After visiting the natural bridge and arikok park we need some care for the skin since we were exposed to great solar radiation and better way is go to the largest boutique and cosmetics factory in Aruba, a very pleasant place where every products are made with aloe grown on the island. This is the Aruba Aloe brand, since you arrive you are served very well and they invite you to visit the museum where you learn about the history of the factory dating back to the year 1890, which makes it the oldest aloe company in the world !
The Aloe museum has become a very famous and internationally recognized place, it is the largest aruba cosmetics company and you can find its products all over the island, from the airport, pharmacies and even souvenir shops. Apart from having a boutique with all its products in its headquarters, they have implemented a museum in which they tell all their long history of cultivation and production, then a tour of the production area and finally you can visit the boutique and the plantation.
Schedule and rates
It is open to the public from Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, the tour of the museum is free, we recommend you arrive early because if you go last minute you will not find a guide.
The tour
The museum tour takes 15 to 20 minutes if you stop to read a little, starting with the company’s principles in the year 1890, you find a brief history about its founder Cornelis Eman, at a time when the business of the aloe was decayed, he believed in this plant and invested in expanding his land, by 1905 the business rebounded and Cornelis had already 63 hectares of plantations, then his sons built the factory and introduced industrialized processes, selling aloe first to the pharmaceutical industry for then producing the cosmetics themselves in the 1960s, based mainly on a gel concentrate called alomucin, was a great success since at this time aloe enjoyed great popularity worldwide.
Aloe is currently recognized as a natural product of great qualities, it is also known as lily of the desert or the plant of immortality, its name comes from the Arabic “alloeh” which means bitter liquid found in the leaves, this is due to that in the beginning of aloe only the yellowish substance extracted from the bark called aloin was used, it has a bitter taste and was used as a laxative; subsequently, the central and transparent part began to be used thanks to its medicinal benefits.
Manufacturing instruments 
2nd floor tour
The history of aloe is mixed with the history of the company, focusing mainly on showing the old production tools and obviously on the virtues of this well-known product. It is complemented by newspaper clippings, photos and old documents.
Then we go to the second floor which consists of a tour of the production plant, there we find the current products and technologies, it is quite interactive since you can smell them and try on the skin, as we move forward we see the different sectors of the process that comprises from the extraction, mixing, processing in large kilns to the packing and dispatch area. In all this tour you will find a pleasant aroma that emanates from the innumerable products placed on the route for you to try them. some of them are soaps, exfoliants, creams, gels for combing, sunscreens, gel to keep tan and even bath salts.
The boutique
After this tour we went to the boutique where you can buy all your products, there are perfect kits for gifts that include products from all areas and come out cheaper. It must be said that the prices of these products are quite high compared to other products on the market, however they are aimed at a niche that seeks the highest quality. we buy a cream of roses, 2 lip protectors, a soap and exfoliating cubes, all with an excellent aroma and beautiful presentation, we recommend them. you also find limited collections and new releases, if you do not want to buy anything you can go out to the plantation and know the real crop, there they show you what the basic process of extraction.
It is a good place that you can visit without spending a single dollar, the whole tour is free, it does not take a lot of time and it is very nice, people attend you gently, if you love skin care and cosmetics in general it is a must, we recommend you do it.
