Enjoy some much deserved you-time this New Year with a honey-inspired pamper at beekeeper and skincare specialist Samantha Mault's new Bramble & Bee spa, with her very own luxury skincare range
Honey. It’s a thing of beauty – in Greece, described as the “food of the Gods” and in China, used as medicine.
In Lytham St. Anne’s, it is drizzled into soaps, creams and washes, lip balms and scrubs.
You see, its magic is rarely realised: honey is good for skin conditions due to its natural humectant properties meaning it is able to draw in and seal moisture to the skin, even after it has been washed off.
It can be used as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antibacterial; it is hydrating, promotes healing and adapts your skin to the world around you.
So when skin specialist and beekeeper Samantha Mault’s new-born daughter suffered with food allergies and eczema, only her bees could help.
‘Having been this skin specialist for ever I thought, “Oh my goodness, I have to combat this!”’ Samantha says. ‘We were trying all sorts. We got prescriptions from the doctor but nothing was working.
‘I collected honey out of my bee hives and was getting Matilda to stand up in the bath and I was spreading it all over her. All of the eczema cleared up but she was always a sticky mess.
‘So I started thinking, I bet I could make a honey soap or a honey cream. And it all started from there.’
That was about six years ago, when Samantha’s new skincare hobby laid the foundations of her business that would later become Bramble and Bee.
The name is a nod to her home life, beekeeping and tending to her garden allotment where she grows wildflowers, herbs and natural botanicals. Her and farmer husband Steven are very much into organic, fresh produce and the Bramble and Bee ingredient list is a wonderful representation of that.
Natural oats boost the skins collagen production and exfoliate, moisturise and protect; neroli, a natural and ethically-sourced orange blossom oil, aids in regenerating the skin, reducing stretch marks and scars and giving the skin a youthful glow; and ylang ylang boasts antibacterial properties and is especially effective for aging skin.
Samantha started making, and friends and family started buying. What came next was months of cosmetic testing for organic and natural status and a chat to the relevant people to see if she could – using her qualifications from her beauty career – forge her own skincare brand using her very own honey.
It was years of hard work: research, reading books, testing and trial and error. ‘When I felt I had perfected it – my first ever product was my honey, oat and neroli soap – I submitted my ingredients and my quantities to a lab and was given a certificate to say I could sell it,’ says Samantha, who also uses beeswax for its nourishing and anti-aging properties and makes 100 per cent natural honey lip balms.
‘From there I did a bit more research, how you make a cream, how you make lip balms...and it just continued.’
She works from her lovely home studio with Steven and sister-in-law Hollie and is currently creating a honey and beeswax night balm.
All Bramble and Bee products are beautifully packaged using sustainable, plastic-free packaging and finished with a wax seal. Think the luxury of Jo Malone but with a local twist.
‘Next thing I know, Stringers [Department Store in Lytham] got in touch and I applied to be part of Not On the High Street, a British gifting brand showcasing small creative businesses,’ Samantha adds.
‘And then The Grand got in touch and said “Would you like to open a Bramble and Bee spa?”’
Bramble and Bee at The Grand Hotel in Lytham St Anne’s opened on September 12, offering facials, massages and foot treatments. They are not your average treatments – Samantha includes raw beeswax and drizzled honey, hot stones and botanicals from her garden just outside.
‘Everybody says I shouldn’t just call it a facial because it is more like a full body experience,’ she says. ‘We nip outside, pick some herbs, and if we don’t use them straight away, we encourage clients to breathe them in.
‘It is nice. There are a lot of really special bits. One of the niche things is that there is nowhere I have heard of where the therapist who is doing your facial uses pure, raw honey out of a hive for your mask.’
Bees have always been in the family, with Samantha’s great grandad well known in the industry.
‘I have these beautiful fond memories of my grandma’s amazing garden with all of her bee hives,’ Samantha says. ‘There was always honey on the side, she has always looked a picture of health and it had just always been in my mind that I’d like to give it a go.
‘I did a course at Myerscough College to refresh my mind, and got my own hive. It's a bit trial and error with bees; you have to just get in there and do it.
‘Matilda is six now and she is really interested in the bees. It really does make my grandma happy.
‘Everybody knows me as the pink bee lady because I feel like I am the only beekeeper in the world that has a baby pink bee suit. I love it.’
brambleandbeecosmetics.co.uk
