Ballston Spa’s Petal + Hive offers clean beauty products | News

That practice eventually spurred the creation of her skincare brands Petal + Hive and Acta Beauty.

“I started down a path of herbalism because I was using herbs to treat our medical issues and my husband, who used to be a professional chemist at a major skincare company, would look at me making tea and putting it on the skin and he was like, this is so messy,” Ehrenberg said.

So her husband taught her the basics of making lotion and from there she began experimenting with different ingredients she could put into the products.

She eventually took over a small space in the Clinton Street Mercantile in Schenectady and began building her brand. Four years ago, once she grew enough of a customer base that she needed her own space, Ehrenberg opened her storefront on Milton Avenue in Ballston Spa, with an area in the back to concoct new products.

While it was a bit of a hiccup opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ehrenberg said the Ballston Spa community has been so welcoming and supportive of small businesses that she has been able to continue to be succeed.

“Everybody here is very conscious about shopping small and I appreciate that, and I think that’s why I have so many returning customers and so many people who are open to trying new things because they genuinely want to see the small businesses thrive,” she said. “So in that way, it’s great. On weekends, there’s tons of foot traffic of people just visiting because it’s such a cute town. So, I mean, I’m four years in, I’m still here, and I love my customers. That’s my favorite part of my job is just interacting with people who come in the store.”

Inside the store, Ehrenberg sells both of her beauty brands. Petal + Hive offers hand, body and foot lotions and creams, cleansers and a scrub. Acta Beauty offers a day cream, revitalizing cream and various serums with ingredients like bakuchiol.

What’s Ehrenberg’s favorite product she’s created? Well, she actually has two.

One is the Petal + Hive Foot Cream.

“When I got the new ingredient to make the foot cream, I didn’t have foot cream in mind,” she said. “I just made a basic lotion and gave it out to my family and friends, and I’d say try this everywhere because the skin on our hands and our feet and our face and in our arms are all very different, so things feel different in different places.

“This one is awesome for your feet because it really absorbs quickly. It’s not greasy. You only have to use it once, and your feet are in awesome condition again. And it’s like because it’s instantaneous transformation, and it’s super easy to use, and that’s all I care about, because I have no patience. I like immediate results, and that, it just totally fits the bill.”

Her other favorite product is the Acta Beauty Illuminating Serum with Vitamin C.

“It really feels great,” she said. “It definitely evens out your skin tone. It lightens up dark spots, and people who use it just have that glow.”

Six of the seven beauty products she’s created have won beauty awards from the 2024 Beauty Shortlist Awards and the 2024 Earth Day Beauty Awards.

Ehrenberg also finds and sells other items in her store, including other clean beauty items.

“It’s all in what your own standard of clean is,” she said. “My standard of clean means that I use as much as possible ingredients that are biodegradable, sourced from plant material. I also look at the journey of the ingredients to get to me. So like, for any of my products that use palm oil somehow in them — like most lotions are based on palm oil — it’s an emulsifier. I make sure that those are sourced sustainably from palm forests that are not over harvesting.”

Ehrenberg said she’s continuing to develop new products and come up with ideas all the time. Right now, she’s really focused on skincare items and developing more of those. She’s also gearing up for the holiday season by preparing to offer people a chance to come in and create holiday gift boxes with various pricing tiers.