API Royal

API Royal is a line of bee-based skincare made by Natura-Clou-Kosmetik, a family-owned cosmetics manufacturer in Leipzig, Germany. On its own packaging and website the line is spelled API-Royale. It is built around royal jelly, the secretion that worker bees feed to their queen, usually paired with honey, and it covers a face cream, a richer intensive cream, a face mask, a body lotion and a cleansing milk. The line sits inside the maker's wider "API" range of bee-product care for the face, body, hair, lips and feet.

The company behind it dates back to the 1930s, passed into state ownership in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and was returned to private hands after the political changes of 1989–90 [2]. Natura-Clou-Kosmetik says the oldest product in the line, the API-Royale Classic face cream, has been in use for more than 70 years [5]. The brand is active, and its maker continues to update its product range and information.

Natura-Clou-Kosmetik was founded in Leipzig in the 1930s by the grandfather of its present owner, Stefan Schall [2]. The company's website shows a portrait of the founder under the name Max Schall, but gives no exact founding year. Its history page is otherwise illustrated with archive images, including pictures labelled "Drogerie", "Mont Blanc", "Vaseline" and "Toscanella", which the company does not explain further.

Leipzig, a trade-fair city in the eastern German state of Saxony, has remained the company's home and its place of production. The firm presents its long family continuity as central to its identity. It speaks of experience gathered "over generations" and says the family has always taken care to preserve and cultivate traditional values.

Few details of the company's early decades are public beyond its founding in the 1930s. According to the company, the business went through "various transformations" during the GDR era, ending in nationalisation. After the Wende, the period of political change in 1989–90 that led to German reunification, it was reprivatised [2].

The years that followed were not easy. Natura-Clou-Kosmetik credits the family's business sense and its ability to adapt to new circumstances for carrying it through the difficult economic restructuring of the 1990s [3].

The API-Royale Classic face cream is the line's anchor product. The company states that it has been used for more than 70 years by millions of consumers for the care of the face and neck [5]. That statement is undated, so it does not fix a launch year. A second face cream, API-Royale Gold, was later introduced as what the company calls a further development of the Classic, aimed at more demanding skin; no date is given for it either.

API Royal is owned by Natura-Clou-Kosmetik, which describes itself as an independent family business. The company's legal notice names Stefan Schall as its owner [7], and the firm is a member of the Leipzig Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Renate Schall also appears on the company's homepage, where she welcomes visitors on behalf of Natura-Clou-Kosmetik.

The ownership history follows the course of twentieth-century eastern Germany: family ownership from the 1930s, state ownership in the GDR, and private ownership again after reunification. No outside investor, parent group or sister brand beyond the maker's own API range is documented.

The company's motto is "Schönheit aus dem Bienenstock", German for "beauty from the beehive". Natura-Clou-Kosmetik says it is the only company in Germany that concentrates exclusively on making cosmetics with active ingredients from the beehive [3]. It works with four of them: royal jelly, propolis, honey and beeswax. In the company's words, these natural materials give the skin what it needs for "natural harmony and beauty", and it describes its formulas as exclusive recipes developed over generations.

The maker explains each ingredient on its website, and the descriptions are its own [4]. Royal jelly, it notes, is the food a queen bee receives throughout her life; the company points out that a queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day and lives far longer than other bees. It describes royal jelly as rich in vitamins, especially those of the B group, and says it helps revitalise the skin and improve its structure. Propolis is a resin that bees gather from tree buds and mix with pollen, using it to seal gaps in the hive and keep it free of germs. The company calls it a natural antibiotic with antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effects, and notes that its colour varies with the plant, the season and the bee colony. Beeswax, produced by the wax glands of worker bees, is said by the company to contain vitamin A and to make the skin more elastic. Honey, made from flower nectar, is presented as carrying the properties of the plants it comes from, many of them medicinal herbs. No clinical studies of these claims are documented.

Production takes place in Leipzig. The company describes its plant as smelling of fine oils, with staff in white work clothes operating stainless-steel equipment. Its stated priority is customer satisfaction, with products of high quality that customers can rely on.

On the environmental side, the company's legal notice states that environmental and climate protection matter especially to it, and it displays a certificate from the recycling company Interseroh for resources saved in 2015 [7]. The product pages also offer guidance on disposing of packaging. No third-party cosmetics certifications, such as organic or natural-cosmetics seals, are documented.

The API-Royale line has five products. The Classic face cream, sold in a 50 ml tube, carries the subtitle "Zelltonikum mit Gelee Royale", a cell tonic with royal jelly, and is intended for the face and neck. API-Royale Gold is an intensive cream with royal jelly in a 50 ml jar, positioned for more demanding skin. The API-Royale mask combines royal jelly and honey; the company describes it as a vitalising, moisturising face mask for every skin type.

For the body, the API-Royale body lotion with honey and royal jelly comes in a 150 ml bottle and is meant for daily care of normal to dry skin. The range is completed by the API-Royale cleansing milk, also with honey and royal jelly and also in 150 ml, which the company presents as a gentle, thorough cleanser for all skin types.

The Classic cream is also listed by online pharmacies, where it appears as "Api Royale Hautcreme mit Gelee" with Natura-Clou-Kosmetik named as manufacturer [9].

Beyond the royal-jelly line, the maker's API range draws on the same bee ingredients. It includes a leg lotion with propolis, honey and royal jelly, blended with essential oils of rosemary, eucalyptus, spruce needle, camphor and orange plus menthol, and a foot balm with honey and propolis. There is also a shower balm with honey and calendula extract, and a care shampoo with honey and royal jelly that, according to the company, now also contains guar and betaine. Further products are a honey soap with natural orange oil and a lip balm with honey. API-Honig-Creme is an all-purpose moisturiser for the face, hands and body, made with honey, provitamin B5, allantoin, jojoba oil, shea butter and beeswax. The range also includes API-Melkfett with propolis, the API-Centan body lotion with royal jelly and honey, and API Tinctura, a propolis tincture that the company describes as strengthening the gums. Each product has its own published sheet listing ingredients and directions for use.

API Royal is active. Natura-Clou-Kosmetik continues to make the line in Leipzig, and the company's product pages were updated in December 2025 and again in June 2026 [6]. The Classic face cream remained available from an online pharmacy in October 2026 [9].

The brand is sold mainly in Germany and through several channels. The company actively recruits resellers, inviting beekeepers and traders with their own cosmetics shops to carry its products [8], and its homepage also mentions market stalls. Customers who have difficulty buying or ordering are invited to call the company directly [1]. The maker's website is in German only, and no social media presence is documented.