Ilog Maria

Mom and I have been hearing a lot of positive things about Ilog Maria, especially now that we're fans of all  things natural and organic. My mom, especially. She loves them Burt's Bees products and we've taken to buying au naturale products at the Sesou kiosk at Trinoma. However, they only sell a limited range of products and is always out of stock of the Ilog Maria line.

So, I was beyond thrilled when we went to Tagaytay for the Andres Bonifacio holiday and decided to take a detour at Ilog Maria. I found a new happy place!

From Tagaytay rotonda, turn right going to Silang, Cavite until you see this sign right after Petron:

The long winding one-way road to the farm--I have no idea how cars are supposed to maniobra when there's another one coming from the opposite direction. My mom actually panicked for a bit 'cause it looked like the road was going nowhere. There are literally trees everywhere and not a sign of civilization. Some of the locals passing by assured us that the farm was just at the end of the looooong road.

After a couple of minutes, we started to see these: bee nests!!!

We arrived at the quiet farm and immediately saw the glass-walled shop. Ilog Maria bee farm produces bath, spa, and health products made naturally from their bees. They have a limited supply since everything is hand-made the old-fashioned way. Walk-in customers at the farm get to buy the products at wholesale prices. It's really worth the long trip! You can even tour around the place and see how bees make honey for a fee. Too bad I didn't get to see the Ilog Maria (yes it exists!) which runs along the farm.

Mom and I couldn't get over the heavenly scent around the whole place! It's nothing compared to Lush, where the strong soapy scent assaults your nose. This was more of a calming scent that immediately relaxes you. Everything from the soap bars to the honey products smelled and looked wonderful. My personal favorites are the lavender soap, spearmint soap, honey and propolis shampoo, insect repellent, and honey facial scrub. I was too confused about what to buy since I wanted to try everything! They make everything with their harvested honey and propolis and each product comes with benefits to the skin or your health. 

Cool pinewood buckets for gift sets! I stocked up on goodies for unique Christmas gifts.

We wandered out to the area where they were making some soap bars and saw the propolis ingredient that's found in every product. You can really see how they take the hand-made thing to heart. They often run out of products if the demand is too high because they make everything from scratch. This also helps them keep their prices reasonable. 

And I found these noisy geese! I thought geese normally chase after people but apparently the ones at Ilog Maria are so used to visitors that they can tolerate people posing for pictures with them. Haha.

There was a bee hive which you can open to see the bees but I was too scared 'cause I wasn;' wearing any protective gear. I managed to get close enough for this shot, though.

So far, mom and I have been trying the shampoo and soap bars with wonderful results. After my hair went dry from consecutive digital perms, I opted for organic and no chemical products and I have been satisfied with how my hair feels softer and healthier. I've also switched to 100% natural products for my facial and skin care and feel really good about it. We're already planning to head back to Tagaytay to try out the other stuff we didn't buy. They also ship via Air21 but nothing compares to actually checking out their products at the farm itself.

See you soon, Ilog Maria!