Rooted in the land – Vossabia’s quiet revolution in natural skincare

By Signe Hansen

From a small hillside farm in Western Norway, Vossabia has spent two decades quietly pioneering a natural skincare rooted in a holistic approach to health, with beehives, flower meadows and hand-picked herbs forming the basis of every recipe. Last year, its commitment was recognised when Vossabia received the Excellence Award at the European Natural Beauty Awards, honouring not only its innovation but also its endurance.

Vossabia’s story is inseparable from its landscape. The company is centred on an old farm in Voss, ringed by meadows and forest, where bees, herbs and agricultural traditions still form part of a living ecological cycle. “We use what already thrives around us,” explains founder and CEO Renate Lunde. “We keep bees, harvest wild plants, grow organic herbs and maintain meadows with high biodiversity – all of this becomes part of our skin and hair products.”

The work is rooted in a holistic approach to health, and every recipe is built on the nutritional power of medicinal plants, beeswax and honey. “It’s about nourishing and strengthening people while using nature with care,” she adds.

Rooted in the land –Vossabia’s quiet revolution in natural skincare

Picking red clover for the delicious red clover and rose body scrub.

About health and nourishment

The business grew out of a deep personal shift. After returning to the farm to support her mother, who not long after passed away from cancer, Lunde soon faced her own health challenges. Those years prompted a rethinking of how she lived and worked, and slowly the farm became both refuge and resource. What began as making healthy, plant-based products for her family evolved organically into a livelihood.

In the early days, she sold honey at local markets; skincare emerged not from a commercial plan but from exploration. “It wasn’t about branding,” she recalls, “but necessity and curiosity.” Reading studies on honey, beeswax and herbal medicine convinced her she could draw on the farm’s ecology to improve health. As she tended the hives and restored the meadows, she began to notice how quickly people responded to the products. “Customers told me how well they worked for skin issues,” she says, and the hobby steadily transformed into a company.

Honey and beeswax are central ingredients in Vossabia’s holistic skincare products.

What continued to surprise her was the relief people experienced. Clients reported improvement not only in eczema, rosacea and psoriasis, but also pain, children’s growing aches, sore baby skin, menopausal discomfort, and even increased sexual wellbeing and confidence. Amongst numerous raving reviews, one customer suffering from rosacea writes: “Thanks to the Tindved and Nesle salve, I now go without foundation for the first time in my adult life and actually feel fresh. I get compliments on my natural glow, and my skin is calmer, stronger and more resilient day by day.”

“Their feedback is a huge part of the motivation,” Lunde says. “It reminds me why it matters to get ‘nature on the skin’ in a deep and nourishing way.” That philosophy still shapes the formulations today as products are never diluted with water, but only based on plants prepared in different ways together with beeswax. “I see our products as food – food that works from the outside in,” Lunde says.

Rooted in the land –Vossabia’s quiet revolution in natural skincare

Taking care of nature

The approach to sustainability is similarly grounded. Rather than treating it as a label, Vossabia works from the premise that long-term care for human health and ecological health are the same task. “For me, it’s about strengthening people while also protecting nature,” Lunde explains. By sourcing external ingredients only from certified organic producers, the brand maintains soil stewardship as a guiding principle.

Sharing knowledge is central to this idea. Education, she believes, is part of ecological impact: “If we combine care for biodiversity with awareness, our impact becomes much larger than if we worked quietly on our own.”

Rooted in the land –Vossabia’s quiet revolution in natural skincare

The bees at the centre

The bees remain at the heart of the company. “This hard gold from the hive is perfectly composed,” Lunde says of beeswax. “It protects, breathes and keeps moisture without clogging the skin.” For the first decade, all wax came from her own hives; even now, external sourcing is limited to trusted organic beekeepers.

Honey keeps the brand tied to place, as do the botanicals that give each product its character. Nettle is especially meaningful to Lunde – resilient, mineral-rich, and growing freely without intervention. It is at the core of one of Vossabia’s most-loved products. “Our Shampoo with Wild Herbs is a favourite. We walk outside, gather nettle and horsetail just 100 metres from the house, brew a strong herbal infusion and turn it into a shampoo that people become loyal to.”

The meadow plants – red clover, yarrow, St John’s wort, meadowsweet and roses – alongside juniper from the forest and Rhodiola from the mountains, illustrate the same guiding belief: what grows in ecological harmony nourishes in ecological harmony.

Vossabia’s founder and CEO, Renate Lunde.

Web: www.vossabia.no
Facebook: hudpleie
Instagram: @vossabia

Vossabia’s guide to winter skincare

Strengthen the skin barrier with rich, plant-based protection.
Choose un-watered formulations that nourish rather than dilute.
Use Tindved & Nesle daily as a face cream for a strong, resilient barrier.
On cold, windy days switch to Kuldekrem, which also contains a natural sun filter.
For winter haircare, combine Rosmarin Hair Serum with Shampoo with Wild Herbs to soothe and protect scalp and hair.
Let seasonal nourishment work from the outside in, using the plants the body recognise.