- 1 What exactly is a natural product?
A care and beauty preparation can be considered as really "natural" when its constituting molecules are coming from our natural environment, are not artificially created by man, and have been submitted to few modifications at the time of the product development.
The cell ecosystem of our organism actually works in its best abilities when it "recognizes" outside molecules since ever existing in its environment. In case of a contact with synthetic molecules, unexpected consequences may occur (irritations, intolerance reactions, allergies…).
Let us specify that the term « natural » has no legal definition. Any product can quite legally be called « natural » since a tiny part of ingredient deserving this designation is included in its formulation… Moreover it is very easy, for reasons of margin of economic viability, to pervert the "naturality" of the apiary ingredients from the hive "by artificially doping its production" (for instance feed the bees with white sugar, treat them with synthetic antibiotics, etc.)
Fortunately to overcome the misleading abuses for consumer, official organic labels are guaranteeing the true natural origin of a product. For more information see "Matter of labels"« Questions de labels»
Made by craftsmen in small series, our preparations are 100% derived from nature, and organic certified. Elaborated with source water from the Pyrenees, they come to you pure and preserved.
- 2 Are your preparations really efficient and safe?
Our products could for 20 years proof their efficiency while satisfying a greater and greater number of faithful customers, which we are the most proud of.
Their efficiency requires a know-how that cannot be improvised and is based on 4 basic steps.
1 – The formulation: our formulas are exclusive. Their original feature is based on a limited and precise combination of products from the hive coming from the same Pyrenean biotope, which is reinforcing their biocompatibility, minimizing the cell over-information, and very noticeably decreasing the allergy hazards.
We therefore associate the best international works in apitherapy with the old knowledge compiled by 3 family generations of doctors, the pioneers in the gentle medicine
2 – The apiary raw materials: the value of a care and beauty preparation efficiency first of all depends on the quality of the constituting apiary ingredients Beekeepers since 1984, we harvest by ourselves our own apiary ingredients of bio-apitherapic quality.
3 – The manufacturing: It is a crucial step that requires a great know-how. Actually the organic raw materials can easily be denaturised or weakened during their transformation into care and beauty preparations. For more information about our manufacturing methods.
4 – Scientific validation, tests, safety: all our cosmetics are studied under the control of a dermatologist, a pharmacist and a toxicologist. The toothpaste has been submitted to a study under the control of a stomatologist. Our most innovative preparations such as the Hive Elixirs are part of an exhaustive scientific file. We have our own in-house quality control procedures. Our most innovative know-how has been patented.
- 3 In which way are you different?
We are not a subsidiary of a multinational, for which natural products are only a niche among others, but a human-sized family firm, established in the heart of the French Pyrenees within a preserved nature, and open to the world.
We are on our own path. We deeply think that everything is linked: a cure, beauty and well-being cannot just be efficient for the one buying it. It also has to contribute to the world beauty and preservation.
Pioneers in the organic beekeeping since 1983, we are proud having contributed to make the organic products more and more accessible.
Avec L’Apiculture Douce®, With Gentle Beekeeping®, based on the language of bees, we are fighting today to create a still more demanding organic production, which cares about creating employment without delocalization, comes up with the repopulation of the countryside, with the creation of a true dialogue with the other life-forms – beyond the only respect of their well-being – and making the organic products still more efficient while preserving their subtle energetic and vibratory strengths.
Even if we are specialists in apitherapy we first of all remain beekeepers shepherds of our bees and very close to nature. We harvest our own apiary ingredients and manufacture our preparations by ourselves.
We are very close to our clients: our Lab-Honey House and our apiaries can be visited; through our educational visits, adults and kids can check on site the perfect naturality of our products.
- 4 What does the term "potentised preparation" mean?
The Ancients did not ignore that nature has subtle strengths, invisible to our five physical senses and yet essential to our fitness and wellbeing…
The term potentisation means the basic principle allowing at once the transmission, amplification and preservation of these subtle strengths which are increasing tenfold our preparation efficiency. dynamisation Ballot-Flurin
- 5 What is an ecological local manufacturing micro-site?
Our current time encourages the creation of anonymous factories, which are consuming a great amount of energy and are cut from the production place of their raw materials (often coming from the four corners of the world, which is causing very high pollutions due to transports).
At Ballot-Flurin, the hive and its little people "from the field nearby" is our star factory! Only the bees are able to elaborate, without chemical wastes and with the natural and sound energy from nature, living ingredients as rich and complex as propolis, Royal Jelly, and pollen… and that man is not able to re-create.
Located nearby our hives, in the middle of a living and authentic countryside (our neighbour as a farm!), our local and ecological manufacturing microsite is intended for the transformation of the treasures of the hive into precious beauty and wellbeing preparations: this way of proceeding, highly innovative and responsible, leads to the following advantages:
– Local and regional harvest of the apiary and simple ingredients.
– On site manufacturing of the preparations with our own formulations
– Transport reduction: less pollution
– Low-tech ecological manufacturing processes (See point 4 text Gentle Beekeeping) for our preparations: no pollution and low energy needs.
– Traceability more secure and efficient. All the provided apiary ingredients are completely followed up from the hive to the airless bottle! – Enhanced value of local economy.
– Total control of the production-fabrication line.
- 6 The Ballot-Flurin Royal Jelly
Its reputation is not in doubt. It enables the queen to live 40 times longer than the worker. This "royal" ingredient is secreted by the "nurse" bees to feed the queen all along his life or to nourish only one young larva, for her to become the new queen.
It is one of the richest substances that can be found in nature; it contains precious vitamins (especially from group B), essential for the metabolism of our cells, a vast number of minerals and trace minerals, essential amino acids, an antibacterial and antibiotic factor, etc. The list is quite long! For human being, it's first of all a powerful global revitalizer with very Yin smoothing virtues: It contributes to the inner wellbeing while reducing blues and stress; it takes a part into the organism general vitality, whatever the age (resistance to cold, physical strength). It favours the tissue oxygenation and increases sexual appetite. It eases the brain acuity as well (getting ready for exams, memory). Its antibiotic virtues help fighting against herpes and flu. Anyone in good health should have 1 cure of Royal Jelly a year. Its only weakness is certainly the great rigorousness required for its production, for it to preserve its vitality and keep its promises.
Why is our royal jelly richer and more active?
We can proudly assert that our royal jelly certainly is one of the best in the world!
It is organic certified and controlled by Qualité France. Our method of Gentle Beekeeping® guarantees a royal jelly of bio-apitherapic quality with a maximum richness in active principles, an outstanding living structure and vibratory field (Exclusive Patent Ballot-Flurin n° FR06 51412).
Our bees only gather pollen from flowers in very rich and time immemorial gathering areas. They receive no extra sugar: our royal jelly is harvested on the basis of only some grams per hive from May to September: it is a "premium" substance, extremely scarce and precious.
At the time of the harvest we see to a positive mental attitude for the beekeeper and to the respect of the bees' rhythm. We are respecting the solar, lunar and planetary calendars.
It is presented in its pristine state, as it has been secreted by the bees, hand-filtered with a simple fine nylon fabric and hand-potted very soon after the harvest. It is naturally preserved in a cool place from the harvest, and we guarantee that it has not been centrifuged, nor frozen or dehydrated.
We are using several types of royal jelly for a suitable apitherapic use (royal jelly from the "Camps Hauts de Belmont", Balas woods, Pouchette hills,…)
We are using exclusive formulations. For example our honey and royal jelly preparation contains a precise quantity of royal jelly, modelled on the mixture the nurses of the hive are preparing themselves for the bees-to-be. The preparation is potentised by a slow hand mixing in honey. We then get a maximum assimilation of its features by the organism, with no decay at room temperature.
– 7 The Ballot-Flurin propolis
C’est la garantie-santé de la ruche, grâce à ses puissantes propriétés antiseptiques naturelles (Elle est Yang selon la pharmacopée chinoise !). It is the health guarantee of the hive, thanks to its powerful antiseptic and natural features (It is Yang according to the Chinese pharmacopoeia!). It is eleboratede by the bees from the resin, in particular the one secreted by the buds of some trees. They mainly use it to eliminate the microorganisms harmful to the colony, and embalm the carcasses of the small animals that have entered the hive and that they cannot evacuate outside.
It a natural and very rich source of more than 300 precious elements: Antioxidant components, phenolics, aromatics, A, B vitamin, amino acids and trace minerals… Unlike the synthetic antibiotics, formulated on the basis of a main active molecule, the propolis gets its efficiency from this vast number of components with synergic actions. Moreover its formulation, never steady, is changing with the wind, which prevents the germs to mute so as to counter its effects.
For man its antibiotic, anesthetic, cicatrizing and anti-inflammatory features endow it with 3 great activity spectrums:
1. ORL and lung disease: cold, pollution, seasonal hypersensivity. Throat and nose protection…
2. Dentistry: applied in mouth hand on gums in the event of trouble. Clears and keeps your voice. Pure and natural breath.
3. . Dermatology: problem skins: eczema, psoriasis, acne or fungus diseases. Stimulates the collagen and elastin production. Helps the cell regenerating.
Why is our royal jelly richer and more active?
It is organic certified and controlled by Qualité France. Our method of Gentle Beekeeping® guarantees a propolis of bio-apitherapic quality with a maximum richness in active principles, an outstanding living structure and vibratory field. Here are some of our secretes:
Among the full harvest, a rigorous selection is carried out: only 15 % of the organic propolis, very rich in active components, are kept. It contains to the most 15% of wax, an evidence of its high purity. It is this very high quality-propolis, and only this one, which shall fall into the composition of our bio-apitherapic preparations.
We are using several types of propolis for a suitable apitherapic use (black propolis, yellow propolis, brown propolis, and propolis). True to the principles of the Chinese energetic medicine, we also take the place (river propolis , propolis from the mountains), the season, planetary situation, harvest time into account, and even the precise location of the hive (entry propolis, body propolis, comb propolis)!
We are using patented and very old extraction processes (Exclusive Patent Ballot-Flurin n° FR 07 54648) to concentrate the active ingredients contained in propolis and eliminate the inedible ingredients.
We collect very fresh propolis, only on hive wood, thanks to old and secrete processes, what is providing a propolis much purer than the plastic grids that are generally used.
- 8 Ballot-Flurin pollen
The pollen is the male seed of the flowers, harvested by the bees and carried to the hive on their rear legs. Real vegetable "steak" (it is notably very rich in free amino-acids), it provides the bees with all what is necessary for the larvae to become robust. For human being, it is a natural tonic for the natural liver dysfunction, intestine and prostate troubles, asthenia, anorexia, decalcification, failure to thrive, etc. It also allows to seriously fighting against the ageing effects, thanks to its great richness in a lot of minerals and trace elements, as well as vitamins from group B, + C, D and E. The pollen is generally taken in treatment. Why is our pollen richer and more active? It is organic certified and controlled by Qualité France. Our method of Gentle Beekeeping® guarantees pollen of bio-apitherapic quality with a maximum richness in active principles, an outstanding living structure and vibratory field. It is essential to leave the bees the quantities they need, both by respect and to get the best from them; therefore, at the beginning and at the end of the season, we don't collect the pollen. The amount is lower, but the obtained quality is much higher, as the hive vitality is greater. The pollen is not stolen from the bees. Our exclusive patented device leave the bees free to come and go without disturbing them. Unlike the traps that are generally used and that are trapping the bees. Our pollen is multi flower pollen. Its high flower diversity (multicoloured appearance) favours an outstanding nutritional richness. Very little manipulation: no separation of the grains. Natural preservation: our natural and exclusive harvesting and preservation process (Exclusive Patent Ballot-Flurin n° FR0752632) calls on the bees themselves for the selection and the ventilation of pollen. Our pollen is neither frozen, nor submitted to gas, nor dried. The active water of the pollen is preserved. The pollen remains in the optimum climate of the hive (35° and low moisture) till the time of its harvest and does not stay in a wet drawer, where it could go mouldy. Our pollen can so be preserved at room temperature without resorting to a "cold chain", delicate and expensive as regards energy, and which softens the vibratory and energetic strengths. Its efficiency will be much better. And it can be taken without any digestive trouble, which sometimes is the case with frozen and badly preserved food.
- 9 Ballot-Flurin honey
Our bees receive no artificial food and are exclusively producing their honey from the flower nectar and the tree honeydew. Our honey is the most ancient of the nutriceuticals: Besides its subtle taste it brings an ideal food to our body, our heart, and our brain. Very best for effort, both mental and physical. Its features: antibacterial, anti-caries, energizing, cardiotonic, curative and fortifying.
It is not stocked as fat because it is bio available: energy is directly provided to our metabolism.
For the skin the honey of our bees is biostimulating, revitalizer of the tissues, cleansing, soothing and hydrating. This means that it is much more efficient than a simple isolated active agent.
En savoir plus sur le miel Ballot-Flurin.
- 10 Do your formulas contain synthetic ingredients?
Ballot-Flurin is a pioneer in natural beauty cares through the bees. From 1992 our products – such as for instance the anti-ageing Beekeeper's Cream – already had got 99 % of organic and vegetable ingredients, which was a minor miracle at that time. We also were among the first few to display the ingredient list INCI, which was not mandatory then.
Today, the 3 labels we are using according to our preparations nature (AB, COSMEBIO, Apiary ingredients 100 % ORGANIC) guarantee the absence of synthetic ingredients, very often responsible for undesirable side effects. We only use the natural additives allowed by these labels.
We also are going further than the strictest official standards:
We are ourselves producers of apiary ingredients, what guarantees the total absence of synthetic ingredients in the apiary ingredients at each phase of their production: We have implemented a local network of beekeepers that are aware of our Gentle Beekeeping® and bio-apitherapy methods. A contract Total Agreement has been executed with them for 5 years: All the provided apiary ingredients are thus completely followed up from the hive to end product.
We do not treat the bees with chemicals, even those allowed by the organic specifications. We do not feed our bees with sugar (organic or other), but we insure for them various flowers at any season by putting our hives in the richest biotope. Each product is harvested at the time of full maturity. We also work on our own moods to avoid any useless vibratory pollution.
We use our own exclusive and pioneer methods of preservation through potentisation.
Nous utilisons nos propres méthodes pionnières exclusives de conservation par dynamisation
- 11 Are there any allergy hazards or contraindications for the hive's products?
Successfully used for time immemorial, the products from the hive have proved their efficiency and their safety. You can use them safely for all the family. Our products, of bio-apitherapic quality, being very rich in active principles and very efficient, we recommend you to correctly choose the apiary preparation suitable for each use, and to follow the proportions if necessary.
So as to eliminate any risks of allergy and contraindications, we have implemented the following steps:
No synthetic ingredient:
According to the nature of our products our 3 labels (AB, Cosmebio, Apiary ingredients 100 % ORGANIC) guarantee the absence of ingredients from industrial chemistry; the risks of long-term undesirable effects are thus under control.
Local and natural raw materials:
The apiary and vegetable ingredients used in our preparations are mostly coming from the same Pyrenean biotope. It is reinforcing their biocompatibility, increasing their positive actions, and avoiding the intolerances, possible even for natural products. Their vibratory signature is suited to the human being nowadays.
Official guarantees and expert appraisals: Our apitherapic and Apicosmetic® formulations are evaluated by famous French Institutes, which are carrying out a lot of tests: skin and eye dermatological tolerance, toxicology appraisal of the cytotoxicity and of the human safety and health. We are working with dermatologists, pharmacists, dentists and stomatologists (dentistry products), who validate our products.
TSevere manufacturing tests and controls:
See question 2: Are your preparations really efficient and safe?
- 12 Are my children allowed to use your products?
The great majority of our preparations are perfectly and naturally suitable for children over 3 years of age, thanks to their efficiency, their safety and their strict hygienic condition: to help you identifying them, a pictogram "Suitable for children" is appended to the preparations. As our products are naturally very rich in organic natural active principles, the given proportion must be reduced by 4-5 times for children.
– Case of young kids:
We are obliged to indicate that our products are suitable for children over 3 years. Actually according to the regulation, only a paediatrician is entitled to recommend the use of a product for children under this age. Our preparations, all organic and sound, are frequently given young kids by their parents, with the greatest benefits. Parents have to make the decision. Catherine Flurin did use all these products for her children when they were babies. For your children like for yourself, be in touch with your body messages and reactions. Just watch and be vigilant.
– Pregnant women:
The principle is similar. All the products can be taken and used while staying in touch with your body and good sense. For the ones wanting to take royal jelly during their pregnancy, we recommend they better wait and have a cure after birth; it shall provide increased benefits on the mummy's physical and psychological tiredness, who often is weakened at the time of the birth.
- 13 Are bees becoming extinct?
By insuring the pollination of a great number of plant species, the bees are an ecological and vital link for the preservation of life on earth. Now, for about twenty years, the beekeepers have noticed greater and greater worrying death rate among the bees
The causes are numerous: Global environmental pollution, decrease of the flower biodiversity, practice of an intensive industrial beekeeping… Yet the scientific proofs pile up for the specific liability of the pesticides used by man in the intensive industrial farming.
Several pesticides are incriminated among them the Régent and the Gaucho. Introduced in the seed, they are used in the corn and sunflower plantations. During the flowering time, the bees are attracted by these great cultivated plots of land that are going to easily provide them with pollen. Stored in the hive, the latter will nourish the young larvae from the end of winter to the early following spring.
Then a very insidious poisoning occurs:
A great number of young larvae are going to die, slowly poisoned for several months. These substances have an impact on the bees' nervous system as well: they in particular are totally loosing their sense of direction: they die of exhaustion before having been able to find the way back to the hive.
Thanks to the fight of a great number of beekeepers, the above mentioned pesticides have progressively been abandoned in France. Unfortunately, the pesticides used till then shall remain in the soil for several years and keep on polluting the future plantations. Let us also point out the periodic marketing of more and more sophisticated phytosanitary products, whose effects on bees may prove to be as much harmful in the long run. It is the same for the GEO seed trade marks which are significantly disturbing the bees. Plants are on purpose made sterile and resistant to the fiercest herbicides.
The answer from Ballot-Flurin:
Since 1984, we have been preserving our bees and the ingredients they offer to us from hazardous areas: each apiary is chosen carefully with the greatest care to the environment for 3 km round. We use to cut across the surroundings to make sure that the bees will find there all the sound resources they need: Located in hills area during the cold season, our hives are brought to the valleys early in June, before the corn flowering so as to avoid any contamination. Placed far away from the intensive farming areas they shall remain there till October, in the middle of organic and wild flowers, in a preserved and sound environment.
The very special relationship we have with them, based on the language of the bees, allows to anticipating still more subtly into potential reactions to their environment. The bees have got a real language and can warn us about.
- 14 Do you have any testimonies to quote from the thousands of people who are satisfied with your products ?
Here is a little selection of true testimonies from our clients. For place reasons only the most significant sentences are proposed here. Thanks a lot to all of you. I'm very happy with the care my parcel has been done with. I have travelled a lot, I have taken very good and various honeys. I could find again with you this diversification and this quality I have looking for for a long time. Dominique – Toulouse 03/15/2007
Many thanks to the whole team for your rapidity and kindness. Kind regards. François – Périgueux 11/19/2006
I salute the quality of your phone contact. Your cosmetics are outstanding and I encourage you continuing in this way. I want to add that I have really been appealed by participating to the development of a human-sized company, carrier of humanism and respect values. Sylvie – Paris 06/04/06
I could notice that the propolis balm has a very efficient effect against cold sores. Firstly by prevention, this balm is very efficient to avoid the appearance of the cold sore. If it appears, the propolis contained in the product allows a quick resorption of the lesion as well as a rash cicatrisation. The use of this balm has relieved my everyday life and therefore I want to pass on this information to the great majority of people. Rose – Albi 11/15/2006
Hello, I really do appreciate you Beekeeper's cream and I could notice how much it smoothes the mental as well. As user of flower elixirs, I wondered if it could be possible for you to market the hive's elixir contained in your cream. And personally to sell me some of it? Thank you Nathalie – Marseille 07/08/05
I love your Beekeeper's Cream Sensitive skin that I use on my face and on my hands. I find its effect sublime. Bye for now then and well done for your product quality. Claire – Rouen 11/25/05 I write to congratulate you for the quality of the Revitalising Hair Care Shampoo. It is the best shampoo I ever had till now, because I sometimes have eczema problems and these have disappeared. Corinne – Montreuil 15/12/06
I just had two 3-weeks cures of Royal Jelly, that is to say a total of 6 weeks. I felt very tired and that really helped me to get my strength back. .. Then I went on with the cure articular comfort and my pains did really soften. The bee venom contained in this cure is really tremendous, I take comfort from it. I'm very happy with the quality of your products. Odile – St Mandé 06/20/07
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