In an industry as saturated as skincare, few brands manage to cut through the noise and create the level of hype that Augustinus Bader has – and in today’s celebrity-obsessed market, even less manage to do it without A-list associations and big, shiny marketing deals.
But for Bader, the German stem-cell scientist that built his namesake brand around a wound-healing nutrient complex – has always done things a little differently. And as it turns out, sticking strongly to the science pays dividends: the brand can now be found on the world’s most meticulously curated bathroom shelves.
So it’s perhaps not surprising that the brand has eschewed the pull of the big Hollywood name (surely, there were dozens on the table) for its first collaboration. The brand has today revealed a partnership with Haider Ackermann, presenting limited-edition iterations of its two star products: The Cream and The Rich Cream.
The Haider Ackermann - Augustinus Bader Limited Editions
The Haider Ackermann - Augustinus Bader Limited Editions
Launched to mark the brand’s fifth birthday, the limited-edition packaging is crafted from silver metal and inscribed with the designer’s signature in that instantly recognisable Bader blue. As much a sink-side object d’art as it is a skincare product, each mirrored metal vial is designed to be kept and topped up with the brand’s original refills indefinitely.
The partnership works to cement Bader’s positioning at the intersection of fashion and grooming – a wise move when the rest of the industry is building clout via paid-for celebrity associations. “We are committed to building a collective of like-minded individuals that have a similar brand ethos and we very much see the synergies between ours and Haider’s,” says Charles Rosier, CEO and co-founder of Augustinus Bader. “We are both dedicated to innovation and appreciate the specialty of craftsmanship. Haider is an extremely talented designer: from his pieces, to his community, to the iconic people he dresses – we have a similar world and way of thinking.”
For Ackermann – a designer known for craft, not clout chasing – the associa is equally brand-strengthening. “There's a lot of alignment here in the respect of the metier of hands-on luxury craftsmanship in the work that we both do as brands: whether it’s creating a collection by hand or creating a cream to be massaged into the skin, it's a very beautiful thing to do,” he says.
If you’re new to The Cream (and its richer sibling), consider it the product that brought new weight to the designer skincare category, shifting the focus from gilded luxury to science that brings about real results. The star ingredient is something called TFC8®: essentially it’s a precise cocktail of vitamins and minerals designed to aid the skin in repairing itself, ultimately bringing about a host of aesthetic benefits and cementing it as the fashion industry’s face cream of choice.
Augustinus Bader x Haider Ackermann: The Cream and The Rich Cream is on sale today.
