Natural Beauty: Get the Buzz on Beecology

Posted by Pamela King on July 27th, 2010

Looking for ways to look your best — naturally? Look no further. Through reviews of all-natural and organic products and investigations into cosmetic ingredients, our Natural Beauty column will help you make more informed decisions about your beauty purchases.

Meet David Rzepka, an accidental beekeeper. A few years ago, one of Rzepka’s co-workers asked if he could keep his bee colony on Rzepka’s farm. Just two weeks later, the co-worker’s wife found out she was pregnant, meaning the co-worker could no longer tend to the bees, and Rzepka was stuck with the little stingers.

But this inconvenience turned out to be a blessing in disguise that will surely benefit natural beauties everywhere. Rzepka became fascinated with the culture of bees and was inspired to create Beecology, a line of body care products derived from ingredients straight from the beehive.

I had the opportunity to test the honey hand & body cream as well as two of the body washes from the line. The cream is soothing and reduced redness around all the mosquito bites with which I am riddled after my vacation on an island in Maine. We can thank the bees for two of the ingredients – honey and propolis extract. The honey helps to soften skin and eliminate redness, while the propolis extract locks in moisture.

I was somewhat less impressed with the body washes, but they are good products on the whole. The scent of the grapefruit and lemongrass formula was a little too lemony for my taste, but I loved the refreshing aroma of the peppermint and honey version. The peppermint actually cools your skin after a shower. Both washes contain honey, hemp oil and aloe and, like the cream, are free of harsh chemicals.

Best of all is the company’s charity website, SweetYear.org, where Beecology donates 10 percent of its net profit from sales to environmental and social causes. Every product comes with a charity code to enter on the SweetYear website. Once customers enter the code, they are directed to a list of charitable causes to which they can choose to direct their dollars.

The cream costs $12.99 for eight ounces and is available at Beecology.com. An eight-ounce bottle of body wash goes for $7.99, but these products don’t seem to be available online as of yet.