Bee Naturalles

The Euboea based company creates innovative, organic cosmetics using honey and essential oils

Discovery

After a lengthy visit to an Athenian food fair, I was accelerating to the door having carelessly abused my carbohydrate overload threshold with numerous tastings.

Fortunately a stand with no apparent calorific threat blocked my exit.

The company Bee Naturalles, established in 2013 by Chara Magana and George Athanasiadis in Euboea, adopts a vision of creating innovative, organic cosmetics that are as natural as possible, using honey and essential oils as their main ingredients. The products are for both men and women and range from moisturizing creams to hand creams, soaps and beeswax balm. Propolis, lavender, spices and vanilla extract make for luxurious, deeply nourishing products which come in plain jars adorned with simple white labels and black lettering. Bee Naturalles’ ethos is all about following what Chara likes to call the “natural rhythm of nature” and creating products seasonally. She likes working with fresh honey which changes from season to season: fir, pine and forest honey are used to create unique soaps and potions. Chara is currently exporting Bee Naturalles’ products to the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway.

Bee Naturalles, established in 2013 by Chara Magana and George Athanasiadis in Euboea, adopts a vision of creating innovative, organic cosmetics that are as natural as possible, using honey and essential oils as her main ingredients

Memory

Chara is a biotechnologist and her husband George is a physicist. Before Bee Naturalles they had worked in various jobs in the health and education sectors but have always had the same life goal, to work close to nature and take advantage of the unparalleled feeling of freedom it offers. George is now the beekeeper and Chara is in charge of product development and promotion.

Bee Naturalles was established five years ago and since then Chara and George have never stopped expanding their clientele and network of producers and consultants. Chara moved from busy Athens to the small town of Nea Artaki in Euboea, following George who grew up in the area, thus realizing her dream of living close to nature. Chara and George have various beehives at several locations mainly in Northern Greece and the Peloponnese, which they check often thus leading an almost nomadic way of life which they love.

Euboea is an ideal place for apiculture and a meeting point of apiarists from all over Greece. The island’s biodiversity makes it ideal for honey production. The island has forests of firs and pines as well as miles of coastline where thyme grows naturally

Narration

Euboea is an ideal place for apiculture and a meeting point of apiarists from all over Greece. The island’s biodiversity makes it ideal for honey production. The island has forests of firs and pines as well as miles of coastline where thyme grows naturally. There is production of fir honey, pine honey and forest honey. The thyme honey produced here has an intense aroma as the thyme grows wild next to the sea. Chara thinks of Euboea as a “small paradise”. It took her a lot of time to explore this island’s small gulfs, mountains and forests falling into the sea. Nea Artaki was named after the Artaki region in Asia Minor when refugees were settled in. Consequently, the area came alive as before that it was traditionally a humid marshland.