African Extracts – Rooibos Skin Care from Cape Town

Exterior view of the African Extracts company building on a street corner in Cape Town. — African Extracts in Cape Town: From the outside, the building looks calm and unassuming – for me, it became the doorway into a rooibos world that reaches far beyond tea.

How I came to know African Extracts in South Africa

I did not come across African Extracts by chance. During my stay in South Africa, the Kellerman family, my hosts there, showed me skin care products with rooibos and Cancer Bush for the first time. That was how African Extracts caught my attention – a Cape Town brand that develops rooibos skin care in a way I had not seen in Europe before. I was immediately interested, because I wondered whether and how something like this could fit into my existing rooibos tea shop.

The Kellermans recommended that I visit the House of Rooibos in Clanwilliam – a place where rooibos and the different product worlds around this plant become visible in one place. There, I became consciously aware of African Extracts in its full range for the first time. By then, I wanted to know more. I used my stay in the Western Cape, called the company and asked whether a meeting could be arranged at such short notice. The fact that it actually worked out surprised even me at the time.

For me, that was an important moment. Until then, my shop had grown mainly from the idea of creating a platform for rooibos tea. Through the encounters in Clanwilliam and my first contact with rooibos skin care, I noticed that my view was widening. I realised that I did not only want to speak about rooibos tea, but about a larger South African plant world. African Extracts fitted exactly into that development.

Why rooibos at African Extracts is more than just tea

When I visited African Extracts in Cape Town, it became clear to me that the company follows a skin care approach that I had not encountered in Europe in this way. Until then, rooibos extract had not appeared to me as a natural, central ingredient in skin care. At African Extracts, I had the impression that a South African plant ingredient was being used very deliberately – one that is closely connected with the country itself.

That moment made the visit especially important to me: here, rooibos did not appear as finished tea, but as a plant-based ingredient in another product world. African Extracts showed me very concretely how far rooibos is carried beyond the cup in South Africa.

Rooibos extract at African Extracts in Cape Town during the production of rooibos skin care. — Rooibos not only as tea: here the raw material becomes visible, the ingredient that African Extracts carries forward into skin care.

African Extracts in Cape Town: a modern company with a lot of hands-on work

What particularly appealed to me was the overall impression of the company. The visit clearly broadened my view of rooibos skin care. I was not standing in an improvised small workshop, but in a modern, well-organised production environment – with clear processes and, at the same time, a lot of visible hands-on work.

At the same time, I never had the feeling that I was in an impersonal industrial company. My impression was rather this: people work here in a structured, clean and careful way, with many precise manual steps. And that is important to me as well. Hands-on work does not mean backwardness here. It also means that people have work and can find their place in a functioning company.

Mixing room at African Extracts with large stainless steel tanks, blue barrels and an employee. — In the mixing room, it becomes visible how individual raw materials gradually become finished skin care products.

An African Extracts employee filling a Tissue Oil bottle at a filling station. — A precise movement in the filling area: the raw material becomes a finished product for later everyday use.

The people behind African Extracts

What I also noticed during my visit was the atmosphere. In the pictures, you can see focused work, but also open, friendly moments. People were working, but they were also laughing. For me, that particular mix made the company tangible: not as anonymous production, but as a workplace with people who are part of a living everyday routine.

This impression was also reflected in my conversation with Rob. He did not strike me as just a brand person, but as an entrepreneur who is aware that his work not only creates products, but also gives people work and income. At African Extracts, this did not become visible to me in a field, but in the production itself.

Smiling employee at African Extracts holding a label on her finger in the packaging area. — Between focused work and visible joy: small moments like this also say a great deal about everyday life in the company.

Two smiling African Extracts employees holding finished skin care products in their hands. — The people behind the products: two employees showing finished African Extracts skin care products with a natural sense of ease and pride.

Why African Extracts is now part of my shop

African Extracts fits into my shop not only because the products have something to do with rooibos. What matters to me is that the company shows something I have always found important in South Africa: behind a product there are people who work, take responsibility and earn their income through that work. That is exactly why I deliberately chose the idea of making the people behind the products visible in my shop.

At African Extracts, I did not experience this on a farm, but in a production company. Precisely for that reason, my view of rooibos widened once again. Since then, rooibos has no longer been only tea for me, but part of a larger South African plant world. And that is exactly what I would like to show others as well.

Rob Tiffin with the shop owner in the African Extracts office in Cape Town. — My visit with Rob Tiffin in Cape Town: a brand became a real place for me, with real people and conversations.

View from an office at African Extracts towards Table Mountain and parts of Cape Town. — The view from Rob Tiffin’s office towards Table Mountain visibly connects the company with its place: Cape Town.

African Extracts at a glance

Company: African Extracts Rooibos Skin Care
Location: 10 Industry Road, Paarden Eiland, Cape Town
Map: view on Google Maps
Contact: Tel. +27 21 514 3100 · info@africanextracts.com
Website: africanextracts.com
Social media: Instagram · Facebook
On site: There is also a factory shop on the company premises.
Available in the shop: Classic · Advantage · Rooibos Man
Further African Extracts ranges: Purifying · Radiance · Hydrofirm-C+ · Facial Wipes

Note: African Extracts offers further skin care ranges that I do not currently carry in my shop. If one of these ranges is of particular interest to you, I would be glad to hear from you – feedback like this helps me assess which additional African Extracts products may make sense for the shop in the future.

Where to go from here

This portrait shows African Extracts as a real production company in Cape Town. From here, you can choose your next step: first place rooibos skin care in context, go deeper into the skin care and extract world, or go straight to the products in the shop.

This keeps the path from company visit to product selection understandable: origin, people, production and range belong together, without turning the portrait itself into a product page.

African Extracts in Cape Town Discover rooibos skin care Understand rooibos skin care better Understand rooibos extract View African Extracts products