In the little town of Pagosa Springs, we take our gardening seriously.  Pagosa Feed & Seed was very selective about carrying our gardener’s hand cream, but after trying it they were finally convinced.  At first whiff, the lemongrass will convince you to give it a try, but the bug deterring essential oils will keep you coming back.  It has been a popular selling gift item since we introduced it in 2005, but really took off as one of our big success stories after a little story appeared in the Denver Post.

Organic skin care maker Queen Bee created a thich, super hydrating gardener’s hand cream called Butta.   It is free of chemicals including harmful parabens.  So if you are out and about in Pagosa and want to try a lovely hand cream, pop into Pagosa Feed and Seed (formerly Pagosa Nursery).  It located on Bastille behind Ace Hardware.

REPRINT DECEMBER 2007 STORY
Gardening Just Became a Whole Lot Safer

Say Yes to Beautiful Flower Beds- Say No to Chemical-Laden Lotion

Gardening season is just around the corner, and we know what that means– seriously neglected hands fallen victim to the sun, dirt, bugs and joint stress from minute and repetitive motion. The easy way to remedy gardening woes would be to simply not garden, but if you’re like most, treasuring a fine rose bush or bougainvillea bloom like a rare glass of wine, you need a solution that will keep you outdoors among the plants you love.

Enter Queen Bee Skin Care’s Butta Gardener’s Hand Cream (the color which comes from carrot oil and texture so closely resembled whipped butter it was a crime to moniker this hand cream anything else). After an exhaustive day in the dirt, Queen Bee Skin Care’s founder Lynne Killey could find no product that successfully hydrated and simultaneously soothed her cracked, achy hands. To the kitchen it was, where coconut, palm and mango oils were combined to create the lavish, intensely hydrating Butta. 

Queen Bee’s fresh-from-the-kitchen hand creams are full of hydrating butters and oils- without the harmful chemicals found in traditional skin care products; this makes them a safe, pure remedy for overworked gardener hands. Most lotions and creams use a dangerous set of preservative chemicals called parabens (see attached fact sheet). Butta Cream is a natural, healthful solution to using lotions laden with parabens. 

The rich oils used in Butta were picked specifically for their individual therapeutic properties (and to avoid nut oils, which often produce allergic reaction).  Coconut oil is readily absorbable and creates smoothness while penetrating deep into the skin’s layers, strengthening the underlying tissue. Palm oil is known for its’ high level of carotenoids (which are converted to vitamin A in the body). Externally, vitamin A neutralizes harmful elements in the skin, improving infection resistance, skin elasticity and wrinkle depth. Melting quickly upon contact with the skin, mango oil gives Butta Cream a luxurious, heavy-yet-silky feel.

Other scrumptious ingredients added to the oils in Butta create a potion hard to pass up. Cinnamon, lemongrass and lavender oils fragrantly combine, keeping bugs away sans the overwhelming ‘bug-spray’ smell (but beware, this might leave you deeply inhaling your hands). Camphor oil readily soothes aching muscles and joints while aloe quickens healing of sun-drenched skin.  

Butta can be used before and after your gardening adventures: before to keep the moisture in and the bugs out and after to ease away the strains of a day in the dirt (it can even be used on your feet during pedicure treatments for spectacular softness). Even with routine usage, one 4 ounce jar will probably last an entire planting season, allowing you to garden ‘til your heart’s content!

Founded in 2004, Queen Bee Sauce offers simple, natural skin care products to health-conscious consumers. With a focus on personalized products and service, all Queen Bee products are homemade, by hand, from scratch, using natural and organic ingredients. The Queen Bee motto ‘Made with Love’ represents the philosophy of founder Lynne Killey that “each bottle or jar of product is made with attention to quality of ingredients, harmony with nature and care for the person who will be using our product.”

To learn more about Queen Bee Sauce or how to purchase Butta, visit our store www.QueenBeeSauce.com.  Or give us a buzz at 970/731.3690 or email QB@QueenBeeSauce.com.

Tags: retail outlet

Queen Bee skin care wants you to have the facts on these nasty preservatives that are commonly found in skin care products.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency:

• Parabens are a family of chemical preservatives which include the commonly used methyl, propyl, butyl and ethyl preservatives.

• Paraben chemicals display estrogenic activity, mimicking the body’s own estrogen and producing endocrine-disrupting action (the hypothalamus, ovaries and thyroid) when rubbed into the skin or washed down the drain into drinking water.

• Continual introduction of Parabens into sewage treatment systems and recreational waters leads to health risk for aquatic organisms.  Fish absorb these chemicals and humans eat these fish.

According to Dr. Elizabeth Smith

• It is a known medical fact that estrogen stimulates breast cancer.

• Anything absorbed through the skin may be as high as ten-times the concentration of an oral dose (think about how nicotine and birth control/hormone patches work-the chemicals are quickly absorbed directly through the skin).

• In one study, Parabens were injected under the skin of participants and were found to have an estrogenic response on uterine tissues.

• Scientists observing the harmful effects of Parabens on the uterus remarked, ‘it is suggested that the safety of using these chemicals should be reassessed’.
  

Elizabeth Smith made these statements in a review of a source study by John (JP) Sumpter
Institute for the Environment, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom   http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/ife/staff/JohnSumpter   He is an active member of the Society for Endocrinology and other various related groups.  The complete paper can be found at http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-77276631.html

The Breast Cancer Fund has a well documented paper on the hazards of parabens which sites 12 studies connecting  parabens to estronigic activity.

http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=1203361

Due to new research, the European Union has been asked to regulate the use of parabens in skin care applications.

Tags: parabens

Julie Gay was recently visiting Pagosa Springs.  She was on vacation, but during her stay she read an article about Queen Bee.  Of course she wanted to try our raw shea butter and was hooked instantly.  On her return home, she was so enthusiastic that she put together a big opening order and now sells our organic skin care “sauce” near her home in Claremore outside of Tulsa.  Our products can be found at Salon 66.  So if you live in the area, give them a buzz… Salon 66 is located at 24797 State Highway 66, Claremore, OK 74019-2402 and the salon phone is (918) 341-0066.

We would like to wish her much success and are excited to have her as part of our network of worker bees!

If you would like more information about Queen Bee, please go to www.Queenbeepagosa.com or to shop online for our products, check out www.QueenBeeSauce.com.

The idea of “shop local” is not a new one, but in tough times the impact can be dramatic.

According to a research study done in Virginia, the results are shocking.  The study showed that if each person in the state of VA shopped at a local farmer’s market and spent just $10, the economic impact would be over a billion (yes Billion with a B) in local revenues.

With tough times in our town, shopping local is more important than ever.  Even one small purchase allows for a trickle effect in spending.

Think Happy Cows.

Consider the impact of trucking, fuel exhaust, big machine environments versus products made here in the state of Colorado with love, attention to detail, low stress factors and often freshly picked, baked or brewed consumables!  Mass produced produced like skin care are made in a commercial production facility, trucked to a warehouse, packed by machines, repackaged into flats and pallets, trucked to a warehouse, the as orders are filled they go to distribution centers, then to retail stores all before you ever see the bottle.  Hand made organic skin care products like Queen Bee skin care are made in small batches. The ingredients come to us and we formulate, package, distribute, and sell direct to the public without the bottles and materials ever leaving our little town.  A series of worker bees pick up “kitted” projects, hand label and return them, but they are always surrounded by people who care about our environmental impact and the quality of the materials.

If spending $10 at a local farmer’s market to create a billion, then consider if you choose to shop more locally for 10% of your overall household spending.  Just think of what kind of impact we could make.

To find Queen Bee, go to www.QueenBeePagosa.com or order online at www.QueenBeeSauce.com

Tags: organic impact