-dose stimulant for your skin, waking it up, encouraging healing, and tricking it into producing more collagen. Apamin and PLA₂(phospholipase A₂)  play backup dancers to help improve elasticity and detoxify, giving skin that subtle bounce that is reminiscent of your 20s. 

So yes, bee venom can be amazing.
But only when it’s handled with precision, science, and deep respect for the hive.

The Science and Ethics of Collection

Here’s how real venom collection works: at the entrance of the hive, a small glass plate releases gentle microcurrents, just enough to signal the bees to protect their colony. About 1 in 5000 bees respond, leaving trace amounts of venom on the plate. No bees are harmed with the current; once they realize the “threat” isn’t real, they move along. The ladies simply go back into the hive and gesture “the coast is clear”. 

Each session lasts just 15 to 45 minutes per hive, to avoid confusion or over-stressing the colony. Interestingly, research shows that angrier bees produce more venom, which is something I’m currently exploring in collaboration with the New Mexico Beekeepers Association. We’re testing whether bees can use the collection plate as a sort of mini punching bag, a safe outlet for aggression that supports ethical harvesting and keeps hive dynamics balanced. (More on this topic later if you are a bee nerd) 

Once collected, the venom plate is scraped and sent for purification,  and this step is non-negotiable. So, please be wary of anything produced at home, no matter how “organic” they claim it is. Raw venom contains impurities and trace heavy metals, so it must be sent to a certified third-party processor.

What Purification Actually Looks Like

Here’s the quick-and-dirty rundown (well, clean-and-lab-sterile, actually):

1. Dissolved in Distilled Water — remember that bit about bee venom being water-soluble? It must be dissolved to activate the peptide compounds, not dumped into oil.
   

2. Filtered by Paper — to remove visible impurities.
   

3. Negative Pressure Filtration — a vacuum filtration system pulls out micro-level contaminants by lowering atmospheric pressure so only pure compounds remain.
   

4. Centrifugation — imagine a washing machine on turbo mode; this step spins the venom at high speed to separate fine particles to sift out the heavy metals and impurities invisible to the eye.
   

5. Microfiltration + Freeze Drying — Finally, the purified venom is pushed through another microfilter before being freeze-dried into a powder form, ready for safe cosmetic or therapeutic use.
   

So next time you see a “bee venom serum” on Instagram, ask the brand where their venom comes from, IF IT’s ETHICAL, and how it’s processed.
If they can’t provide a processing flow chart, or at least mention third-party purification, you’re looking at a marketing product, not a medicinal one. 

The Truth Hurts — But Lies Hurt Worse

I didn’t get into skincare to play nice or coddle companies that build empires on misinformation. I got into this industry to clean house. 

So yeah, I’ve made enemies on the internet lately.
But I’ll take that over letting people waste their money on pseudoscience in a pretty jar.

If the truth stings, good. That’s how healing starts. 🐝

Stay sly magpie, 

Sneaks