This lovely workshop offers modern bee products and a variety of beeswax ointments with recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation
Discovery
The MeliMpampa brand was established in 2013 by Eleni Polonidou. I made its discovery on the crowded shelves of a natural product supermarket in Thessaloniki, not part of the city’s cosmopolitan shopping neighbourhood but an establishment brimming with premium beauty, food and beverage products. I can personally attest to their miraculous effects.
The brand offers a variety of honey ranging from chestnut to thyme and bee products such as propolis and Royal Jelly. However, the focus is on beeswax creams, “organic” cosmetics, as well as essential oils, tinctures and natural remedies.
MeliMpampa offers a variety of beeswax ointments (keraloifes) with recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation and tweaked for a modern audience with essential oils such as thyme and St.John’s wort and propolis. These smooth beeswax creams that come in distinctive small jars cover a variety of needs: There are ailment treatments -anything from diaper rash to sore muscles- but also regenerative beauty products that aid anti-aging and stop sun spots. MeliMpampa’s mission is to provide quality products at modest prices, and Eleni finds the customers’ feedback, who often thank her for curing their ailments and skin problems with her “magic potions”, to be extremely valuable. MeliMpampa products are certified and are fully natural and free from parabens, silicones, phthalates, mineral oils and pigments.
MeliMpampa offers a variety of honey ranging from chestnut to thyme and bee products such as propolis and Royal Jelly. However, the focus is on beeswax creams, “organic” cosmetics, as well as essential oils, tinctures and natural remedies
Memory
MeliMpampa’s literal translation in Greek is “father’s honey”. The brand was spontaneously named from the honey that Eleni’s father used to produce in Melissochori –this literally translates to bee village- from where he hailed. Her father, a professional furniture maker was an amateur beekeeper. He was the one who inspired Eleni’s journey into the magnificent word of honey making.
Eleni studied marketing and worked in sales for 26 years. In 2011 she was dealt with a double blow, when her father passed away, and the recession cost her her job. She started learning about beekeeping, attending seminars from Chemistry professionals and apiarists at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
She soon realized that although she loved honey, her true love was producing natural remedies and cosmetics. Eleni was inspired by a number of traditional remedies used in her family such as her grandmother’s beeswax cream, and started using them on herself and her children. She found that propolis was great for her son’s constant sore throat and beeswax cream made her pimples and eczema disappear.
Narration
In Northern Greece, honey production is very common, as the Greek climate favours a wide range of flowers and herbs. The apiaries in Langada and Nea Apolonia where Eleni does her beekeeping are both famous for their thermal springs. The residents of these small cities played an important role in the Greek Revolution in 1821 and the subsequent Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 that set the stage for the First World War. With the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Greeks from the Sea of Marmara and Eastern Thrace settled in Nea Apolonia.