OUR STORY

BACK TO BASICS. NATURALLY.

BEES & borrels didn't begin with a business plan.

It began around 14 years ago, with two sisters, 7 young children, and a growing realization that we wanted to know more about what we were bringing into our homes and putting into and onto our families' bodies.

It started with food.

Like most families, we had grown up accepting much of what filled supermarket shelves as simply "normal". But the more we started reading, researching and questioning, the more aware we became of how highly processed modern food had become — and how many additives and other unnecessary ingredients had quietly become part of everyday life.

So we started changing the way our families lived.

We went back to real food. We sought out organic fruit and vegetables where possible, chose grass-fed and free-range meat, and began making more and more things ourselves.

We baked from scratch. If we could make a simpler version at home and know exactly what went into it, that was usually the option we chose.

What started as a few changes gradually became a way of life.

FROM OUR KITCHENS TO OUR SKIN

Eventually, we began looking at another part of everyday family life: skincare.

We started paying the same attention to the labels on creams, soaps and body products that we had been giving to the labels on our food.

And once again, we found ourselves asking:

Does it really need to be this complicated?

That question led us back to traditional ingredients and simpler formulations — including beef tallow, natural oils, botanicals, minerals and essential oils.

We began making our own creams and soaps for our families, learning, experimenting and refining what we made along the way.

This wasn't something we started last month because tallow suddenly became popular.

We've been making and using our own skincare for years.

WHY IT BECAME PERSONAL

Along this journey, we lost our mother to cancer. She was still very young.

Losing her changed many things for us, but it also made the choices we were already making for our families feel even more important.

We became even more conscious of the things we could choose in our everyday lives — the food we ate, the products we bought and the ingredients we brought into our homes.

Most importantly, we wanted our children to grow up understanding what natural actually means.

Not as a trend.

Not as a clever word on a label.

But as something normal.

And hopefully, something they will carry into their own homes and families one day.

AND THEN CAME BEES & BORRELS

After years of making products for ourselves and our families, we kept coming back to the same problem:

Where are the simple, natural options for the whole family?

There were individual products here and there, but we wanted more than one cream or one bar of soap. We wanted the kind of range we wished we could simply walk into a shop and buy.

Something for Mom. Something for Dad. Something gentle for little ones. Everyday body care. Face care. Soap. Bath products.

So eventually we decided:

Why not share what we make for our own families with other families too?

And that is how BEES & borrels was born.

Every product we create starts with the same philosophy we've followed in our own homes for years:

Use what is needed. Leave out what isn't.

Our products are handmade in small batches in South Africa using carefully selected ingredients, with free-range beef tallow at the heart of much of our range.

And we're only getting started.

We're working towards a growing collection of simple, thoughtfully made products for the whole family — from hair to feet and all the bits in between.

SIMPLE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE BORING.

We're serious about what goes into our products and what goes onto the skin.

We just don't think we have to look serious while doing it.

That's where the cows come in. 🐄

From Stud Bull and Pure Calf to Salt Lick and the rest of our MOOOvelous herd, BEES & borrels has a little humour, a little farmyard personality and a whole lot of heart behind it.

Because underneath the funny names and cows is something very simple:

Two sisters. Two families. Years of making things ourselves. And a belief that sometimes moving forward means going back to basics.

Back to real ingredients.
Back to making things with love and care.
Back to knowing what you're bringing into your home, is important.

Naturally simple. Lovingly handmade. MOOOvelous by nature.