Ever heard of the luxury skincare brand Venofye?

I just got their Queen Bee Facial Peeling and their Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream with broad-spectrum SPF 30 to try them out.

They use venom (from bees and snakes, yep you are reading correctly) mixed with other skin-nourishing ingredients like vitamin A, collagen, sodium hyaluronate and green tea.

Bee venom as an ingredient for skin care is a mix of naturally occurring amino acids, peptides and enzymes that boost collagen production.

How does the bee venom work for skincare?

When using skincare products with bee venom, the skin is tricked into thinking that it has been stung (slightly) so it gets a tightening and plumping sensation, not a severe allergic reaction.

What about the lovely bees?

Relax, they’re fine. To get the bee venom from the pretty bees, a glass sheet is used. The glass sheet stimulates the bees to pump a little venom, the sheet is taken away and the venom is sent to be purified. The bee doesn’t lose its stinger and moves on with its life (carry on, little bee!).

They have a few skincare collections to cover many skin care concerns:

  • Body Collection- Scrub and moisturizers
  • Queen Bee Collection- Everything you need
  • Drone Bee Collection-For the guys
  • Royal Collection-For the skin around the eyes
  • Orchard Collection-For sun protection and pigmentation care
  • Apitoxin Collection-Focused on collagen
  • ViperLift Collection-The snake one

If you want to know more about their collections, they have a few social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

I was definitely curious about the whole “we use bee and snake venom” thing, I mean, who wouldn’t bee (pun intended)?

When I got the packages I quickly saw the whole bee and snake concept. The name logo has two little dots on top of the Y, like the type of mark that the snakes bite leaves. The boxes have small hexagon shapes all over that simulate a beehive, in the same color as the rest of the packaging but with a little shimmer (fancy). Each collection has a packaging color, Queen is white and Orchard is silver. *The boxes are recyclable (yeyy environment).

I have never been bitten by any of those but have seen people who have, it’s not pretty. But after reading their FAQ page and doing a little research on venom as an ingredient in skin care products I decided to try it out. Doing a patch test first, of course, I’m not crazy. I always use that area in the jawline near the ear, so if anything happens I can easily hide it with my curly hair.

If all goes well, then I proceed to use the products on my whole face in 24 hours or a few days later, or a week later if it’s a strong peeling or mask.

I started out with the Queen because as we all know, cleansers, peelings and masks go before serums and moisturizers.

Queen Bee Facial Peeling

This facial peeling is not a regular peeling, that will burn your skin with chemicals and it’s not a scrub. It’s more like a very intense deep cleanser, but gentle enough for most skin types (be aware if you have very sensitive skin), because it uses nut shell powder to softly and naturally exfoliate the skin. Of course, it also has the bee venom factor, Venofye’s signature ingredient.

I applied the Queen Bee Facial Peeling to my dry skin and gently massaged in circular motions through my face (this is where the whole “peeling” effect comes in) and then I rinsed with cold water (I prefer cold water, it’s hot where I live), never use hot water, it dries out the skin. The texture is gel-like, its clear with little brownish colored particles (probably the nut shell powder). It’s a “gommage” type product, that uses the friction to exfoliate (if you have ever had a professional facial you have probably heard the term gommage).

Dead skin cells gone, and my skin feels softer and brighter. I would recommend using this product once a week depending on your skin type, see what works better for you, as no one advice works for everybody. I use it once a month as I have oily skin in a humid climate, and anything over once a month is over exfoliating, so it sends my skin into oil over-producing mode (but that’s just me, not all oily skins are the same). What I do use weekly are clay or charcoal masks.

I like that the jar has a thin plastic lid on top with a little opening that makes it easy to lift it and protects the product. At 1.69 ounces, you can even take it with you if you are travelling for more than a week and want to keep your skincare routine unchanged. After being opened it will last about 20 months.

I have to say I love the name of this collection, Queen Bee.

Do you know why Queen bees are the Queens?

Besides being unique in her colony, she can lay up to 1,500 eggs every day. Making her the VIB in maintaining population. She can live for up to seven years. But she doesn’t rule the hive like royalty, beehives are a democracy, the worker bees vote, yes, they vote.

How are Queen bees made?

By diet choices. A fertilized egg can be a worker bee or a Queen bee, it depends on what they are fed. The larvae are fed royal jelly the first three days, and at the fourth day the worker larvae start on a honey and pollen diet, while the other larvae are kept on the royal jelly diet (the Queen diet).

What if there is more than one Queen born?

Queen bees are gangsta. Worker bees feed more than one Queen bee larvae to make sure they get the best Queen. So, when a Queen bee is born before the others, she kills the rest (slaying the competition, literally). If they are born simultaneously, they battle it out, to the death, until only The Queen remains.  

You know who doesn’t lose her stinger when it stings? The Queen (was there ever any doubt?).

Getting back to skincare, I prefer to use deep cleaning products in the evening, so my renewed skin has time to soak up the moisturizer I apply afterwards. Plus, when we sleep skin makes new collagen, our blood flow improves (healthy shine anyone?) and repairs itself more quickly. So, the terms beauty sleep and power naps are quite accurate.

The next morning, I tried the Orchard.

Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream SPF 30

We read SPF and we generally know it’s about sunscreen.

But what exactly is SPF?

Sun Protection Factor. It measures how long (approximately) a sunscreen protects your skin from harmful ultraviolet rays. UVB rays damage the outer layers of the skin (epidermis) and UVA rays get to the dermal layers (dermis) where they damage collagen and elastin tissue. Important to say that no sunscreen blocks UVB rays to a 100%, and SPF’s over 50 are not really better. What you do need is a “broad-spectrum” or “full-spectrum” sunscreen to protect your skin from both UVB and UVA rays.

There are some cosmetic companies talking about how HEV (high energy visible light or blue light) penetrates the skin and damages it, no, there is no scientific research that supports that. So, you can relax, a broad or full spectrum sunscreen will be just fine.

Some people might think that wearing sunscreen or products with sunscreen are meant to be worn in the summer when you go hiking or to the beach or pool. But no, if it’s daylight, ultraviolet rays are present, and clouds don’t stop them from getting to us (not even airplane windows can stop them). Because, yes, you can get sunburn on a cloudy, foggy or misty day, since more than 80% of the rays get through all that. FYI- Sunlight reflects on snow and can double the ray’s strength. Altitude also increases the strength of the sun’s rays by about 4% for every 1,000 feet.

This is why there are so many skin care serums and moisturizers that now include sunscreen protection. Because we are definitely not putting on a face serum, a moisturizer and then a thick, heavy and “whitish” sunscreen on top, plus makeup, no. We are in no mood to clog our pores and smell like a beach summer camp (don’t get me wrong, beach summer camps are amazing, but the amount of children wearing loads of sunblock can leave your nose smelling sunblock for days).

Now we have face care products like the Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream with SPF 30, a moisturizer and broad-spectrum sunscreen in one without the sticky feel or strong smell. It protects against the suns harmful rays (UVB and UVA) plus it has the skin-loving benefits of:

It also has aloe vera leaf extract (has antioxidant, soothing and hydrating properties), green tea (a powerful antioxidant) and bee venom, of course (peptides, anyone?).

When I saw the pump dispenser, I was happy. I prefer pump dispensers; I find them to be more hygienic (as I don’t have to put my finger in there, it’s like double dipping). It’s a 2.11-ounce bottle that’s a little big for my carry-on travel preferences but works fine if you don’t mind having a bigger skincare bag (anything under 3ounces is TSA approved anyways).

Trust me when I tell you that just a little bit of this cream (pea-sized) will be enough for your face and maybe a little bit more for your neck and décolleté (unless you’re wearing turtlenecks all day/every day even in spring and summer, you need to take care of these areas too). It seems very white and creamy, but it glides on weightlessly and smoothly, and doesn’t leave any residue.

This is something I have to put on every morning, I live where the sun shines strong all year long, so having a facial moisturizer with built-in sunscreen protection is a must. I love that its broad spectrum, so it protects from UVB and UVA rays.

On Review

So, let’s recap. The Queen Bee Facial Peeling is a gommage-like exfoliator that uses natural nut shell powder, better if used at night to give your skin time to replenish. The Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream with broad-spectrum SPF 30 is a daily facial moisturizer with broad-spectrum sunscreen protection included.

Remember to apply both products down to your décolleté (and do patch test at least 24 hours before!). Since a regular body scrub might be too rough for the skin on your neck and chest, and a regular heavy sunblock might give you a breakout in those areas. But, if you are doing an outside activity like beach, pool, hiking, sports or anything that has you under strong sunshine especially between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 4p.m. you need to reapply the Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream SPF 30 every two hours. I will assume that you won’t be wearing any makeup when doing these activities because that would be pore-clogging harmful to your skin (well maybe some water-proof mascara).  

I hope this information about my experience with these skincare products from Venofye, the Queen Bee Facial Peeling and the Orchard Bee Brilliance Cream with broad-spectrum SPF 30, can shed some light and maybe make it easier for you to decide if you want to try them out. Let’s keep in mind that a skin care routine does not have to be all products from the same line or collection, the important thing is to find what works for you and your skin’s specific needs (which can change with time, age, hormones and weather). Lets get to mix and matching and lets find the perfect combination for our unique skincare needs.