ATABA

ATABA is a small German line of everyday skin and hair care made by MM Cosmetic GmbH, a family-run company based in Anhausen in the Westerwald region of Rhineland-Palatinate. Today the range consists of three products: a calendula ointment with vitamin E, an almond cream for dry skin, and a tar-and-sulphur shampoo. They are sold mainly through health-food shops and pharmacies, along with a handful of online retailers.

The line matters more to its owner's history than its size suggests. According to MM Cosmetic, ATABA was the company's first product line, developed long before the business became known for horse care and insect repellents under the ZEDAN and BREMSENBREMSE names [2]. The company even traces its own name back to that cosmetics beginning. ATABA has no website of its own; it appears as a section of the owner's ZEDAN site, where it sits alongside fly sprays, hoof care and mane conditioners.

MM Cosmetic tells its story as a move from human skin care to horses. "Our roots lie in skin care for people," the company writes on its history page, adding that it created the ATABA care products "long before horses were even a topic" for the business [2]. That is also why the firm is called MM Cosmetic, even though most of its customers now know it for equestrian products.

No founding year for ATABA itself is given. The company says only that the line came before its insect repellent, whose trademark was registered in 1988, and its brand page states that ATABA has stood for body care "for decades" [3]. No founders are named for the brand.

The turning point in the owner's history came with ZEDAN SP, an insect repellent. The ZEDAN trademark was registered in 1988, and the company describes ZEDAN SP as the first natural insect repellent on the market at the time [2]. It was not originally meant for animals.

That changed, the company recounts, because of a veterinarian. She used ZEDAN SP to keep insects away while working outdoors at stables, then called the firm to say it worked so well on horses that it ought to be sold in a one-litre bottle. In the company's telling, that call is how it "got on the horse". Questions followed about horse skin, coat, mane and hooves, and an equestrian care range grew step by step from there.

Through these changes ATABA stayed in place as the company's human cosmetics line. Its range has stayed small. The current brand page presents the same three products, and it frames them as continuity rather than novelty: formulas that, in the company's words, have in part "proven themselves for many years".

ATABA is owned by MM Cosmetic GmbH of Anhausen, near Neuwied and Koblenz [2]. The company's legal notice names Armin Brietzke and Nikolai Piefel as managing directors [5]. A German B2B supplier directory describes MM Cosmetic as a family business with up to 20 employees and a national sales area, and states that it makes and sells mild cosmetics under the ATABA and ZEDAN brands [6].

Besides ATABA, the parent owns ZEDAN and BREMSENBREMSE. Together these cover insect repellents for horses and people, plus care products for horse skin, coat, mane and hooves. MM Cosmetic describes itself as "still a small team from the Westerwald" and says it does not develop products just to fill shelf space.

The firm's certifications belong to the horse side of the business. Almost all of its horse-care products are certified to the Natural Cosmetic Standard (NCS), according to the company [2]. No such certification is stated for the ATABA line.

ATABA presents itself through restraint. The brand page sums up what it calls the line's lasting traits as a manageable number of products, proven formulas and "a clear job for each product". It describes the range as "small" and aimed at daily care of skin and hair, and the brand page carries the line "Kosmetik mit Naturstoffen" (cosmetics with natural substances).

On ingredients, the owner speaks in measured terms. For ATABA, the company says it looks closely at what it uses, including selected raw materials from controlled organic farming. As an example, it cites the calendula extract, which it says comes from Germany and is grown, harvested and processed to organic guidelines [4]. The company says its two ranges for people, ZEDAN insect protection and ATABA care, are linked by a standard of "thought-through formulas and carefully selected ingredients". On its history page the company goes further, saying it does not aim to make every product sound as "natural" as possible, and instead chooses ingredients by what fits each product's purpose.

Outside sources describe the line differently, and in ways that do not fully agree with each other. The supplier directory states that MM Cosmetic offers only natural or near-natural products made without synthetic preservatives [6]. A German website comparing calendula ointments, however, reports that the base of the ATABA calendula ointment is petrolatum (Vaseline), which is derived from mineral oil, and that the ointment also contains wool wax, or lanolin [8]. The brand's own pages make neither an all-natural nor a preservative-free claim for ATABA; they speak only of selected organic raw materials.

The company calls its calendula ointment, the ATABA Ringelblumensalbe, a classic of the series. It pairs calendula extract from controlled organic cultivation with vitamin E and is intended, according to the brand, for the daily care of stressed skin.

The ATABA Mandelcreme, an almond cream is described by the brand as intensive care for dry and sensitive skin. The third product is the ATABA Teer-Schwefel-Shampoo, a tar-and-sulphur shampoo that the company presents for dandruff, itching and hereditary hair loss.

Calendula extract and vitamin E are the only ingredients the brand names directly. The almond and the tar and sulphur appear in product names rather than in ingredient descriptions on the brand page.

The line has been somewhat wider in the past. Gelbe Liste, a German directory of pharmaceutical and pharmacy products, lists nine products from MM Cosmetic. Among them are two ATABA mineral deodorant items, a pump spray and a refill pack, that are not part of the three-product range on the current brand page [7].

ATABA is active. Its brand page on the owner's website was updated in September 2026 and lists three current products [3]. The address ataba.de forwards visitors to the owner's ZEDAN site rather than to a separate brand site, and the social media accounts linked to the company are branded ZEDAN rather than ATABA.

The products are sold mainly through health-food shops (Reformhäuser) and pharmacies, as well as through selected online retailers [3]. The brand operates essentially as a single-country line within a company whose main business is now insect protection and equestrian care.