A BUTTERKNOWLE woman is buzzing with excitement since setting up her own hand made soap business this month.
Since being made redundant from her logistics job in March, amateur apiarist Diane Todd has concentrated on developing her range of handmade soaps using wax left over from the production of honey.
Ms Todd, who took up bee keeping as a hobby several years ago, has also gained a big following for her “Butterknowle Bees” selling off the produce using an honesty box system outside her home.
She said: “I love making soap. It has been quite a challenge. You can do one batch and it turns out brilliant. Then in another something isn’t right even though you use the same recipe.
“I have made soap for some time, to give away as presents.”
After watching a David Attenborough documentary on how the increase in plantations growing palm oil, a key ingredient in most commercially produced soap, is one of the leading causes of deforestation, Ms Todd says she was inspired to put one of the by-products from her hives, beeswax, to good use.
Using the beeswax to form a base, blended with essential oils and using natural colourants, she has created a range of products to suit all skin types.
She said: “I use natural colourants and the best essential oils and have also developed a shea butter range and am working on a shampoo bar, but it’s costly to get done as it’s about £250 each batch to get them tested.
“I have grown a lot of the herbs and flowers that are in the soap in my allotment.
“There are some things though that I can’t grow but it is my intention that everything that goes into the soaps will eventually all be grown here.”
Toddy’s Soaps also features other bee-related products she has made including a furniture polish, environmentally friendly beeswax food wraps and bee inspired birthday cards.
She said: “I am hopefully going to get a regular pitch at the market I also sell through Facebook and have set up my own online shop. The day I launched it I was amazed as I immediately got two orders straight away from someone in America.”
For more information on Toddy’s Soap and Butterknowle Bees visit www.toddy soap.com
