I’m pretty excited to introduce you to our latest brand Beeutiful!

As the name suggests this natural skincare brand is about everything bee & bees as we all know, really are important little guys! Today we chat to Carly the founder of the brand to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes, why supporting British bees is so important & what bee products can do for our skin.

Hi Carly! Firstly I would love to know how Beeutiul was founded & what inspired you to help in protecting bees?

When I started beekeeping as a hobby in early 2012 I became totally immersed in learning about bees and was taken with how beeswax and honey has been used in skincare since Cleopatra bathed in milk and honey. When I read that honey had been used in WW1 on wounds I wondered why we couldn’t return to this. I started making a few products for my family and when I shared them with friends and they loved them I was encouraged to take it further. At a similar time I was bored with my job marking essays for a university but wanted to still work from home as our eldest child is disabled and I want to be home for his care. With my husbands backing I launched Beeutiful in November 2013 with ten products.

Please could you tell us a bit about what bee products can do for our skin & which are the good ones to look out for? I believe some are not so great & some even harm bees?

Beeswax and honey are so good for the skin. A humectant, honey absorbs moisture and holds it there while beeswax locks moisture in and provides a protective barrier. This makes beeswax based skincare perfect for dry skin. Honey is also fabulous at healing the skin hence it was used in WW1 on wounds and is making a return in the medical world with dressings and bandages infused with honey.

As a beekeeper my bees are my priority. I use the excess honey and beeswax that they do not require. Some suggest that using beeswax and honey is an abuse of the bee and harms them but I beg to differ. In the right environment, which is solely weather dependent therefore we have no control over it, bees continue making honey until they run out of forage. They therefore produce more than they require. This is the honey I use, leaving them enough for themselves. The wax is the same. Excess wax built in wrong places or from broken frames and the cappings from extracted honey is where the wax comes from. All of no use to the bees.

There are other brands that utilise Royal Jelly and Bee Venom in skincare. These are the two products you will not see in Beeutiful products. Royal Jelly is effectively baby bee food and bee venom which we all know leaves the bee when they sting which they do when protecting their colony is obtained by administering electric shocks to the bees. As a beekeeper these two products are not an excess no longer required by the bees, do involve harming the bee and therefore are not in Beeutiful products.

I was blown away when you sent me some samples of Beeutiful products to try. I particularly love the foot balm (I adore the way it melts from hardish balm to a silky oil as you massage it into your feet) & the Shea & Lavender body butter (it smells DIVINE!). My skin is really dry & I have eczema on my hands & my skin has just loved it! Do you have a favourite Beeutiful product that you can’t live without?

Absolutely I do! Beeutiful B-balm is the first product I made when I decided to play with wax, honey & cocoa butter. My hands get really dry, chapped and sore in the winter so I went back to the honey used in WW1 on wounds and put as much honey in as I could without it being too sticky. B-balm is now used on everything by my customers including cuts, grazes, eczema, psoriasis, insects bites, nettle rash, chicken pox, ulcers, random unidentified rashes and post-operative wounds. It is my best seller and a staple in many homes now, my own included.

What does a typical day look like at Beeutiful (if you can remember a typical day, i’m certainly struggling to!)?

I’m not sure I can remember a typical day to be honest! However it does consist of delivering my eldest to school which is 6 miles away. Then often a post office parcel drop off, then delivering to any of my local stockists, a couple of calls to further afield stockists or potential new stockists. Washing is always hung out, vacuum run round downstairs, emails sent and back to school at 3pm. Social media posts are fitted in around everything else and labels are stuck on tins in the evening. 2020 has made me look at how I manage things so hoping once children return to school to rearrange my day to be more productive and run more efficiently with clear goals rather than muddling through to get it all done!

It’s down to all of us to help preserve bees, do you have any top tips for things we can do in our everyday lives to help with bee conservation?

Plant bee friendly flowers. There has been a huge increase in beekeepers but this is only a good thing if there is enough forage for these bees. Therefore the best thing we can all do is plant bee friendly flowers. Bees love blue/purple single headed flowers. Most garden centers label plants as bee friendly now to help your purchases. Flowers that flower early in the spring and then those that flower late in the summer are great as it extends the foraging season for bees so a combination of these is perfect.

And finally I have to ask everyone I chat to…… please could you share with us a favourite recipe?! Something that has brought you comfort & a bit of joy over the last year. If cooking brings you no comfort & joy who cooks your favourite food & what is it?

I love cooking and I love sweet things. However I am a bit of a health nut so rarely eat treats that I make. However my children and husband love chocolate brownies, my eldest loves scones with cream and jam so we have made a lot of those during 2020 and have made more soup than ever before to make lunch at home more interesting!

The scone recipe is just out of my head!!

2oz butter

8oz SR flour 

1oz sugar

2oz raisins 

120ml milk

Rub butter into flour, stir in sugar and raisins. Stir in milk, bring together as a dough. Roll 1cm think cut out with shaped cutter. 

Bake 180C/gas 4 12mins.

Jam + cream (in that order!!) a must! 🤣

I am delighted to now join your team of suppliers and hope your customers love Beeutiful.

Carly