The origin of BombusLeaf

Bombus : The Latin name given to bumblebees also known as humblebees. I find bee’s so delightful, this represents the many wonderful creatures we share this planet with

Leaf : The love and appreciation of our diverse and wonderful plant world, new beginnings and the turning of a new leaf with a growing global awareness of the need to return to sustainability

Hi my name is Helen and I started BombusLeaf out of a love for the natural world and a desire to find an easy to use cost effective alternative to clingfilm. I had tried fabric beeswax wraps and although they were great I soon discovered that they were out of my budget. So to reduce the cost I tried making the fabric wraps in my kitchen, at home. After watching numerous online video tutorials and although simple to do I found it incredibly messy and the clean up was very time consuming. As a full time working parent, I simply couldn’t find the time needed to make and regularly “refresh” them, so the hunt began. I wanted something that required a low level of processing, was plastic free, convenient, simple and easy to use, zero or low waste so the materials had to be completely renewable and sustainably sourced.

BombusLeaf Beeswax Paper Wraps were launched in August of 2020. Made from wild crafted meadow grass, wood pulp and beeswax gathered from sustainably managed wild bees they are a wonderful and effective low / zero waste alternative to both cling film and fabric wraps.

My Beeswax Paper Wraps were an instant hit with friends and family and it lead to conversations about plastic being used to package so many everyday items and even hidden in some cases within bodycare products such as body scrubs. This lead me to think about my next product, sticking to the same principles but also adding in completely plant based and free from any animal ingredients. I set out to make a body scrub that was natural and had zero plastic in it or its packaging. I launched a small range of BombusLeaf Hand and Body Soap Scrubs in January 2021. A dual purpose hand soap that can also be taken into the bath or shower and used as an all over body scrub. Made using natural, organic, fair trade botanical ingredients and by moulding the scrub into a solid bar also enabled me to do away with all packaging.

I was overjoyed to see how well my products were received by my friends and family and thanks to social media and word of mouth, this has lead to BombusLeaf products being stocked in Natural and Organic Health, Refill and Zero Waste stores along with Garden Centres across the country. In June of 2020 we also started working with our first distributor A Fine Choice Distribution.