If you’re seeking inspiration for a heartfelt way of being in life and in business, then join me as we get to know Liana Jansen, founder of Fijn Botanicals, an ethical skincare brand made with South African Cape Fynbos, Renosterveld and Karoo plant extracts.

 
Sitting out on the guesthouse deck, we sip tea from floral teacups and savour homemade cake enhanced with Spekboom leaves which are packed with vitamin C. Already this begins to tell a story and illustrates how Liana’s nurturing touch is woven into every detail. Liana tells me that the Fijn Botanicals journey has been one hundred percent organic, following the breadcrumbs which involved step by step choices and no end goal to focus on. “There was never a clear vision. It was never the idea to make a brand,” she explains.
 
With hindsight it’s easy to see the progression and that Fijn Botanicals is undoubtedly a natural outcome and a culmination of all of Liana’s passions, skills and talents paired with the invitations from life. 

Liana has fond memories of being a little girl and mostly playing games that centred around healing with plants. When she was just 10 years old, she wrote in a little book about her dream life which was to live on a farm, have more animals than she could count, work with plants, have kids, and a farmer husband. “Oh, and I also wanted to travel a lot and go on a hot air balloon!”
 
Liana grew up and studied and lectured Landscape Architecture in Pretoria and relocated to Cape Town to lecture at the University of Cape Town. Liana explains that she’s a bit of a magpie with a love for gathering things that have meaning for her and making her home a haven. She moved from a large spacious old house into a tiny flat in Sea Point which was instantly filled to the brim with all the plants that had traveled with her, along with her two cats, a big bouvier, a fish and a bird! “I brought life with me,” Liana says with a smile.
 
At this time she met Petrus who had already made the move from city to countryside and was practising permaculture principles on his farm, Kogman & Keisie, at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains in Montagu. Liana continued to lecture and joined Petrus in Montagu at 7 months pregnant. Suddenly she found herself on an idyllic farm and quite literally living her dream however with the birth of their son, also came severe post natal depression. Liana recalls, “So here I am – I’m in my dream with everything I asked for and I want to die.”

During this challenging time, she started designing some labels for the farm produced olive oil. She took a photo of an olive leaf and used this to draw an olive branch. This became the design for their olive oil bottle and is the same signature design that is still used for Fijn Botanicals. The message Liana received whilst drawing the olive branch was that it signifies new beginnings.
 
This was a new beginning for her – she embraced it and the soap flowed naturally from here.
 
Petrus and Liana had self-catering and guesthouse accommodation on the farm and they wanted amenities that would benefit their guests and also not harm the soil as all their grey water drains into the gardens. This led to the development and beginning of Kogman & Keisie soap and farm products with every ingredient being natural and mostly sourced from their land. They had no idea that these products would become so popular and in 2019 they decided to create a second brand, Fijn Botanicals.
 
“I wanted to celebrate fynbos,” Liana says. “The word ‘fijn’ means fine, gentle, delicate and that’s how we need to care for ourselves. We are delicate and intricately woven together.” Liana poured her heart and energy into creating Kogman & Keisie products, and later Fijn Botanicals, which gave her a sense of purpose on the farm. From the design work and researching of ingredients, to putting the formulas together – every part of the process is a passion for her. “It’s a culmination of everything I love, it became my healing,” says Liana.

I love hearing how every product came about from a direct need and not because they set out to create sellable products. The body and massage oils were made during her second pregnancy because her body needed them, the Clay Cream was originally created as bum balms for her little ones and the signature sensitive range was created for Liana’s own skin which is highly reactive.
 
When the business began to take off, she recalls not knowing how it would actually work and how she would fulfill growing orders. She remembers praying, “God, I really don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how I’m going to do this, I’m not a business person, I’ve never run a factory. I’m actually just a researcher that loves plants and has a deep love for healing.” The answer she received was to only serve the people that come to her and to never go out and source more clients or sales herself. “It’s simple, answer the need.” This allowed them to grow organically, with little steps and build their capacity slowly.
 
We spoke about how often we can be so focussed on the end goal and making grand plans to realise that. We’re sold the idea that to be successful, one needs to have this grand vision and a 5 or 10 year plan. Liana adds “Never in my life have I EVER received enough confirmation that 5 year plans actually work because you’re not available for change when life throws you a curveball. Life is too big to predict.”
 
She reminds me that it’s about taking one step at a time, and that those steps eventually lead to something. When expanding and taking on a new business challenge, Liana needs to remind herself that with each step that you are guided to, there also comes the capacity and ability to fulfil it. It’s hugely rewarding to see how a brand has achieved success with little steps.

Another part of Fijn’s success is due to Liana’s relationship with plants and how this informs her life and business. She tells me that when she was a lecturer and studied landscape architecture, she was taught the language of plants and how to read landscapes. She was fortunate to be able to spend a time with the ‡Khomani San and learn from them directly. 
“They’re quiet, they walk slowly, they notice and don’t spend extra energy on things that aren’t necessary,” she says. “They focus on what’s really important and through this they’re open to receiving everything they need.” They would say to her, “Did you notice this, did you feel this? Look inside too.” Intuition is a big part of their way of being, along with knowing how to observe and read the signs in the landscape.
 
Liana has taken this into her life in multiple ways. When she notices a plant and it stands out, she then knows to look and question further. “What do I need to find out about you? What do I need to know now?” she may enquire. Recently she noticed an aloe with stripes. “Petrus planted it on the farm and it has proliferated, there are heaps of them now,” she says. Liana identified the plant and it happens to be a miracle skincare aloe! “In traditional languages, it is actually called ‘the soap aloe’ because it lathers and is really good for skincare preparations. What a gift!”
 
Liana has countless examples like this. Kraalbos is the best plant to use to make an eye wash and when her daughter needed it, she noticed it. “Honing one’s intuition and listening is vital,” says Liana. “Intuition is lost when there’s not enough attention given to what your heart is telling you to do.”
 
When Liana moved to Montagu, she didn’t know any of the plants on the mountain. What got her to really notice them was scent. When her son was a baby, she would go out with him on her back and she would notice a scent and be intrigued. This naturally drew her to a plant and from here she would dive into her plant books to learn about the plant’s properties and medicinal benefits. She had to teach herself which is something she loves and that brings her joy.

When I had this conversation with Liana, it was at the end of a long and arduous season for her family. Two years prior, they had experienced a traumatic season when their 2 year old daughter developed a rare type of eye cancer and had to undergo over 27 operations under anesthetic for intra-arterial chemo, radiation, and eventual removal of her eye. And then almost a year later, Montagu experienced dramatic flooding which brought huge devastation to their farm. Due to previous municipal works in the river, a flash flood created the damming up of water on the farmwhich flooded all of their workshops and their home. They had to flee from their home without any preparation, climbing out of the windows to escape the rising water. It was especially traumatic for the kids.
 
When the water finally subsided, all that remained was mud everywhere. Liana’s old mantra of “Everything’s going to be fine, don’t worry about it, we don’t need help,” finally had to go. With the help of their close local community, they were able to get through it all. Another huge life lesson for her. Liana paints a picture of helpers washing containers of Lego with toothbrushes and her grandmother’s drenched letters drying in the sun. Even the kitchen drawers were filled with mud and everything had to be removed from the house to prevent mould from setting in. 15 people including kids came to help, to sort through all their belongings, to wash things, to put things out to dry.
 
The Fijn workshop was also entirely flooded and all of the packaging and stickers were covered in mud. “It was so overwhelming and the business needed to continue. There were orders to go out,” Liana says.
 
Luckily Liana’s family found a rental just up the road and this freed up their home to become the makeshift Fijn workshop. Liana tells me that when plants go into the winter season and hibernation mode, their leaves get as small as possible. “They contract and lose anything that’s excessive, going into the bare minimum in order to survive.” It has been the same process for her family, a stripping away and being reduced down to the bones, a long time of just hanging on and living day by day. With all deep loss comes grief and pain, and  also the opportunity for healing, grace and wisdom. Thankfully we can rely on life itself to regenerate and bring renewed hope.

 
Fast-forward to spring and life has begun to flourish again on the farm – there has been wonderful new growth for Fijn Botanicals and Liana and her family have a new home to root into. Miraculously the property directly across from their farm came onto the market and they were able to purchase it. Their original home has become Fijn’s homebase, providing a larger space for connection and for the business to grow into whatever is needed in the next season.
 
Another recent milestone was that Liana and Petrus were again able to offer an interactive long table dinner for the annual Montagu Herb Festival. The evening was an ode to the mountain’s medicinal and culinary herbs. This was the first event that they could host in their greenhouse since the flooding – a true celebration and testimony of resilience!
 
Originally Fijn was always about answering a need and the result was a product. Now Liana’s prayer is that what flows from Fijn brings nurturing and soul healing.
 
Liana shares that her faith and spiritual love is what carries her. She practices gratitude and choosing joy in the face of difficulties.
“The beauty is that there’s never not been joy in the journey.”

A LIFE PHILOSOPHY OF YOURS…
Everything works out in the end, no matter what. The way it should, not necessarily the way we think. So that a bigger plan gets put into the action and we’re just part of that bigger plan.
 
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY EXCITED ABOUT?
One of my biggest passions is scent. We’ve recently started LOAM, a new natural perfume range with a new name. I know it’s something that has to grow and take its own path. I don’t know where and I don’t know how, it’s another branch, a tree that’s growing.
 
COFFEE, TEA OR?
Always tea, never coffee. With milk and sugar (I know…).
 
SIMPLE PLEASURES…
Watering the garden at the end of a long day as dusk sets in. The scent of dusty soil receiving water and the sound of my children exuberantly playing in the garden.
 
WHAT MAKES YOUR HEART SING?
Dancing! And walking in the mountain, meeting new plant friends.
 
DO YOU HAVE A MORNING OR EVENING RITUAL YOU CAN SHARE?
I wake up with a song in my heart every other morning. I will start to hum it, and if I know it, I will look for it on Spotify, if I don’t, I will try to remember keywords and find it that way. Almost always, if I then play the song, there will be a message in the words. Mostly, whilst listening to it, my spirit will grow so large that I burst with gratitude and just cry with the awe of being able to love and commune with God.
 
INSPIRATION SOURCES…
Petrus and I often get completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of possible ideas out there! Life is so full of inspiration: everywhere and always!

CONNECT WITH FIJN BOTANICALS:
Website | Instagram
Visit their farm shop at Kogman & Keisie, 2 Kloof St, Montagu
 
All photography: Lana Kenney ©