Urban beekeeping is quickly developing into a trend on par with gardening and backyard chickens… as more people discover things they really don’t like about the conventional food system, they’re picking up these self-sufficient practices to protect their families’ health and the larger environment. Bees, of course, are a critical element of pollinating that backyard garden… and with threats like colony collapse disorder occurring worldwide, many urban homesteaders recognize that keeping a hive nearby will increase the odds of successfully growing their own fruits and vegetables.
Honey’s the product we most readily associate with beekeeping, but, as brothers Luke and Jacob Schneider, along with friend Charlie Gauthier discovered, beeswax is another byproduct… and it’s got business potential. After a few years of research and testing, the friends have launched BuzzBroz All-Natural Lip Balm, a small company that hand crafts from all that leftover beeswax.
The idea’s not new, of course: Burt’s Bees has been the 800-pound gorilla in this space for quite some time. But as a recent article at the Maplewood-Brentwood Patch.com, as well as the company’s website, make clear, BuzzBroz is bringing a level of artisanship to a product most of us identify with the common mass-produced brands. The balm is hand-crafted in batches of fifty sticks, and infused with ingredients such as shea butter, mango oil, grapeseed oil, and food-grade flavorings.
At $3.00 a pop, it’s bit pricier than the mass-market brands out there… but it’s also free of some of the ingredients you may not want on your lips (or that don’t really do much in terms of moisturizing), such as petroleum, salicylic acid, phenol and menthol. It’s currently available at Maplewood’s All About the Cloud smoke shop, and through the company’s site.
Tried BuzzBroz? Let us know what you think…
Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. Join the conversation with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Image credit: Jordan at Flickr under a Creative Commons license
BuzzBroz lip-balm is wonderful! The flavors are not overpowering and the balm is soft and moisturizing. Love that it is all-natural and a local product!
I have tried BuzzBros and today its my favorite lipbalm and I love, love the Blueberry Acai. I really appreciate that its a sustainable, environmentally conscience company as well.