The $1 Billion Skincare Brand Selling Your Skin Back To You
How Augustinus Bader reached unicorn status.
You’ve probably heard the hype about the Augustinus Bader’s The Rich Cream by now. It’s that $265 moisturizer that prompted Victoria Beckham to proclaim her love via Instagram Stories with no less than three (3) exclamation points: “I absolutely love this brand!!!” The product the New York Times dubbed “high tech holistic skincare.” Makeup artist Patti Dubroff, known for her work with Priyanka Chopra and Tessa Thompson, told Violet Grey her skin “literally craves” it. Oh, and apparently, it's “the secret to rich-person skin,” as reported by the Cut.
And rich it is. Augustinus Bader recently “secured $25 million in new funding that values the business at $1 billion,” BeautyMatter reports — meaning the cult-favorite brand is a hit with influencers and investors alike, and has officially reached unicorn status.
I have a theory about why the company became a unicorn though, and it has nothing to do with the products. It could be argued that the magic lies in the directions.
While using The Rich Cream, its original and most popular product, Augustinus Bader instructs users to forgo all other skincare steps, save for cleanser. That means no toners, no essences, no serums or night creams or sleeping masks. And according to the Cut’s review, “the cream asks that you remain devoted to it for 27 days” for best results, a point that Augustinus Bader himself (a German university professor and regenerative science expert turned skincare entrepreneur) confirmed in an email to me when I wrote about the brand for The Zoe Report in 2019.
As a skincare minimalist, this makes sense to me. Often, skincare routines are overcrowded with products and ingredients that irritate the skin, which then causes you to pile on more products and ingredients to fix said irritation. (For example, surfactant cleansers strip the skin’s natural oils, leading you to layer on thick serums and moisturizers to compensate, triggering clogged pores and acne, precipitating the need for benzoyl peroxide spot treatments that further strip the skin, and so on.) Simplifying your routine to a single product — whether The Rich Cream or something else — would likely result in clearer, calmer skin over time. Over 27 days, to be precise.
“Your skin replenishes itself every 27 days,” Bader explained. (A 28 day skin cycle is considered to be the norm in dermatology, although this can vary from person to person.) “Dead skin cells are sloughed off and new cells come to the surface — it’s an ideal period of time to determine the efficacy of a product or regimen,” he said. It’s also the ideal period of time to allow your skin to regulate and resume its inherent functions.
“Over a 27-day [period like this], the skin would somewhat revert back its old self,” Dr. Aanand Geria, a dermatologist with Geria Dermatology, confirmed in an interview with me for TZR. What is your skin’s “old self,” exactly? To generalize, it’s the version of your skin that knows how to thrive sans products. The skin is “programmed” to self-protect (via the skin barrier and microbiome), self-moisturize (via sebum), self-exfoliate (via a process known as desquamation), and self-heal. Most topical skincare offerings essentially overwrite these functions, and skin then becomes dependent on them to get the job done. By eliminating extra steps for nearly a month, you give your skin a chance to get back into its built-in rhythm.
As Bader said (and Dr. Geria corroborated), over 27 days, the skin will shed dead skin cells and create new ones — so with self-exfoliation in action, it makes sense that the brand suggests retiring your go-to acid exfoliator. Your skin really doesn’t need it anymore. It all but says this in the marketing materials for The Rich Cream: “Augustinus Bader’s groundbreaking skincare works with the body’s own repair processes to help reawaken its innate potential.”
My theory? This “reawakening” is less about the specific ingredients in The Rich Cream (including the brand’s proprietary “Trigger Factor Complex,” a blend of vitamins and “synthesized molecules naturally found in the body”… because the industry has somehow convinced customers that “your body already makes this on its own” is a selling point?) and more about the process of simplifying your skincare routine for an entire skin cycle. And it seems to check out with dermatologists.
“I think simplicity is vital when it comes to skincare,” Dr. Geria told me. “All too often, people are using numerous products, some of which can irritate the skin, while others interact with each other [to cause skin reactions].” He agreed that a 27-day reset, so to speak, could be beneficial. “It also depends on which products are not being used during this [period],” he added. “Taking a month off of moisturizing might help unclog your pores — but you also might experience dryness during this time.”
It’s also important to note that paring down your product lineup could result in skin reactions (breakouts, excess oil) in the beginning. “It can get ugly at first, as the skin goes through the process of losing its dependency on the products that it was relying on for a lot of its functioning,” Angela Peck, a holistic aesthetician known for her simple, straightforward approach to skincare, told me. “But doing a [reset] is going to force our skin to function on its own again, which is what it should be doing in the first place.”
If you want to test this theory for yourself by limiting your skincare routine to just a few products for a full skin cycle, Peck suggests a non-stripping cleanser, a face mist, and some sort of moisturizer (serum, oil, or cream) with SPF to support your skin’s natural functions, not suppress them. “I’m not about elaborate skincare routines,” she says. Peck also recommends incorporating facial massage to give skin a product-free boost. “I don’t think anything else is necessary,” she says. “I used to do the serum layering back when I worked with conventional esthetics, with some of the most highly regarded conventional skincare brands, and have seen far better results with this approach.” (You can also use nothing.)
As for what to do when your 27 days are up? Keep going. The idea is that once your skin has acclimated — or "reawakened to its innate potential," to quote Bader — you won't feel the need to revert back to an over-the-top routine ever again. Why would you? Your skin’s inherent functions are worth $1 billion.
So strip back your routine for 27 days and let the skin fix itself, credit it to a $265 moisturiser - the cheek! I mean, I have to laugh or I'll cry at this point.
Bwahah! I love this piece. What a perfect example of capitalism … turning your skin’s own innate ability to renew itself into an expensive “must have” product!