Humble Hive Homemade, Dayton

From skin care to great hair, Lauren Craig’s cosmetics and personal care products offer a toxin-free, natural alternative. She creates them in the kitchen of her Dayton home by hand, by herself, for a line she calls Humble Hive Homemade.

“When I was pregnant with my oldest, about 11 years ago, that’s when I became aware that everything that I was putting on my body was ultimately getting to him,” Craig says. “So, I started paying attention to the ingredients in the products that I was using.”

She threw out the ones that made her uncomfortable and decided to instead purchase natural ingredients to make her own recipes. Eventually, her sales to friends and family convinced her it was a viable idea for a home business.



Her favorite product is her lip and cheek stain. Considering herself a low-maintenance person, Craig wanted to make something that was simple and natural to use on the go.

“I really didn’t have any sort of skin-care regimen before I started this business,” she says. “Once I started, I realized, ‘I should have all of these beautiful ingredients. I should probably start caring about my skin better.’ ”

This first step led Craig to formulate her own skin-care line, along with the other products that she sells under the Humble Hive Homemade name. It’s a small business, and Craig wants to keep it that way.

“That’s kind of important to me that [the business] stays smaller,” she says, “because I feel like the care, energy and effort that goes into it is so personalized and it feels like an extension of myself.” humblehivehomemade.com