Combinal

Combinal is an Austrian cosmetics brand specialising in professional eyelash and eyebrow tinting, lash lifting and brow treatments. It was founded in Vienna in 1947 by the chemists Dr. Pauli and Dr. Olbrich, and is today a trademark of the Viennese skincare company Dr. Temt [3]. The brand remains active, manufactured in small batches at its long-standing Vienna premises and distributed to salons across Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The company's catalogue is aimed chiefly at salon and spa professionals rather than at consumers, a positioning reflected in its product range of tints, developers, lifting lotions and accessories sold for treatment-room use.

According to Combinal's own account, the brand began in post-war Vienna, when Austrian women were said to be seeking affordable ways to look and feel better. Its first formulation was not a cosmetic at all: the company describes it as a permanent dye created to transform the greyish-brown rabbit fur of cheap jacket collars into something resembling expensive dark furs [3]. The chemists Dr. Pauli and Dr. Olbrich developed that dye, and the formula was later refined for what the brand calls high-end lash and brow tinting [3].

Combinal places its founding in 1947 [3]; a search snippet recorded elsewhere gives 1948, though the company's own site consistently states 1947.

In 1975, Dr. Dieter Temt acquired the brand and changed its direction, adopting what the parent company calls a "from expert to expert" philosophy and developing formulas specifically for skincare professionals rather than consumers [6]. Under his ownership the business grew into an international operation, and Combinal remains a trademark of Dr. Temt.

A further transition came in 2015, when Dr. Dieter Temt transferred ownership to a new team of younger experts. According to Dr. Temt, this group worked with Dr. Sven Gohla, formerly head of research and development at La Prairie, to shape the company's next phase while keeping its stated focus on science-led, high-performance, handmade products [6]. The new ownership also moved the brand toward consumer accessibility, introducing a home-care collection intended, in the company's words, to deliver "expert care at home" [6].

Combinal's core product is its eyebrow and eyelash tint, supplied in 15 ml tubes in six shades — Black, Blue-Black, Blue, Brown, Auburn Brown and Graphite — alongside kits, a developer and a lash and brow cleanser [5]. The brand states that a tint lasts roughly four to six weeks and describes the formula as water-based, suitable for contact-lens wearers and quick to apply [5].

The range extends into lash and brow lifting, hybrid brow tinting and a home-care line of boosters and serums. Several products are built around named ingredients: a keratin-based serum the company markets as Keralash, a Velvet Lashes formula combining castor oil with daikon seed extract, and a brow-lifting formula that includes aloe vera. Across its consumer-facing materials the brand uses the tagline "The science of self care."

Its professional orientation is echoed by third-party distributors. The UK supplier Ellisons describes Combinal as offering "a complete range of professional eyelash tints, brow tints and accessories" for salon use, supporting lash tinting, lash lifting and brow lamination [7]. A US distributor markets the tint under a "professional use only" designation [8].

Combinal's products are made in Vienna. The parent company states that all items are handmade in small batches in-house at the Vienna headquarters on Sautergasse 21, where it says the company has operated for its entire history of more than seventy years [6]. The brand summarises this with the phrase "Handmade in Vienna."

Sources are not unanimous on the brand's nationality. Combinal's own site and its parent company Dr. Temt both place the brand in Vienna, Austria [3], and its contact address uses the Austrian drtemt.at domain. One US distributor, however, refers to a "German formula" [8] — a description inconsistent with the brand's own account and most likely a simplification or error rather than a record of German origin.

Combinal is active. It maintains a current product catalogue, including the hybrid tints and home-care line introduced after the 2015 ownership change, and is distributed across the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. No English-language Wikipedia article exists for the brand or for its parent company, which is consistent with its standing as a professional, salon-focused business rather than a consumer-facing one.