Holy honey hand cream in Ramsgate

THERE’S some MONK-ey business going on at St Augustine’s Abbey in Ramsgate, where the brothers have turned their hand to making cosmetics.

Since the monks launched their internet shop last week, news of the holy hand cream has spread far and wide with scores of orders flooding in.

Brother Anselm Carpenter, 24, joined the 1,500-year-old order three years ago. He said: "When I entered the monastery in 2006 I started making candles from paraffin wax.

"I made them to look like apples and I could even make them looking like a pint of Guinness but it wasn’t until Brother Dunstan developed his beekeeping and extracted his first batch of honey, leaving behind the honeycomb, that I realised I may be able to use the beeswax for something else."

Brother Anselm turned the honeycomb into furniture polish and sold it through other monasteries which have shops across the country. Brother Anselm said the monastery was keen to develop the business as a return to the Benedictine philosophy of self-sufficiency.

The idea of making cosmetics came from a friend who suggested the beeswax would make good lip balm.

Once Brother Anselm had cracked a base formula he began to experiment on fellow monks with new ideas.

He said: "I thought I’d spruce it up and invested in some essential oils and from that the flavours were born – lemon, orange, peppermint, aniseed and aniseed and lemon. My friends stopped using expensive designer lip balm and started using mine."

Brother Anselm also experiments on himself – and got some bizarre looks from his brethren. He said: "The bell rang for evening prayer and I’d only just put on peppermint lip balm. I stood in the church trying to rub it into my lips and I got some strange looks from brethren. The abbot has tested the latest range – it’s all in the aid of science."

Now Brother Anselm has extended the range to include hand creams using organic ingredients as well as crushed lavender from the abbey garden.

He said he is open to advice from customers, adding: "I’m a celibate man living with other men trying to create cosmetics for women. I need outside influence.

"If someone complains that their husband’s hands are slipping off them, I can then change my formula."

Go to www.ramsgatebenedictines.com to order or call brother Anselm Carpenter on 01843 593045.