Beauty buzz: Making a beeline for a new honey-based boutique

Step inside Follow the Honey (1132 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 617.686.1469), and you might think an old Cambridge brownstone had somehow become a beehive. The boutique, which officially opened its doors on August 20 (National Honey Bee Day, of course), celebrates the golden darling of all of nature's nectars, showcasing organic edibles, honey-based skincare products, beeswax candles, books, jewelry, and more. The queen bee of it all? Cambridge resident Mary Canning.

Canning conceptualized Follow the Honey after her life took a profoundly painful turn: she lost her first husband to metastasized bone cancer. "Bearing witness to how hard-won every breath was for him imbued me with an unshakable appreciation for life," she remembers. After his passing, she happened to meet a family friend who was a beekeeper - and discovered a new world of life-affirming beauty.

Canning became a beekeeper herself in 2008, though with a career in documentary filmmaking under her belt, she was no stranger to the marvels of the natural world: she'd worked on projects for the likes of Frontline and NOVA, exploring subjects that included deep-sea volcanoes and Mount Everest. Hives may be smaller in scale, but she discovered that they're no less a source of wonder. In fact, she found them to be downright therapeutic; the simple but fruitful life of the bee, inspiring. "I knew firsthand that honey and bees were a window into beauty," she says. "One could benefit from the life-giving propensities of what they represent, as well as the very real medicinal and therapeutic benefits of honey."

Naturally, her new honey store is swarming with holistic wellness and beauty remedies, boasting lines that dip into the moisturizing and antiseptic properties of honey. And a lot of them are local: among the products lining the shelves are Earth's Touch Natural Beauty mineral makeup, created with honey and beeswax by Sunderland resident Amanda Miller; Boston-based Honeymark's manuka honey creams and masks; and Esther's Salves, ointments created by a Cambridge beekeeper who soothed the students she saw during her Boston Public School nursing job.

"We also carry books that show how to whip up your own beauty recipes at home for skin and hair, combining honey with herbs and other healing and beautifying essential oils," says Canning. (Required reading: Judy Endicott Manzone's Family Honey, full of recipes that have been passed down through her family's five generations of beekeepers.)

And of course, there's also plenty of edible sweet stuff. Follow the Honey sources honey from around the state, country, and world, like sidr honey from Yemen and wild honey from Cameroon and the Himalayas. Its grocer's tank is full of warm, raw, golden goodness, which you can use to fill your own glass bottle. (Canning is also currently cultivating her own apiary in a protected Massachusetts woodland area, so soon she'll have honey from her own hives, too.)

It's all found in a comfortable and welcoming space, filled with refurbished antique furniture and equipped with a sitting deck lush with flora. The vibe is retro-chic, though there are high-tech touches (flat-screens loop educational videos and Skype honey tastings from around the globe). It's an urban oasis where a busy bee can relax.

"It makes you feel good just being in proximity to beautifully fragrant beeswax candles and soaps," says Canning. "It offers some sweetness in which to linger a bit in the midst of harried schedules. This in itself has healing and beauty benefits."

How sweet it is, indeed.

Cheryl Fenton is a freelance writer who also blogs at EasyPeasyBlog.com.