Today we’d like to introduce you to Jill King.
Hi Jill, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I truly never expected to be doing what I do today. I got my master’s degree in Physical Therapy and owned my own PT practice after college. I loved being able to help rehabilitate people physically – to give them true healing without using drugs or superficial solutions. I carried that mentality into motherhood, and throughout the years of raising my four kids got very passionate about nutrition and natural healing. I have always cooked with animal fats and believed in an ancestral diet. When I began to hear about ancestral skincare, it just made sense to me so I tried making my own tallow whip and long-infusing herbs into it. It turned out so creamy and luscious and I just knew I had to spread this with others. A local sustainable refillery shop called Fill Up Buttercup was looking for tallow to carry and they were excited to give mine a shot. They ended up loving it as well as the knowledge they felt I brought, so they began carrying my tallow and other products as I added to the line. The products began getting attention and people began coming back with amazing results, and there Honeybee Hippie was born. Today, the line is expanded to many more products, some carried in refillery shops and some offered on our website. I also love attending a wonderful curated local market called A Slow Market to sell my products and educate the community about the healing powers of ancestral “skin food”.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Creating products from home has definitely had its challenges. The nature of the products being natural is that there will be a slight variation when it comes to producing them. It was a challenge at the start to try and get the recipes nailed down so that they are the right consistency every time. Additionally, I am making everything by hand in my kitchen, so production can be hard to keep up with but I love the challenge of getting in there and filling jars by hand. We are in the process of ramping up production in order to keep up with orders. Through all of the challenges, it’s been fun adapting and growing the brand and I am so thankful for the love that people have shown throughout.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Honeybee Hippie is not just a skincare brand, but a movement to bring people back to the ancestral way of healing and caring for the skin. We use real animal products, healthy fats, and organic herbs which are ingredients clean enough to consume. 100% grass-fed beef tallow is the closest composition to our own skin, making it possess more bioavailable nutrients than can be compared in anything else. It is truly a miracle product and the centerpiece of our brand, incredible at fighting aging, acne, dryness, infection, inflammation and more. Instead of using essential oils in our products which are intense for the skin, we long-infuse real whole herbs into the tallow for several days in order to extract the entire spectrum of the plant’s gentle healing powers. The other star player of our products is raw honey. Honey is abundantly healing and brings rich moisture to the skin. I have added products as the need presents itself to my family- for example, my first grandbaby was born this year and I created several baby solutions that he needed using the benefits of tallow, as well as products to help mothers such as my daughter as she needed them. The name Honeybee Hippie was inspired by my husband and I’s backyard bees that we tend to – a sight you don’t usually see in a California neighborhood.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was always athletic and active. My mom didn’t have the knowledge about everything regarding health, but she raised us eating real foods. I grew up playing lots of sports and was always passionate about working out and fitness. I was raised with an appreciation of nature and spent much time outdoors. I knew that for a career, I wanted to be involved with something that had to do with the natural world and the body. I believe that my active and health-conscious upbringing is what led me to choose a career in Physical Therapy. All of these factors in my upbringing are what ultimately led me to the creation of HoneyBee Hippie.
Contact Info:
- Website: honeybeehippie.com
- Instagram: @shophoneybeehippie
- Other: Tiktok: @honeybeehippie
Image Credits
Mia Gautreau @miagautreau instagram
