I have an amazing friend who runs an amazing company called Handcrafted HoneyBee, which makes personal care products that are, you guessed it, amazing. Husband and I are pretty big sticklers for choosing healthy personal care products–not only for our own health but for the health of our planet.
My friend, amazing woman she is, creates all her own recipes for things like soap and deodorant and chapstick and face masks—but she doesn’t stop there. She takes it one step further. She creates kits that allow girls and boys to make their own products if they want to. Talk about empowering kids.
Lest you get too excited about this brilliant company, I must warn you that the products you purchase will cause you to do some unexpected things. Husband washes his hand fifty-three times a day now, just to smell the pleasant aroma of eucalyptus spearmint. I disappear into my room every evening to “put on my face mask” and frighten kids away from my bedroom door because I’M TRYING TO READ. The boys won’t give me kisses anymore, because they just applied their black cherry chapstick and they don’t want my lips to take any of it with them.
But probably the most uncouth things you’ll do center around the deodorant. I’ve been making my own deodorant for about three years, because I’m weird like that. I have never been able to get mine to smell as divine as Handcrafted HoneyBee’s. I actually like the way I smell now when I’ve just done fifty burpees.
Here are some reasons why you might not want to try Handcrafted HoneyBee’s deodorant:
1. You’ll go around smelling each other’s armpits.
My friend sent Husband and me a trial size of the deodorant, which comes with five different scents: tweed and spice, coconut and mango, rose and lavender, eucalyptus and spearmint and lemongrass and patchouli. So it’s not unusual to see Husband and me, in the early morning hours, sniffing each other’s armpits and saying, “I like that one a lot,” because, well, they smell really, really good.
2. Your kids will ask to smell your armpits.
This is slightly worse than Reason Number 1, because everybody knows kids are like leeches. If they smell something they like—especially something that smells like FOOD—they’ll never want to leave it, and you’ll have a kid hanging under your pit for the rest of the day (because the smell lasts a LONG time).
This has been the problem every time I wear the coconut mango deodorant. The smell reminds me of a book—Treasure Island to be exact. When I wear coconut mango, I feel like I’m on a tropical island, searching for treasure that may or may not come with dangerous pirates—but if it does come with dangerous pirates, I’m prepared. I have my deodorant.
The kids, however, are reminded every time I walk by that they haven’t eaten in fifteen minutes, and, man, they’re starving. What’s that yummy smell?
And, perhaps the most dangerous reason of all:
3. When Someone says, “What’s that smell?” you’ll make a complete fool of yourself.
“Squeaky wheel on the stroller,” you’ll say, or, more to the point, “It was one of the kids.” You’ll say this because you think you’ve been found out and that it wasn’t as silent but deadly as you thought. The Someone will look at you strangely, sniff the air, and say, “Smells a little like mango.” You’ll high-tail it out of there.
Hypothetically, of course.
All humor aside, the products at Handcrafted HoneyBee really are amazing. Each of the deodorants puts me in the middle of a book.
The eucalyptus and spearmint puts me right in the middle of The Jungle Book. Lavender and rose puts me in the middle of The Secret Garden. Tweed and spice, which is a pretty manly scent, puts me in Wuthering Heights, near the dangerously appealing Heathcliff, who smells oh so nice. Lemongrass and Patchouli doesn’t summon a book so much as a movie: none other than Mrs. Doubtfire, starring the late Robin Williams. It’s a clean, fresh scent that reminds of my house as a child. It does not, however, remind me of my house as an adult. That would need a scent far less…desirable.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this inside look at my life and an amazing company. Every Friday, I publish a short blog on something personal that includes a valuable takeaway. For more of my essays and memoir writings, visit Wing Chair Musings.
