Alkmene

Alkmene, written in lower case as "alkmene" by the company itself, is a German personal-care brand that Mann & Schröder launched in 1968 as its first in-house body-care line [2]. It takes its name from Alkmene, the mother of Herakles in Greek mythology. The range covers face, body, hand and foot, hair and scalp, and oral care, and is built around plant oils and extracts. Tea tree oil sits at the centre of the brand's identity; the consumer magazine ÖKO-TEST described it in 2013 as the house's oldest own brand, rooted in essential oils and above all tea tree oil [14].

The brand belongs to the family-run MANN & SCHRÖDER COSMETICS GROUP in south-west Germany. Since 2024 it has been held by Schröder Cosmetics, the group company that manages its own brands [11]. Alkmene is active, and its products are made at the group's two production sites in Siegelsbach and Hüffenhardt in Baden-Württemberg.

The story begins with the parent company rather than with a single founder. Mann & Schröder was set up in 1951 in Siegelsbach by Hans Schröder and Eugen Mann as a small chemical business [11]. It started out with household cleaners, moved into hairspray, and then turned to body care. In 1968 it introduced alkmene as the first body-care brand it made and sold under its own name.

No individual is credited with creating the brand. It was a company launch, and Eugen Mann had already left the business by the mid-1960s. The choice of a figure from Greek myth as a name set a classical tone that the brand has kept for more than half a century.

Mann & Schröder is now run by the third generation of the family. According to the brand, the group employs around 800 people.

The brand's first notable moment came through packaging rather than formulas. In the 1970s its Badbalsam, a bath balm sold in an apothecary-style bottle with a linen label, was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the company says [2]. The same design appeared in the graphic-design yearbook Graphis Annual 73/74.

From 1980, when Mann & Schröder stopped producing cleaning agents, the company focused on building up its own cosmetics brands, alkmene among them [11]. Through the 1980s and 1990s the portfolio was developed step by step. Some older product names from this period, such as a chamomile shampoo (Kamille-Shampoo), a nettle shampoo, an organic mallow shower gel for sensitive skin and a balm for calloused feet (Hornhautbalsam), still appear in independent consumer review listings [15].

The brand's more recent history follows a run of relaunches and new series:

- 2015: the care range based on Australian tea tree oil was relaunched for the first time. - 2017: the "Kraft der Heilpflanzen" (power of medicinal plants) series arrived with 24 products using organic oils and extracts from medicinal plants. - 2018: the brand marked its 50th anniversary. - 2019: the medicinal-plant series was extended into facial care and oral and dental care. - 2022: the tea tree range was relaunched again as MEIN TEEBAUMÖL ("my tea tree oil"). - 2024: MEIN OLIVENÖL, a series for dry skin built on olive oil, was introduced.

The company's own pages have described its experience both as "over 50 years" and, in more recent copy, as "over 55 years". Both refer to the same 1968 launch, so the founding year itself is not in question.

Alkmene is part of MANN & SCHRÖDER COSMETICS GROUP, a mid-sized, family-owned manufacturer. In 2024 the group turned its brands division into a separate company, SCHRÖDER COSMETICS, which holds all of its own brands, including alkmene [11]. The group's other own brands are sanosan, VANDINI and numis med. Alongside its own labels, the group also makes private-label body-care products for discounters and drugstores, according to ÖKO-TEST [14].

The brand's legal details name Schröder Cosmetics GmbH & Co. KG at Mann-und-Schröder-Straße 1 in Hüffenhardt as the responsible company, with Christine Steger as group managing director [8]. The parent group's own history, however, places its original site and headquarters in Siegelsbach and describes Hüffenhardt as a newer production facility "only 4 km from the headquarters" [11]. The two accounts do not contradict each other: the brand company is registered in Hüffenhardt, while Siegelsbach is the group's historic base, and both towns host production.

Alkmene presents itself as a plant-based care brand. The company says it has spent decades developing products based on the extracts and oils of selected plants, and it calls itself one of the oldest traditional brands in body care.

Its formulas follow a simple two-part idea. Each product pairs a plant "hero" ingredient in pharmaceutical or organic quality, such as tea tree oil, olive oil or aloe vera, with problem-specific "boosts" such as zinc PCA, vitamin E, hyaluronic acid or potassium. The brand sums this up in its tagline "Natürliche Kraft mit Boost", rendered on the parent company's English site as "Natural power with boost".

Three values guide the brand, by its own account: plant-based efficacy, expertise and responsibility. Its stated aim is to help people feel good in their skin while being good both for the skin and for the environment.

The expertise claim is backed by a small panel of named advisers. A dermatologist, Maria Gaiser, and a cosmetician, Alexandra Beck, cover skin topics, while two dental hygienists, Birgit Schlee and Martina Schaale, cover oral care. Several of the brand's advice articles on blemish-prone skin carry a note that they were checked by Beck.

The products sit in the drugstore price segment. Alkmene sells through its own online shop and also points customers to stockists through a retailer finder.

The current range is organised into six series, each named after its lead plant ingredient: MEIN TEEBAUMÖL (tea tree oil), MEIN OLIVENÖL (olive oil), MEINE ALOE VERA, MEINE CALENDULA, MEINE BRENNNESSEL (nettle) and MEIN SALBEI (sage). Products are also grouped by need, from blemish-prone, dry or stressed skin to dandruff, oily hair, athlete's foot and inflammation in the mouth.

Tea tree oil remains the backbone of the line. Key products include a pure tea tree oil, which the company describes as 100 percent natural oil in pharmaceutical quality, an anti-dandruff shampoo, and a 3-in-1 product that works as a cleanser, scrub and mask. In the newer olive oil series, an intensive moisturising cream is one of the main products.

Beyond the plant ingredients, the brand lists a set of supporting actives. These include zinc PCA, vitamin E, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, pro-vitamin B5, fluoride for dental care, potassium, and piroctone olamine, an ingredient commonly used against dandruff.

Alkmene markets its products as "proven effective" and "dermatologically confirmed" [1]. Many products carry percentage claims based on user perception. The company says, for example, that 91 percent of testers confirmed fewer pimples with a tea tree face cream, and that its anti-dandruff shampoo reduces dandruff within two weeks. According to the brand, the effectiveness of its products is regularly confirmed by independent institutes and dermatologically tested, though the institutes are not named [4].

Environmental claims form a large part of how the brand describes itself. The company states that its ingredients are 100 percent vegan and that its products have never been tested on animals [6]. It also says its products are climate-neutral and contain at least 90 percent ingredients of natural origin, measured under the ISO 16128 standard [4].

On packaging, the brand says its folding boxes are made from at least 85 percent recycled material and carry FSC certification. It also states that its formulas contain no microplastics and that both German production sites have run on 100 percent green electricity since 2014. Social-media tags on its website add that the products are free of parabens and silicones.

No third-party certifications for the brand itself are documented. The company says its raw materials are checked against the criteria of the Vegan Society, but it does not carry that organisation's trademark, and its climate-neutral claim names no certifying body. The quality and environmental certificates held by the parent group apply to its manufacturing sites rather than to alkmene as a brand.

The recognition documented for the brand relates to design. The company says the 1970s Badbalsam bottle was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and featured in Graphis Annual 73/74. Both points come from the brand and its parent rather than from independent records. The 2013 ÖKO-TEST portrait of Mann & Schröder, which named alkmene as the house's oldest own brand, is the main independent press coverage.

Alkmene is an active brand. Its website runs a live online shop, carries a 2026 copyright notice and includes a 2026 entry in its brand timeline. The brand posts regularly on Instagram, and its most recent new series, MEIN OLIVENÖL, was launched in 2024.