Discover Rooibos Skincare from South Africa
If you ask people in Germany about rooibos, it is usually known only as a tea. The fact that rooibos has also become visible in skincare products in South Africa is hardly recognised here. That is exactly the lesser-known side of rooibos I want to show on this page.
This page is therefore deliberately not just a product list, but an accessible introduction to a product world that remains almost unknown outside South Africa.
Why rooibos from South Africa can be more than just tea
For me, this is exactly where it becomes interesting. Rooibos is not simply being added to a skincare product. Rather, a plant shaped by tradition is being made visible in a new form of use — no longer only as a tea, but also as part of a contemporary skincare world.
Alongside African Extracts, there are other brands and local producers in South Africa that incorporate rooibos into skincare. One example is Annique. There are also more local brands such as Marice, whose products are usually discovered on site — for example at the House of Rooibos in Clanwilliam, in regional shops across the Cederberg area, or in tourist-oriented stores in and around Cape Town. Discoveries like these show that rooibos skincare is more firmly rooted in South Africa than one might assume from outside the country.
The skincare brand African Extracts from Cape Town as a concrete starting point
It was not originally planned that African Extracts would become the entry point for this product world in my shop. It was only through encountering the brand on site that I realised rooibos in South Africa is being thought forward not only as a tea, but also as a distinct skincare world.
What makes African Extracts especially interesting to me is that rooibos does not stand on its own here. The brand consciously combines this South African plant heritage with modern skincare ingredients and turns it into a contemporary rooibos skincare range. African Extracts therefore stands at the centre of this page not as the only South African brand, but as the brand through which this side of rooibos first became tangible for me and for my shop.
Which skincare ranges I currently offer in my shop
Once rooibos skincare has become more tangible as a topic, a very practical question quickly follows: which direction is right for my skin? The following skincare ranges are the ones I currently offer in my shop and the ones that make it easiest to enter this product world.
Classic
For normal and combination skin. A good introduction to rooibos skincare.
Advantage
For dry, dehydrated and more mature skin. Richer and more strongly focused on moisture.
Original
The range in my shop that speaks especially to men and presents rooibos skincare in a practical, everyday way.
Note: African Extracts also offers additional ranges such as Purifying, Radiance and Hydrofirm. If you are interested in them, I would be glad to hear from you.
Why rooibos is deliberately at the centre here
Rooibos is deliberately at the centre of this page because, during my visits to South Africa, I encountered this Fynbos plant in skincare far more often and far more visibly than many others. That is what made it clear to me that an entire skincare world has developed around rooibos.
By contrast, I found skincare products made with other Fynbos plants such as buchu, Cancer Bush or honeybush much more often in local settings — for example in farm stalls, the typical South African shops on or near a farm where regional and often homemade products are sold. I enjoy visiting such places very much, because I keep coming across new ideas there.
In fact, it was a visit to the Velskoendraai Farm Stall in Clanwilliam that first gave me the idea for my shop. That is why places like these naturally belong to this story for me.