Krapina Selo sits in Hrvatsko Zagorje, a region of gentle hills just an hour north of Zagreb. This is where the Apibelle story begins.
The Curiš family has kept bees for over forty years. Ivan Curiš senior is a beekeeper, and his understanding of bees and their biology eventually led him to bee venom, an area few beekeepers work with.
The story starts in 1988, when Ivan built a venom-collection device by hand in his garage. It sits at the entrance of the hive and uses a mild electrical frequency to prompt the bees to release venom onto a glass plate. The bee wipes its stinger against the glass, the venom dries within seconds, and the bee returns to the hive unharmed. No nets, no chemicals, no dead bees. Ivan never patented the device; he wanted to share it with beekeepers in Yugoslavia and beyond.
Bee venom, or apitoxin, is known as a natural Botox and has therapeutic effects, with anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial properties. It is made up of around 18 biologically active compounds, some of which cannot be synthesised artificially. Thanks to these properties, it stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, which through the relaxing and contracting of the facial muscles reduce wrinkles, tighten the skin instantly, and improve circulation in the face. Bee venom therapy has shown results with arthritis, nerve inflammation, poor circulation, psoriasis, wounds, scars, stretch marks, dermatitis, burns, and various stings.
Ivan Curiš passed the knowledge gathered over decades of beekeeping on to his son, Ivan junior. In 2011, Ivan junior founded Beeven Kozmetika and began producing natural cosmetics with bee venom. Over the years, Apibelle products made their way onto the shelves of DM drugstores across Croatia, and today the line includes 38 certified formulations. All of them are dermatologically tested, listed in the European cosmetics registry, and made by hand in a laboratory in Konjščina.
No parabens, no mineral oils, no synthetic fragrances. Behind it all stand forty years of working with bees.
We chose Apibelle as the first brand for AlveaCare because it meets what we look for: ingredients of known origin, a story that can be verified, and formulations grounded in science. A family that has studied one ingredient for forty years is careful about everything else that goes into the product alongside it.