Our History

Real and Roots was born out of a simple belief: the best materials are those that didn't need modernity to prove their worth.

The starting point

It all began with a scent. The scent of frankincense burning in an Omani home, on an ordinary, unassuming morning. A gesture so natural it had no name. No ritual, no fanfare. Just resin placed on a charcoal briquette, smoke rising, and the atmosphere in the room shifting.

We’ve seen this tradition take other forms elsewhere. In Morocco, in the Souss Valley, where women pass down argan oil just as they pass down knowledge—without fanfare or packaging. In Fez, where carob honey has been harvested with the same patience for generations. In Mauritania, where gum arabic is harvested from acacia trees in the Sahelian belt, between desert and savanna. And in France, in the Hauts-de-France region, where herbalists and artisans carry on a quiet tradition of craftsmanship, rooted in knowledge of plants and the precision of formulations.

Every time I encounter them, I come to the same realization: these materials have existed for centuries, shaped by precise techniques and living traditions. Yet they often remain overlooked, poorly represented, or lost in distribution channels that obscure their origins and meaning.

Real & Roots was born out of a desire to make these materials accessible, just as they are. Without intermediaries. Without dressing them up in a narrative that isn’t their own.

Different origins, a shared perspective

Our selection is not limited to any particular region. We source our materials wherever they are at their best. What unites our products is not a country, but a set of standards: the quality of the raw materials, fidelity to traditional methods, and respect for the time it takes to do things right.

From Morocco, we offer virgin, organic argan oil from the Souss region, cold-pressed by a women’s cooperative. Essential oils of Atlas cedar, true lavender, and nahnah mint, extracted from plants grown in their native regions. Artisanal carob and caper honeys are produced in the Fes region.

From Oman, we bring back the oldest and most precious treasures this land has to offer: frankincense resin, harvested from Boswellia sacra trees in the Dhofar Mountains, and bakhour blends handcrafted by artisans who combine resins, woods, oils, and sometimes honey to create unique blends.

From Mauritania, gum arabic—harvested from acacia trees in the Sahelian gum belt—rounds out this selection with an ingredient that is as unassuming as it is essential, used for centuries for its health benefits.

In France, our roots run deep. In the Hauts-de-France region, we work with herbalists and formulators who share our passion for ingredients. Their expertise, rooted in a long French tradition of herbalism and natural cosmetics, enhances our raw materials without altering their essence. In the future, honeys and plants from our local regions will enrich this selection, because quality knows no borders, and because many treasures can also be found just a few miles from home.

Our selection is dynamic. It evolves with every new encounter, harvest, and collaboration. Tomorrow, new regions, new artisans, and new ingredients will enrich it further. What will never change is how we select our products: each one has a verified origin, a known producer, and a traceable production method. We don’t work with wholesalers. We work with people.

What We Are Not

We are not a wellness brand. We don’t sell promises, trends, or lifestyles. We don’t invent rituals. We make existing rituals accessible—rituals rooted in centuries of practice and tradition.

Nor are we a mass-market brand. Our catalog is intentionally limited. Every product in it is there because it has been carefully selected, tested, and deemed worthy of inclusion. If a product does not meet our expected quality standards, it will not be included in our selection, regardless of demand.

We prefer to offer a limited selection, but to offer exactly what we need.

Our Approach

We believe that caring for the body, purifying a space, and calming the mind are not luxuries. They are fundamental, accessible acts that require neither complexity nor explanation to work. A pure oil on the skin. A few grains of resin on a piece of charcoal. A scent that transforms the quality of a moment.

Our role is to select ingredients, verify their quality, share their story, and make them available in their purest form. No unnecessary processing. No superfluous ingredients. No packaging that costs more than the contents.

Every Real and Roots product embodies the soil, the climate, and the hands that shaped it. We are committed to preserving this chain—from the producer to your home.

The people behind the products

Behind argan oil are the women of the Souss cooperative, who cold-press the kernels and preserve a craft that the cosmetics industry has never been able to replicate with the same quality. Behind frankincense are the harvesters of Dhofar who make incisions in the bark of Boswellia sacra and wait for the sap to dry in the sun, forming those translucent tears recognized worldwide. Behind the bakhoors are Omani artisans who blend each mixture by hand, with a precision passed down from father to son. Behind the gum arabic are the Mauritanian collectors who traverse the Sahelian belt to harvest a substance their community considers a food in its own right. And behind the skincare products formulated in Europe are laboratories that share our conviction that the quality of a natural ingredient must never be sacrificed for the sake of an industrial process.

By choosing Real and Roots, you are supporting us and our partners, their work, and ensuring that these traditional skills continue to thrive.

 We strive to serve as a bridge between these subjects and those seeking to live more simply, more mindfully, and more closely connected to what truly matters. We aren’t offering anything new. We’re simply making available what has always been there, making it accessible to those who are ready to receive it.