Honey

Measured on: hydration and barrier repair in compromised skin — the humectant job this row scores highest.

The seven-night figure comes from one small unrandomised study: sixteen adults with bilateral atopic dermatitis lesions applied neat gamma-irradiated medical-grade manuka honey overnight under gauze and tape to one lesion and left the contralateral lesion untreated, two withdrew within the first two days because their symptoms worsened, and fourteen completed. There is no vehicle, no randomisation and no blinding, and the paper's own conclusion is that the result needs confirming by randomised controlled trials. Three separate reasons a bucket does not follow: an uncontrolled study cannot date an onset; occluded neat medical-grade manuka on broken eczematous skin is nothing like honey at cosmetic percentage in a leave-on formula; and what was graded was lesion severity, not the hydration and barrier endpoints this row is scored on. The wound-healing and antimicrobial literature is a separate indication in a separate population and does not supply a cosmetic timeline.

Alangari AA, Morris K, Lwaleed BA, Lau L, Jones K, Cooper R, Jenkins R. Honey is potentially effective in the treatment of atopic dermatitis: Clinical and mechanistic studies. Immun Inflamm Dis 2017;5(2):190-199. PMID:28474502 (PMC5418133) — 14 completers, untreated contralateral control, 7 nights, authors call for controlled trials. No study of honey at cosmetic concentration with timed endpoints located.