A meeting in Berlin over mushroom drinks. Five years later, an adaptogen skincare brand.
Organic skincare with medicinal and adaptogenic mushrooms. Founded by Rui Liu and Catarina Oliveira. Berlin. Launched in 2022.
Rui Liu grew up in China, moved to Arizona in 2014 to study clinical nutrition with a focus on oncology, pancreatic cancer, and colon cancer. Faced with skin issues tied to this radical life change, she turned to traditional Chinese medicine and adaptogens. Catarina Oliveira, a former athlete and wellness consultant for Adidas and Lululemon, is finishing her master's degree in traditional Chinese medicine. In 2017, they met in Berlin over mushroom drinks and Four Sigmatic. It felt inevitable. Herbar was born of that encounter: the idea that health and beauty are not mutually exclusive, and that ancestral wisdom can meet modern care. Conceived in 2019, the brand launched three years later with a line of facial care products based on medicinal mushrooms, adaptogens, and 100% organic, clinically tested ingredients.
