Plain Tiger Spotlight: L’abeille
Passion, luxury, results
By Jana Leonard
L’abeille (pronounced La-bay meaning The Bee) is a story of L'abeille Founder’s heritage and home country. Coming from French descent, but being born and raised in South Africa, Karen Potgieter combined her love for both countries, and launched L’abeille - a range of clean beauty products with high performance actives for outstanding results.
“In the L’abeille range, I have combined exquisite African oils with some outstanding high performance actives, some being harvested off the breathtakingly beautiful coastline of Brittany, France. The floral extracts and honey used in L’abeille would not be possible without our bee colonies, which are so important for the sustainable existence of all our beautiful flowers, hence the use of L’abeille as our brand name,” says Karen.
L’abeille epitomises expertly formulated and luxurious natural skincare in its entirety. There are no shortcuts - “everything has been thought of, from the ingredients, their benefits for your skin as well as the packaging to ensure we don’t have to use any nasties.” adds Karen. L’abeille offers a unique packaging concept – Miron Violet Glass, which serves as part of its preservation system. This makes it possible for them to use natural preservative systems and escape the need of parabens or formaldehyde releasing preservatives. “We are the only South African brand using this type of glass as part of this concept. We are very proud of the ethics we carry through all of our decisions relating to the choices and manufacturing of the L’abeille Skincare Range.” adds Karen.
When Karen launched L’abeille in 2017, she noticed a gap in the market for a natural and clean beauty brand that incorporated advanced as well as science-proven actives, but are still affordable enough for the career driven woman. She furthered her studies in anti-ageing formulations and advanced cosmetic science - L'abeille was born. “I wanted to create a brand that felt like you were constantly being pampered with expert salon treatments and results while being able to enjoy them in the comfort of your own home. We aim to leave women feeling empowered by making clean beauty choices, while becoming the best version of themselves and enhancing their own natural beauty ” says Karen.
L’abeille’s products focus on youth preserving and restoring, while addressing natural nourishment as well as high performance, without compromising the need for natural and sustainably sourced ingredients. The focus is on restoring and maintaining youthful skin over a wide age spectrum, using ingredients that nature has provided, but science has proven.
Their key ingredient, Renoumer, is what sets L’abeille apart from the rest. RonaCare® RenouMer is a cosmetic ingredient obtained from the Polysiphonia elongata red algae. It originated from Brittany's coast which hosts some of the largest seaweed beds in Europe. The entire production process is managed in a sustainable way in order to prevent any negative impact on the ecosystem. It has excellent anti-aging benefits, skin rejuvenation as well as skin smoothing, anti-wrinkling, and hydrating properties.
The team at L’abeille are led by their passion for excellence and continual growth in educating their consumers in clean beauty. “We are on a constant quest to raise the standards in the clean beauty industry with carefully selected ingredients that are well researched, tested and safe.” adds Karen. They only select ingredients that are proven to work at cellular level as well as have a direct impact on enhancing the beauty of the skin.
