BEHIND THE LABEL WITH NEVE'S BEES

When Neve's parents first moved to West Oxfordshire in 2011 they had the delight of dragging two bored children around various houses to find somewhere to live. On seeing a large stack of honey jars in one house, a grumpy 9 year old Neve pipes up...

“Why have you got all that honey?” to which the owner of the honey replies,
“Because I have bees”
“What, they make all that honey!”
“Yes, and they make wax and propolis and pollinate lots of flowers and trees”
Neve was blissfully quiet for the rest of the afternoon; then later,
“I think we should live in that house with those bees. I’ve spoken with Grandad Jim and I’ve asked him to get me a beehive for my birthday”

Starting from this one hive, and with help from some wonderful local beekeepers and crafts-folk, the family have developed a thriving apiary and have become part of a lovely beekeeping community.

All their products are made from 100% natural ingredients, organic (wherever possible) and produced in the village in West Oxfordshire. 

The Neve’s Bees story started with Neve and her mum Julie making a few fun ‘lotion and potions’ blending our beeswax with pure natural plant oils and butters. They soon realised that they could make a comprehensive range of skincare products using only truly natural ingredients that felt so much better on the skin than the stuff they had previously been buying.

• Pure Plant Ingredients – We use only pure plant oils, seeds and butters blended with our natural wild-crafted beeswax, herbal extracts and nothing else. Just pure, undiluted goodness.
• Sustainably and Ethically sourced – All our oils and butters are sustainably and ethically sourced.
• Low Air Miles – Where possible, we use locally sourced traditional plant oils and butters in preference to a wild and wonderful new botanical that’s been flown halfway round the world!
• Upcycled and reused – Many of our ingredients are the by product of other industries e.g. our fruit seed oils are by products of the jam and fruit juice industries.
• Recyclable packaging – all our packaging can be recycled (and our pump dispenser caps can be reused) we work with ‘one tree planted’ funding reforestation to offset any unavoidable carbon emissions.

The brand are in the process of gaining the soil association accreditation – all products will either be soil association cosmos certified natural or natural and organic. The packaging is recyclable and their tin supplier is part of ‘one tree planted’. The UK imports of over 90% of honey and beeswax from places such as China and Mexico. The beeswax used in these products are all wildcrafted by their own bees in Oxfordshire. The products are water free – meaning they do NOT contain any of the preservatives and emulsifiers in all skin creams and lotions AND use much less packaging and less ‘carbon’ to ship them around.

Neve's Bees are on a mission to bring back the wildflower meadows and donate 10% of their profits to wildlife causes such as the plantlife charity who run ‘No Mow May’ .

"We give away thousands of packs of bee-friendly wildflower seeds each year – creating ‘mini-meadows’ all over the UK – we like to think of them as bee services stations – giving bees and other pollinators places where they can ‘refuel’ with nectar and pollen."

Since 1950 it is estimated that in the UK we have lost 98% of wildflower meadows! Without these, our pollinators and the other creatures who feed on these (ultimately including ourselves!) cannot survive. However, with your help, we can create new mini-meadows all over the UK and bring back our wildflowers and the bees they support!

When Neve decided the family should keep bees they began really looking into some of the issues surrounding bees and other pollinators, and the flowers on which they rely – it makes rather shocking reading:

• recent evidence suggests that number of insects worldwide may have fallen by over 50% since 1970.
• Approximately 75% of all crop types grown by humans require pollination by insects (pretty much all of them except grasses and conifers) this means around 35% of the world’s food crops need insects to pollinate them. Without pollinators, we could not feed the human population
• As well as losing 98% of our wildflower meadows, it’s estimated that we’ve also lost 150,000 miles of hedgerow, 50% of downland and 50% of ancient woodland in the last 70 years.

But what can we do?

There are three major threats to our pollinators:

• Climate change
• Unnecessary use of pesticides
• Loss of insect friendly habitat.

…and this last one is where we think, with your help, Neve’s Bees can start to make a difference. 😊

• They donate 10% of their profits to The Wildlife Trust and other local nature recovery charities to preserve our nature reserves, restore our meadows and educate children to look after nature
• They are working with their local Eynsham Nature Recovery group to bring back wildflower meadows along the Thames Valley and throughout Oxfordshire
• Throughout the year, they give away packs of pollinator friendly wildflower seeds for you to plant in your gardens, parks, verges – or wherever you think needs some wildflowers – little patches of wildflowers throughout the country creating joined up habitats for the pollinators to flourish
• They share hints and tips, and (hopefully!) interesting information to help you and your friends and family to be part of nature’s recovery and to feel the joy that immersion in the natural world can bring.

“Every space in Britain must be used to help wildlife” – Sir David Attenborough

Please see Neve's Bees skincare products here.