From Bee Garden To Bottle: The Honey Journey
Based on a six-generation beekeeping heritage, each Gisou product is inspired by and made with the finest, sustainably sourced ingredients from our very own Mirsalehi Bee Garden. Here, our founder Negin, her father and her sister Negar continue the family tradition of beekeeping.
We all know and love our honey-infused bestsellers such as the Honey Infused Hair Oil, Honey Infused Hair Mask and Honey Infused Lip Oil, but where does it all start? We’re taking you through the journey of honey, how it’s made by bees, how it’s harvested, why we use honey in our products and the benefits of honey for hair and skin.
How honey is made
For honey bees to produce honey and feed the colony, they collect pollen and nectar from flowers. Nectar is a sugary fluid secreted from flowers to encourage pollination by insects and other animals, collected by bees to make into honey.
Quick Pollination 101:
Flowers attract pollinators with this delicious nectar in order to get fertilized. When a bee collects nectar and pollen from a flower, pollen from the flower’s stamens sticks to the hairs of the bee’s body.
When she visits the next flower, some of this pollen is rubbed off onto the flower’s stigma.
This is how plants reproduce.
Want to learn more about bees and beekeeping? Take our free Bee Learning Course!
How bees make honey:
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Flower nectar is collected by the bees, mixed with enzymes they produce themselves, and then stored in the honeycomb, where it’s broken down into simple sugars.
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The fanning of the bees’ wings causes the water in the nectar to evaporate, creating the sweet liquid we call honey.
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Once the water content of the honey in a cell is reduced to around 18%, the cell is capped with a layer of beeswax.
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On average, bees in a single hive produce around 27 kilos (60lb) of honey, of which around 11 kilos (25lb) is excess honey.
Honey harvesting
Luckily for us, bees produce 2 to 3 times more honey than they can consume, so beekeepers can harvest the excess. At Gisou, we take a bee centered approach, which means we prioritize bee welfare and only take surpluses of honey if and when appropriate. We make sure our production cycles are in sync with the harvesting season of our key ingredients, honey and propolis.
Experienced beekeepers with mature colonies can get up to three honey harvests per year: in July, August, and September. By late September (late March in the southern hemisphere), the beekeeping season ends. The bees are preparing for winter, so they need to have enough honey stored away to help them survive until spring.
Curious to know how honey harvesting and extraction works exactly? Negar Mirsalehi takes you along the honey extraction process, step by step.
Why we use honey in our products
Growing up, our founder Negin Mirsalehi and her family enjoyed an abundance of the freshest, finest honey produced by her father’s honey bees. As well as satisfying their taste buds as a natural sweetener, the Mirsalehi family has always strongly believed in the medicinal power of honey and has used it as a supplement and an antiseptic for many years.
Honey has been used around the world for many centuries for its powerful health and beauty benefits.
Honey health & beauty benefits:
- Natural humectant: Honey is the best natural humectant thanks to its unique ability to attract and retain moisture.
- Antioxidants: Reduces oxidative stress in the body by removing free radicals, which cause inflammation.
- Vitamins & minerals: Including calcium, magnesium, riboflavin, potassium, zinc and niacin.
- Antibacterial, antimicrobial, antiviral and antifungal: Thanks to hydrogen peroxide and glucose oxidase, honey can kill harmful bacteria and fungi.
- Healing properties: Studies have shown that honey can be used for wound healing because of its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.
- Phytonutrient powerhouse: immune-boosting and anticancer benefits.
From bee garden to bottle
Because honey has so many powerful benefits, Negin’s mom - a hairdresser in training - started experimenting with her own homemade haircare formulas using Mirsalehi Honey. After several years of experimenting, she succeeded in creating the perfect honey infused hair oil made with fresh honey from the bee garden. This is how the Honey Infused Hair Oil was born!
“For as long as I can remember, my family’s homemade Honey Infused Hair Oil has kept my locks healthy, moisturized and conditioned. It’s the first thing I use on my hair in the morning to nourish and hydrate and I continue to use it throughout the day, every day, to tame flyaways and polish. I often apply it before bed as an overnight treatment to strengthen and moisturize my hair.
Even before and after styling, it’s the one product I rely on to prevent my hair from drying out, to add shine and to enhance the finished result.” - Negin Mirsalehi
Honey benefits for hair and skin
Our iconic bestselling Honey Infused Hair Oil inspired us to expand the Honey Infused line with more nourishing hair care and complexion products. To this day, all of our Honey Infused products contain honey which comes straight from the original source: the Mirsalehi Bee Garden.
Why honey is good for your skin
Mirsalehi Honey is also the key ingredient of our range of skin and complexion products: the Honey Infused Lip Oil, Honey Infused Face Oil and Honey Infused Beauty Balm. Honey is great for your skin because it’s packed with powerful components that speed healing and reduce inflammation. It also draws moisture deep into the skin, making it useful for dry skin conditions and anti-aging.
Why honey is good for your hair
Honey has countless benefits for the hair such as the ability to attract and retain moisture, adding shine and preventing breakage. Honey also contains nutrients like vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antioxidants to protect the hair from damage and improve overall hair health.
Discover the power of honey
Honey goes through an entire journey before it reaches your bathroom shelf, which is what makes our products so special. It’s thanks to the hard work of our honey bees that we can enjoy the powerful benefits of honey for our hair and skin!
Wonder why our community loves our Honey Infused haircare? Try it yourself!
