Alcina

Alcina is a German cosmetics brand based in Bielefeld, making haircare, skincare and makeup for both salon professionals and consumers. It was founded in 1946 by the chemist Dr. Kurt Wolff [2], and it remains a fourth-generation family business within the Dr. Wolff Group, the privately held company that owns it [8]. The brand sells through two channels: a professional salon line distributed to hairdressers, and a direct-to-consumer range available online.

The name comes from George Frideric Handel's opera Alcina, which the company says is "dedicated to the mystery and magic of femininity" [2]. From the start the brand positioned itself around scientifically based care, a framing it still uses today under the phrase "expertise and knowledge made in Germany."

Dr. Kurt Wolff established Alcina in 1946 in Bielefeld, where the company is still headquartered. The founder's guiding maxim — that every person is beautiful in their own way, because the exterior mirrors the soul — is quoted by the brand as the principle behind its approach, which it frames as discovering, nurturing, strengthening and preserving each person's individual traits [2].

There is a second date worth clarifying. The parent group records its own founding as 1905, when the pharmacist Dr. August Wolff established the business that grew into today's Dr. Wolff Group [8]. The 1905 date belongs to the corporate group, not to Alcina; the brand itself dates to 1946, a distinction both the Alcina site and the group's corporate page make consistently, with Alcina marking its 75th anniversary in 2021 [7].

Alcina began as a line of skincare cosmetics and expanded steadily across the following decades. The company established professional training programs around 1950, developed a hair-colour line in 1990, and introduced its Color Fading Technique in 2010. Decorative cosmetics, or makeup, were relaunched in 2014, and in 2020 the haircare range was redesigned around a sustainability focus, with five new lines. A new makeup core line followed in 2025 [7]. By 2026 the brand describes roughly 80 years of development experience.

Alcina is owned by Dr. Kurt Wolff GmbH & Co. KG, the Bielefeld-based company at the centre of the Dr. Wolff Group [1]. Within that group, the Dr. Kurt Wolff arm oversees a portfolio of hair- and oral-care brands alongside Alcina, including the caffeine-based haircare brand Alpecin, the Plantur haircare lines, and the oral-care brands Bioniq and Karex [8]. A second arm, Dr. August Wolff, manages dermatological and gynaecological products under names such as Vagisan and Linola [8]. The Alcina online shop also carries selected bestsellers from the sibling haircare brands.

The group reported net sales of 384.4 million euros for the 2025 financial year and employs over 900 people worldwide [8]. It describes itself as active in more than 60 countries[8].

Alcina presents itself as a scientifically grounded brand spanning haircare, styling, skincare and makeup. The company sums up its values as love of detail, quality and innovation, and the parent group describes Alcina as "a scientifically founded cosmetics and salon brand" whose products aim to unite quality and efficiency for customers and salons [7]. Support for the hairdressing trade is a recurring theme: the brand operates a testing centre for colour and beauty trends and says its products undergo dermatological testing by independent dermatologists. It collaborates with the hairstylist Robert Mrosek on seasonal trend collections, such as Golden Veil for 2025/26.

The brand's range is organised around several named lines and proprietary complexes. Among its signature lines are Hyaluron 2.0, a moisture line spanning both skin and hair; A\CPLEX, a bond-building haircare line; and an anti-ageing line called "It's never too late." Hero ingredients across the range include hyaluronic acid, retinol, vitamin C, niacinamide, caffeine, ceramides, collagen and a cashmere extract.

Alcina maintains an active-ingredient lexicon documenting both standard and proprietary formulations. Its own named technologies include Hyaluron 2.0, described as an advanced form of hyaluronic acid; the Aquarich complex based on black-oat extract, glycerin and plant lecithin; a Nutri-Caffein complex and a Phyto-Caffein complex aimed at different causes of hair loss; and the Color-Carrier-System and Color Fading Technique used in its colour products. The lexicon also lists licensed third-party complexes such as Matrixyl and Defensil alongside the brand's own.

Manufacturing is based in Bielefeld, and the brand markets its core line as made in Germany.

Alcina is active. It continues to launch products — a new makeup core line in 2025 and the Golden Veil 2025/26 trend collection — and runs a live e-commerce site with editorial content dated into 2026, including makeup trend features for spring and summer 2026. As a brand of the Dr. Wolff Group, it operates across more than 60 countries [8].