Drying takes 1.5 minutes with a hairdryer (avoiding the pink scalpy bits!!) so I guess that’s a bonus.

As Australians say, “one day a rooster, next day a feather duster”, ain’t that the truth, baby!!

But hey it’ll grow back….pass me that head sized paper bag would you?

My first stop was to visit Robbie and Nicola Charles at Blue Hills Honey in Mawbanna, near Stanley  on the North West Coast.

They are right on the edge of the Tarkine Widerness area, which is one of the last remaining temperate rainforests in Australia, and is where they place the majority of their Leatherwood hives, but are now harvesting uniquely potent Tasmanian Manuka too.They were singularly hospitable, despite Nicola being virtually on her knees with the ‘flu,and accommodated us in their single men’s quarters ( no single men, sadly!!) which George excitedly inspected nose to the ground. Onto Stanley for a lovely meal, and a foray in the 4 wheel drive to see if there were any Fairy Penguins out patrolling the streets of the tiny township ( as is their wont apparently) but no luck….the beachside areas thick with browsing wallabies and it looked like Watership Down there were so many rabbits…!

Drove on to Mawbanna Dip Falls, a spectacular waterfall,the view is breathtaking- The water spills down over hexagonal ( spooky, just like a honeycomb cell!!)  basalt columns, formed in ancient times by cooling volcanic rock -and the Big Tree, which is …er….a VERY big tree, 62 metres (203 ft) tall Eucalyptus, with a 17 metre (55 ft) base- awe inspiring in fact, just a fantastic ancient forest survivor . And yes, ok ok, I did hug it.

Mawbanna Dip Falls

Stunningly gorgeous, eh?

I have to say that the cool, sepuchral silence deep off the road in the rainforest, amongst the 2 metre tall manferns is ever so slightly unnerving,broken only by bird calls echoing, and George (who was beside herself in sniffs heaven) excitedly snuffling about in the leaf litter.

The Beekeepers are by nature a reserved bunch, mostly older “bushies”who think a lot and say little, and find a loud, outspoken Londoner a bit confronting, but since I’ve been around for 20 years now they are unbending a bit! We have been telling people about their fabulous honey for 20 years now so I have a few runs on the board..

Shirley and Ian Stephens from R.Stephens Mole Creek, who supply all the beautiful Leatherwood Beeswax for our natural leatherwood honey skincare products were in their 50th year there I believe, beekeepers all their lives, and their families before them.

All the beekeepers have their stories but most importantly a proud  history of harvesting products from the forest in the most environmentally sensitive way, really the first environmentalists of all you may say.

We heard a meteorologist speak about the amazing computer modelling now available, actually pretty fascinating ( yeh, right, I am proudly a nerd!) when you consider that their entire livelihood- and the yield of honey- is driven by the weather, and on the Saturday I gather that an eminent scientist was talking about bee neurology…gasp! I thought you would need the Hubble telescope to see a little bee brain but obviously they is purty smart critters!

Oh well, back to the soap grindstone, watch this space for a fab new real, natural soap soon I feel all inspired, having “gone bush ”  Toodlepip!

But most interesting of all is how these guys spell out clearly just exactly what those commercial personal care products containing repulsively strong sickly synthetic fragrances ( that we do NOT use in any of our TRULY natural skincare products!) that are heavily contaminated with phalates ( endocrine system disruptors, that we have been telling a disbelieving public about for 20 years, see previous posts) are doing to contaminate your body with just one or two applications!

Have a look at this You Tube clip

Something I have never understood is why people actually think that the smell that hits you like a physical force when you pass those international “natural” body/skin care stores is actually natural!

Worse, when you look at the millions of so called “natural” skincare businesses that claim integrity by the yard, yet still offer synthetic Raspberry and Cream, Frangipani, Summer Rain  ( make a name up as you go along) which are ALL chemical fragrance mixes but claimed as “natural!”, blatantly misleading the consumer.

We have tried to spell this out on our website ad nauseam but cannot get people to understand this concept..

rant over…!

I discovered when I emigrated from the Big Smoke of London that Tasmanians, just like furry little animals in their pre prepared cosy burrows hibernate for a long time over winter, emerging for vital supplies such as natural honey skincare, beer and food!

Being a nation that quite literally lives outdoors ,having fine weather most of the time, there is a sense of resignation that the fire has to be lit, fleecy garments dug out of the back of the wardrobe, along with the Slow Cooker for all those fab stews, tagines and soups.

I recently discovered the joys of sensuously plump, gelatinously tender,Beef cheeks, from Mundy’s Meat supply in Lindisfarne-one of the last real butchers in Hobart who actually selects his steers from the sale yards himself-and REALLY knows his stuff -after 40 years as a country butcher he should! The enticing aroma of a Beef Madras with coriander is just too sexy!!!

Am missing my Kaffir lime ( one of the essential oils that we use in our delicious Lavender citrus twist real soaps) tree like mad ( for my curry pastes)having recently moved house and, whilst I dug it up and transplanted it lovingly to a pot on the balcony, the woody stump of it is glaring balefully at me whilst being blasted  by icy souwester wind gusts…7 degrees today so survival is unlikely.

We are lucky enough in Hobart ( and Tassie in general!) to be within 10 mins of fabulous wild windswept deserted beaches, and one of the other signs of winter are the wild seas which throw up large quantities of kelp seaweed, from the deep sea kelp forests on the Peninsula of Tasmania- Georgie, resident Doggie Diva, loves investigating the fabulously glossy, tangled kelp thickets of beached weed – I’m always amazed at how big it is, and how massive the roots are!

Such pongy explorations mean that a bath once home with her very own Gorgeous Georgie’s Gloss Pet Shampoo bar is a must ..

Not only does kelp taste great- I just love it in all it’s forms, sushi,tastes great in soups too- it has the most fabulous qualities for the skin- moisturising, firming, silkening- and having a great local source at Marrawah on the North West Coast who harvest it from the beaches there and supply it to us.

We use seaweed – just one of the food ingredients we use in our edible skincare products- in, for example,  Seaweed Honey and Herb Polishing scrub ( which, we are told, also makes great scones by the way) Seaweed, Green Tea Scrub Soap and it is included in all of our Natural Soap Shampoo Bars and real handmade soap bars, to which it lends an unparallelled  silkiness and moisturising quality, and creamy slippery lather….Jeez ( throws bucket of cold water over self, narrowly avoiding Mac keyboard) I should take up writing erotic fiction!!!

By the way, happy clients on the independant web feedback site  WOWMOW are posting some fabulous about our products, particularly the Leatherwood Honey Moisture creams…. “This cream is an absolutely amazing product.  I don’t think I knew what actually feeling ‘moisturised’ was until I used this cream “( Leatherwood Honey and Olive Ultrarich Moisture cream)  Hina B which is particularly pertinent as winter arrives- providing your wind buffeted skin with a rich nourishing moisture retaining barrier- ours is quite simply the best around so our clients tell us.

Wrap up tight and watch this space for some new products soon!

Addendum to last post and Jon Entine’s “Silent Spring”- like article Greenwashing…Really interesting talk on Radio national this morning (on “Life Matters”) about chemicals in personal care products and cleaners ( yuk, the hideous synthetic stench of the detergent and personal “care “(?) product aisles…apart from selling cruelly farmed pork…. another reason why I avoid the monstrous conglomerate supermarkets and actively support small family grocers in Hobart!)

Very interesting ..the focus is on endocrine disrupting pthalates and other formational chemicals in plastics, hmm, we’ve we have been telling people about the need for skincare safe enough to eat for 20 years ( we only use recycleable glass, paper or tin packaging with plastic caps or inserts if no other alternative is available) but will not use plastic packaging as such ( as I have ranted about before) but the issue of poisons in plastics is still ( unsurprisingly!) hidden by big industries.

We think the girl talking about her chemical free shampoo was talking about our products as she mentioned a how she had found a truly natural shampoo and the joys of a blissfully clean and pure hair conditioner -Apple cider vinegar rinse!

Thanks Sonia, we know who you are and whilst you could not mention our brand by name, “onya” as Aussies say!

Definitely worth a listen!

I’m sure that you are all familiar with housemoving, a nightmare that I have been told is up there in terms of stress with childbirth, and whilst I have not experienced that, it sure was something I’d equally rather forget!

But 4 weeks on I’m very glad that I did it, as I now have a very modest dwelling, but a BLINDING view, as you can see.

It is hard not to have a view in Hobart however, but our (myself and the mutt, Georgie of Gorgeous Georgie’s Gloss (Pet Shampoo) Bar fame)  fave walking track  with natural bush, many smells and little meandering paths to investigate is directly behind the house on Natone Hill reserve.

No excuse now in the winter months to not walk after dark, I bought her an LED light up collar (nice!) and a fetching strap on bushwalking head lamp light for me, I look like a fat miner !

the view from the deck is worth the pain!

It is interesting how “lies and damn lies” to quote somebody famous whose name escapes me, have simply become an accepted part of our culture, led of course by the original lying barstewards, politicians…who can forget Slippery Johnny Howard ( king of the Baby Overboard saga in Australia’s electioneering in the recent past)

As someone who was told as a child that their tongue would drop off if I told lies, it all horrifies me.

He introduced the increasingly employed concept of “core and non core promises” which means that you can lie shamelessly  when promising something, only to claim when pressed that “it was a non- core promise” and now does not have to be honoured/implemented. I often wondered if he now consults for the mainstream skincare industry, whose promises,claims and ingredient lists are shameless lies!

When I started the business nearly 20 years ago, natural and organic skincare quite literally did not exist, we were pioneers.

For the first 12 years at least we were a “voice in the wilderness” ( literally as it happens!) and people clearly thought we were nuts telling them that their skin “eats” what is put on it and therefore we only used food ingredients to be sure and safe, and listed ALL our ingredients, certified organic where possible, and if not, totally raw, clean, and “un-messed-about-with”.

People still don’t get that we refrigerate our fresh, food based products to extend shelf life instead of using toxic paraben preservatives!

Jon Entine wrote Greenwashing in 1995, clearly showing how one leading “natural” skincare chain was anything but, and was vilified for his efforts.

16 years later, and despite wide coverage of toxic contents of the big/fake “natural brands,STILL misleading consumers by adding a very small percentage of natural ingredients to the chemical cocktail, in order to make labelling claims, it is very frustrating to see thousands of new “natural” products flood the market every year, with ingredients that make us all blanch, but that are readily accepted by the consumer as being truthful, despite now thousands of websites enabling labelling to be demystified.

We had a mail recently from an individual who only used her initials, which really made the point:

“I would also like to mention, I love love love your products……I was  a sales rep for a cosmetics company in South east melb until recently – and let me tell you, Everyone wants products like yours….always asking for true organic natural products. Some of the products they sell as natural and organic are an insult to companies like yours, obviously the regulations on what they can and cant state on there packaging need to be refined.” VM

Unfortunately authenticity is now a commodity which seemingly has no traction ( especially if you claim it) so I guess we just quietly do what we do, and let our client say it for me!

“in 2010 I decided to “re-embrace” chemical products-often cheaper and more convenient ( especially as I had moved out of Tasmania and found it difficult to find a good stockist in Vic)

I used Beauty and the bees products for years and while I liked them for all the environmental reasons,I wasn’t convinced that there was anything “extra” they were doing for my skin .

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!!

After a year of using “other” ie: chemical products, my hair and skin look tired and worn, my skin is dull and flaky and just doesn’t have the same vitality it used to.

So I’m welcoming myself back to Beauty and the bees- my favourites are the unscented moisturisers ( for face and body) and the  Beer Shampoo Bar ( followed with a good old fashioned vinegar rinse)- can’t wait to have healthy glowing skin again”

From “joy 281″        as feedback on our website, so we can’t even get back to her and thank her!

If Joy is out there please contact us in order to do so!

Lani Budiman ( my esteemed, savvy, buoyant, perennially positive Sales manager…you would have met her instore in Hobart) has been slaving long and hard over a hot rewards system for all our loyal clients- we have many who have been with us for 18 years since the inception of the business-wow! Shows that good stuff that works survive all the passing fads..

All this geekery has has become possible through the wonders of technology and our new website…and TaDaaaaa! Our new shiny Bee Beauty Club!!

All of our business ( for 18 years)  comes by word of mouth or referrals as, like all small businesses who make good stuff, we have zero marketing budget, spending on good ingredients instead.

…..It’s a loyalty club for everyone, where members get rewarded for their purchases, and for introducing Beauty & the Bees healthy fresh skincare to their friends and family.

How does it work?

*When you make a purchase online, please register if you haven’t already done so.

Your points will then be recorded automatically.

*When you refer a friend, you and your friend will receive 15 points each when your friend makes the first purchase.

*When you make a purchase in the shop or market, please remember to write down your name & amount of purchase. The amount will then be entered in your “Bee Beauty Club”

Read all about the Bee Beauty Club on our home page and start rewarding yourself!

In addition, we now have Gift Certificates online so that you can give our luscious fab stuff to those starved of it’s Tasmanian goodness anywhere on the globe…check it out on our home page…

Talking of which we are trying to get one of our star products – our Tasmanian Beer Shampoo bar- on the telly. A Current Affair Sunrise and other morning/evening shows on commercial channels in Aus, are typical  tabloid magazine format programmes- an aquired taste- but spruik all sorts of stuff  and we need to reach a wider audience. If you use and love this product or any of our other quality goods, give them a call and lobby for us….tell them how fab it is and you want to see it on air!

You will earn the thanks of an old Media Tart from way back ( sold advertising space for 25 years before this incarnation as a small business toiler)!

Tasmania is turning on it’s show for Xmas with temperatures rising ( we made 22 degrees the other day! GASP! but a stiff breeze and a downpour soon fixed that) and all the stupendous produce  that we are famous for ( cherries, berries, salmon,olive oil all sorts of yummy stuff) is in stores here now, including the increased  Spring/Summer flow of rich creamy goats milk for our fresh goats milk soap….see below. Sigh, what a life these little creatures have!

Sandy Green's happy goats in the beautiful Huon Valley

Most appealingly the  roadside stalls mushroom along Tassie’s country roads groaning with fruit, jams and produce with their “honesty boxes” for payment…something that “mainlanders” and visitors from the big island to the North (Australia) are stunned by in these turbulent times. It’s just the way we are,our down home country -style thang, y’all.

All this fabulous produce makes it’s way to our annual monster food festival the Taste of Tasmania, held from 28th of December through to the 3rd of January, on the wharf at Salamanca, with over 300,000 visitors annually feasting on all that good stuff…. and this year we will be there with a stall in the new Retail Alley just outside, with our famous Beer Shampoo, which we are cranking out as fast as we physically can.

Come and say hello!

Well, have a Cool Yule wherever you are and “talk” again in the New Year…Toodlepip!

We had a service at a church in Hobart today for all the animals, based around St. Francis of Assisi’s traditional tribute, but I gave it a miss because I’m not religious and thought it a bit hypocritical to attend, despite the sentiment, but it is very cute apparently, with animals from birds to mice, to dogs and donkeys attending…aaaaahh. Nice.

I’ve already blogged at nauseating length about my George -the pleasure and boundless joy that she has brought into my life.

Enough already!! on that point, other than adding that she was recently diagnosed with glaucoma, which was upsetting, until I found that it could be controlled with drops for the rest of her life. Due to the bribe of a carob drop ( they actually aren’t bad, apart from the palm oil content,taste OK ..thank Gawd for hippies discovering carob in the 70′s …man..) she now bounds up onto the chair to get her drops in twice a day, no probs!

Another fantastic animal support event this weekend in Hobart is the Devil of a Dinner being held to raise funds for further research into the hideous facial tumour disease that is rapidly decimating the Tasmanian Devil in the wild, with the seriously talented world renowned chef,very wonderful Tassie lover and endless promoter Tetsuya Wakuda….go “Tets”!!!

Hoping to meet him at our store on Monday in person to give him some of our  Leatherwood Honey and Herb gourmet  Skin “food” and hope I don’t go all gooey on Lani, my store manager, who is a rampant foodie like me!

We are lucky enough to have Jan Cameron, a fantastically generous philanthropist, who some time ago sold her Katmandu chain of stores, and is now helping so many excellent causes ( she apparently has offered to match dollar for dollar the funds raised by tonight’s dinner, amazing!!!) such as the Brightside Animal Sanctuary that rescues abused animals and factory farm escapees.

The next Order of Australia should go Brightside’s completely fabulous Emma Haswell, who has so courageously exposed the harrowing conditions endured by many factory animals, and is helping to change their lives, as well as – most importantly- permanently changing legislation for better conditions- and a move to free range pigs for example…GO EMMA!!

Log onto their site and if so inclined make a donation in the spirit of World Animal Month.

We are doing our bit to  help celebrate this fantastic focus on animals, we are giving $1 from the sale of every natural olive oil, herb and honey Pet Shampoo bar sold this month online, at our Hobart store in Centrepoint, and at Salamanca market to the local RSPCA, to support their ongoing good work.

On the flip side of the coin, we are doing our best to help you discourage the smallest, peskiest animals that we all hate as the weather warms up – the dreaded mozzies, flies and biting insects- with our special this month…. spend  $100 or more and you recieve  our all natural Bugged Balm, with Tasmania’s insect repellent Kunzea oil!

However having had such a dry winter, it is wonderful to see the plants, trees and grass burst out into a verdant carpet virtually overnight- little green buds on my quince ( oooer Missus, I’d get that seen to!)

I have to say that is one of the things that enchanted me when I first came to Tasmania on a motorbike all those years ago (seems like yesterday!) and one of the reasons that I like it here…the intense palette of greens that compose the landscape,the bush and paddocks- a million hues, which shift and change with the light.

What blew me away when I first saw them ( remember I was just newly arrived city gal rubbernecking at everything) and still does, was the incredible apple orchards in the Huon Valley, which, when massively laden with thick clots of glossy ruby apples in season, are simply mouthwatering, visually….the sheer fecundity of the soil, the colours, abundance…it looks like every apple has been individually airbrushed by Disney’s Pixar studios, too perfect to believe to believe that they had not been “Photoshopped”!

The cows in the malachite green spring paddocks are the same, so clean and white against the intense verbiage…amazing, and no, I have not been hitting the apple cider that the region produces in order to wax lyrical! We do get our fabulous natural apple cider for our Apple Cider and Herb Conditioning Rinse from here however, and apart from bringing gloss and shine to your hair after using our natural soap shampoo bars could make a very fine salad dressing too!

One of the endearing things too, in Tassie, is the roadside apple/veggie/jam stalls, or my favourite- the fridge at Lucaston Orchards filled with their mouthwatering cloudy fresh apple juice- relying on honesty boxes ( admittedly these days much sturdier in construction, and bolted down securely) from which you can claim your prize and drive off happy.

All this produce speaks of one root and branch activity ( forgive the pun) which is a mystery to me…gardening.

Tasmania has some of Australia’s most fabulous gardens I gather,but I’m afraid this arcane art form is lost on me..all I can produce is twitch ( couchgrass for northern hemisphere readers I believe) these days on my little quarter acre suburban plot, due to lack of activity/interest.

Unfortunate really, since my grandmother produced a massive crop of veggies that fed us all when I was little, and a remember hours pleasantly spent in a companionable silence shucking ( and surreptitiously eating) sweet, crunchy peas.

I began well, and upon buying the house 15 years ago, enthusiastically planted an apothecary garden, with a particular emphasis on bee attracting plants, an obvious choice given my interest in and use of herbs in the business, but soon found out that apart from the fact that weeds ALWAYS win, that constant maintainence was required.

Boring, boring boring.

I just don’t get it…all that backbreaking weeding, it is relentless, and quickly buggers your hands, if like me you have the beginnings of arthritis from screwing the lids onto a million jars of face cream!

I therefore only planted those things that I use a lot of like Kaffir lime, lemon savory ( DIVINE with fish/chicken) bay and rosemary, which are all very hardy and require NO attention.

My pomegranate tree has struggled in the cold, but produced small fruit despite the inattention, and I have to say I am just stunned by my quince tree, which produced a whole 12 ( count ‘em!) quinces last year ( WOW!)….I had never tried the fruit until I moved to Aus, but it is simply the most delicious thing in the whole world gently stewed in a slow cooker with star anise and cinnamon for 8 hours to a rose blush/ruby red succulent tenderness….and slathered with thick creamy Greek Yogurt topped with pistachios and sumac…Oh. My. Gawd.

I definitely enjoy looking at a well maintained garden, but just don’t want to engage with it physically ( too time poor) but can see that if you had time, it would be very rewarding, and also produce a fine crop of veggies…and luckily we produce a very fine range of Gardener’s products to erase the traces of your labour and soothe the dry scratched hands of those that enjoy it

Our Gardener’s balm has been reported to have myriad soothing uses, and many mechanics swear by our Gardener’s scrub to clean deep seated dirt. Have a look at our Gardener’s special on for spring right now, and treat yourself or someone you love!