Douglaston Beekeeper Launches Beauty Product Line

Douglaston’s Ruth Harrigan was laid off last fall, but she is undertaking a new business venture that she hopes will get local residents swarming.

Four years ago, Harrigan took up beekeeping as a hobby. Now, she tends to six hives in Douglaston and another two in Staten Island that contain a combined total of 500,000 bees.

In October, she lost her job at an investment advisory firm for hedge funds.

But Harrigan said being laid off has provided her with an opportunity to launch a line of beauty products that incorporate honey from her bees.

“For the past few months, I’ve been putting the whole line together,” she said. “I’m now at the stage where I can present it to a retail store.”

Currently, Harrigan’s products are sold at Douglaston’s Giftalicious bakery and at Manhattan’s Chelsea Market Baskets, which also sells her honey.

Harrigan’s line is known as Mee Beauty, which is named after the Chinese word for honey. Her products include lip balm, body lotion, face cream, night cream and dry skin cream.

She eventually hopes to also offer foot cream, cuticle cream and facial cleanser.

“At first, I was thinking of doing this on my own,” she said. “But since it’s beauty products, I wanted to make sure I was keeping it sanitary. And it would have been more costly and time consuming to do it on my own.”

Harrigan gives her ingredients and honey to a local lab, which develops them into the formulas she has created for Mee Beauty.

She has self-tested the products on her own skin, which she said is sensitive.

“I have very sensitive skin, so I produce with myself in mind,” she said. “So far, I’m pleased with it. I’ve had no reaction. And I’ve been getting very positive feedback.”

Eventually, Harrigan hopes to get her products into local specialty cosmetics stores and apothecaries.

“I have to start small locally and then expand from there,” she said.

Additionally, she intends to add two more hives in Douglaston and up to six in Staten Island.