We Asked & Dr. Paul Dunman Answered.
What Honeoye Remedies product is your personal favorite to use?
Our household uses the HR soaps daily, so that is probably the most popular but my
favorite is by far the Skin Balm. We use it all the time on cuts & scrapes and it
amazes me how fast acting it performs. It is also a lot of fun having folks come up to
me at social events and telling me how much they like it.
How long did it take you to develop the Honeoye Remedies Skin Balm ‘Recipe’?
I’ll have to go a look through the lab notebooks, but I’d say about a year and a half. We
used to call it “formula 107T” because it was the one hundred and seventh formula that
we created and “T” because the consistency was perfect for the use in our original
containers, which were tins.
About how many different Manuka Honeys did you try before settling on Bees &
Trees Manuka Honey to perfect the Honeoye Remedies Skin Balm?
We probably tried 25 different types of honeys from local, to buckwheat honey to
manuka honey. Without a doubt manuka was superior in terms of antimicrobial
properties. But, then we realized that a lot of manuka honey is not authentic and/or is
not at the MGO strength that is advertised on their packaging. We connected with the
founders of Bees and Trees and worked with them directly to evaluate different
strengths, mixtures and perform comparisons with various other Manuka Honey’s on the
market to land on our formulation. A key aspect of working with Bee’s and Tree’s is that
they provide laboratory data on each batch that verifies not only the MGO strength but
also the percent of impurities, which other Manuka manufacturers do not offer.
About how many variations of the skin balm were created before settling on the final ‘recipe’?
107
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about our Skin Balm that you
don’t think is common knowledge?
Two things- it is not sticky at all and the most common thing we hear is that “it smells
like a spa” because of the tea-tree oil. Manuka honey certainly has beneficial properties,
tea tree oil has other beneficial properties, and our vitamin blend enhances both.
Have you heard of any unique way a customer has used Honeoye Remedies that
you never thought of before?
Quite a few customers use on their dog’s cracked feet/pads. There have been a few
other unique uses but they are a bit private.
Are there any other random facts about the Skin Balm you wish people knew about?
Bacteria that cause skin infections come in two flavors- Gram positive and Gram
negative. Manuka honey is well known to inhibit Gram positive organisms whereas tea
tree oil affects Gram negatives. Some vitamins supercharge both activities, which is in
part, the basis for our formulation that contains Manuka honey, tea tree oil and a unique
blend of supercharging vitamins.