Hi! This is Adriana, the beekeeper from South Mountain Bees.
In October 2014, I was looking for a chemical-free option for wood polish for a chair that had seen better days, and I realized I could make it with beeswax and oil. I melted some beeswax and strained it (many times!) to clean it from any impurities. I don't know if you are familiar with it, but cleaning beeswax is a really messy process. Anything you use for it will never serve a different purpose. Furthermore it is dangerous, giving how inflammable beeswax is. I spare you the details.
Once I realized it was food safe, it became my butcher's block wax, and even the wooden spoons and handles of stake knives got a coating.
Since it was food-safe, I didn't need gloves to apply it, and I noticed how nice my hands felt afterwards. From there, a few iterations of proportions, different oils, and additives such as essential oils and vitamin E oil, gave rise to our lip balm.
In February 2016, I submitted it to the New Jersey Beekeepers Association Honey Show, and the judges really liked it. It ranked not only first in the Lip Balm Category, but best in the Cosmetics Division, which included creams, lotions, soaps and lip balm.
Together with honey and soaps, it remains one of our most popular products, from the way it looks to the way it feels and how long it lasts, if you haven't tried it yet, you will fall in love with this lip balm.
