Augustinus Bader and the Celebrity Science Experiment

Everyone who launches a luxury beauty product wants to create something like Crème de la Mer, the 50-year-old moisturiser invented by a scientist — its eye-watering price justified in no small part by hand-harvested seaweed exposed to hours of carefully calibrated sound frequencies. Nobody in the contemporary age has come close, except for the French financier Charles Rosier.

Rosier’s project is better known by his partner, the German professor Augustinus Bader, who himself is better known by the luxury skincare line that bears his name. Its first products, The Cream and The Rich Cream, were both blessed with a proprietary ingredient called Trigger Factor Complex 8 powered by a particular kind of peptide.

When Augustinus Bader launched in 2018, word of The Cream had already suffused the entertainment and fashion industries. Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith became fans of The Cream and invested in the company; so did Courteney Cox, photographer Mert Alas and Bobbi Brown. The svelte navy and rose-gold bottle quickly became a palm-sized status totem.

Dazzling the beauty industry as a case study in startup luxury, the brand’s sales exploded in its early years on the strength of those two products — from $7 million in its first year to $70 million by 2021 — and the compelling pitch that The Cream (or The Rich Cream) was the one formula to rule them all.

But by the time it secured a $1 billion valuation in a funding round just a year later, Augustinus Bader had added eight more products, including a face oil and a lip balm. A hair collection and supplements followed, more than enough to fill a “12 Days of Bader” advent calendar, currently available for $695.

Critics, and some customers, questioned whether TFC8 truly had applications as diverse as eye patches and shampoo. But it was the release earlier this month of Dua by AB Science, the brand’s joint venture with pop star Dua Lipa, that felt like the starkest departure for the luxury label. The new sub-brand’s price also attracted attention — products cost between $40 and $80, or less than one-fifth the price of The Rich Cream — as did its core ingredient, TFC5.

“We talked with Augustinus about the idea of developing a formula that would be more adapted to younger skin,” Rosier, chief executive, told The Business of Beauty. TFC5 is not as strong as TFC8, he added, “but we’re not offering TFC8 at a cheaper price. We’re offering a new technology.” Rosier said that the core customer of Augustinus Bader was 35 and up, whereas Dua by AB Science would be better suited for younger millennials and Gen Z.

If the launch of Dua by AB seemed, with respect to the brand, like an act of dilution, it doesn’t appear that way on paper: Bader’s business is still growing steadily, with Rosier expecting net sales of over $150 million and retail sales of approximately $250 million. The brand became profitable in 2024 but ended the year on a loss, which Rosier said was due to taxes and operational losses in some of its new markets. It’s targeting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of around 10 percent of net sales by the end of the year.

And if Dua Lipa and Augustinus Bader seem like a perplexing duo, perhaps they shouldn’t. The brand owes no small part of its success to a careful alchemy of science and celebrity that is perfectly unstable, and has had to evolve considerably to help weather the luxury slowdown. Now it has come to rely on fine-tuning that balance to preserve its rose-gold lustre.

A Secret Ingredient

When Bader launched in 2018, its core technology — a proprietary complex of peptides, or signal molecules, that could theoretically coax skin cells into constructive regeneration — was a novel concept. Seven short years later, those days are gone. In 2025, shoppers can purchase peptide complexes at nearly any price point: The ingredient appears in nearly every one of Rhode’s products, as well as in $4 Sephora eye masks.

This proliferation of cheap peptides has brought fresh scrutiny to TFC8. The price of every product in the line — and the brand’s value proposition as a whole — derives from the ingredient’s similarity to a medical-grade gel Professor Bader developed to heal burn victims, even if the brand is guarded on how, exactly, they’re related. The recent introduction of TFC5, or TFC8 for younger skin “with minimal to moderate damage” raises more questions for shoppers who were willing to pay top dollar.

The brand is also easier than ever to find. While it was always sold online, anyone hoping to try it out in the real world initially had to make a pilgrimage to 10 Corso Como or Violet Grey’s Melrose Place boutique. Today, it’s available at Sephora, and there are Augustinus Bader counters at Nordstrom, Saks and Selfridge’s. It’s even for sale via Ulta Beauty Kuwait and Quince, the e-commerce site best known for its low-price fashion dupes.

It’s a remarkable change for a brand that was once “a reference point for modern luxury,” said Camille Moore, a beauty strategist. Not too long ago, a bottle of The Cream wound up as set dressing on the second season of “Succession” — not as product placement, but as a symbol of quiet wealth, a production artist confirmed.

The brand’s prestige has remained intact when it comes to its original skincare range. Plenty of smart and savvy beauty professionals swear by The Cream and Rich Cream, even if they don’t completely understand TFC8.

“It’s the only thing that works for my skin,” said one brand fan, who spoke anonymously so they could freely ponder the merit of its star ingredient. “There’s a subset of people that want to really believe that the more they pay, the more of a miracle that they’re getting. And whether La Mer reacts with your skin better, or Augustinus Bader reacts with your skin better, who knows what’s really behind it all?”

The Cream of the Crop

Augustinus Bader has always been owned by Rosier and Professor Bader, who each hold majority stakes, alongside Jacques Veyrat, a billionaire executive that Rosier said invested in the company in 2017, right before its first products launched. But in 2022, it nearly found a parent company, as the brand reached late stages with a number of conglomerates — and got a nine figure bid.

According to several sources close to both companies, the brand received an offer from The Estée Lauder Companies that exceeded $1 billion, triggering a sale process in which Augustinus Bader then met with a number of bidders, including Beiersdorf and Puig. But Rosier and Veyrat weren’t keen on selling, and figured the four-year-old brand had plenty of runway ahead of it. (The Estée Lauder Companies, Beiersdorf and Puig did not respond to requests for comment.) Instead, Augustinus Bader raised more money that same year, netting a $25 million investment round led by General Atlantic with Veyrat, Diageo chairman Javier Ferrán and LVMH scion Antoine Arnault all participating — and confirming its starry $1 billion valuation.

“Charles and the investors have high ambitions,” said Joel Palix, a beauty entrepreneur and the former CEO of e-tailer Feelunique, who advised the brand while it was in market. “They don’t want to sell too early, and they think they can fetch a much bigger value by growing the brand.”

But achieving this is tough for any brand in this climate. When Augustinus Bader was founded, consumer brands were routinely valued based on their sales and growth projections, even if they had no clear path to profitability. After some high-profile failures — like a similar valuation for Pat McGrath, or Olaplex’s eye-popping IPO — investors now prioritise brands that have demonstrated they can grow while operating in the black.

Of the brand’s current goals, Rosier said he hopes to achieve earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 20 percent of net sales, but “it will take time.” He explained that profitability is a core focus but exiting the brand is not.

What’s a Celebrity Worth?

Augustinus Bader was — and to an extent, still is — disruptive for a beauty brand of its kind.

“Charles is not an insider, and I think he has an anti-conformist approach to luxury skincare,” Palix said. “They put celebrities and collabs at the heart of the brand from day one. Science and celebrity, you wouldn’t think they go together.”

While the brand has resisted paid endorsements, Rosier and Bader were able to infiltrate and captivate a highly influential vein of the Hollywood establishment. The original launch had the support of influential retailers, but it also had fans like Carla Bruni (who was connected to Rosier through her sister) and Griffith (whose own sister worked on the brand’s packaging).

Many of Bader’s early adopters and investors, like Griffith, Cox and Brown, were granted small equity in the business — no more than 2 percent, according to two sources with knowledge of the breakdown — instead of one-off contracts. This has helped secure their long-term endorsement, but any potential acquirer would need to factor in a heavy media spend post-sale without these faces.

The brand’s joint venture with Victoria Beckham Beauty, to which Bader contributed a primer and more recently a foundation, have been successful for both brands. (The latter, which retails for $104, is not only the current top-selling foundation at Space NK, but its top makeup SKU overall.) Its Sofia Coppola lip balms, created in partnership with the director and now part of its permanent collection, were unexpected and roundly praised — and cost the same as Chanel.

By collaborating with a global pop star on an off-price line, the brand seems to be trying something new. Lipa has been the face of YSL’s Libre fragrance since 2019, and became the brand’s global makeup ambassador in 2024. Other than her well-documented love of Bader products, beauty insiders note that Lipa is not particularly known for her skincare routine.

“There’s nothing connected to her brand that adds authenticity” to the collaboration, observed Moore.

While its strategy has evolved from once attracting high-profile investors to joint ventures, any brand’s reliance on celebrity is fragile. Customers routinely scoff at celebrity pet projects when it lacks authenticity: The few winners — Rhode, Rare Beauty, Haus Labs — have been calibrating their own models for years. For now, the Dua Lipa line will be sold DTC, where 30 percent of Augustinus Bader’s mainline sales are happening.

Rosier is patient, and thinks the brand’s best is yet to come. After all, its products with Beckham and Coppola are some of the best launches the brand has seen in recent years.

“We’re not in a process. We’re not talking to anyone, because we feel that there is room for growth in our brand,“ he said. “That’s our focus today. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”

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