# Dr. Armah's Lavolta ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1998 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Starnberg | | Status | Active | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.lavolta.de/ | Dr. Armah's Lavolta is a German natural skincare brand built around shea butter from Ghana. It grew out of Dr. Armah Biomedica, a family company founded by Dr. Benjamin Armah, a pharmacologist whose home country is Ghana, who launched a cream made entirely of purified shea butter in 1998 [2]. The brand still treats that cream as its foundation, and its range has since expanded into anti-ageing lines, lip care, fragrance and silicone-free make-up. The company is run today by the founder's son, Frederick Armah. It sells chiefly through its own German-language online shop and through live television shopping, and it has kept a long-standing focus on dry, sensitive skin and skin prone to eczema. Its public profile is modest: outside its own channels, the most widely cited mention is a 2014 packaging notice from Stiftung Warentest, Germany's national consumer-testing foundation [9]. ## Origin & founders Benjamin Armah is a pharmacologist with a doctorate and a postdoctoral teaching qualification. According to the company, he spent decades in senior research roles at German cosmetics companies before setting up his own family business, Dr. Armah Biomedica. The brand says he knew from his home country, Ghana, about shea butter's caring and soothing properties, and that this knowledge shaped the venture. In 1998 he brought to market a plant cream made of 100 percent shea butter. The company describes it as the first cream of its kind and says it has remained a bestseller ever since [2]. It also credits him with bringing shea butter to Germany and establishing it there. The brand's tagline, "Zeitlose Schönheit – natürlich inspiriert" ("Timeless beauty – naturally inspired"), and its slogan "Rein. Klar. Effektiv. Seit 1998." ("Pure. Clear. Effective. Since 1998.") both look back to that first product. The founder is still named in the company's legal notice, where he appears as "Priv. Doz. Dr. Ben Armah", listed as founder without authority to represent the business [3]. ## History & milestones The brand's own timeline is not fully consistent. Its "About us" page gives 1998 as the starting point and speaks of a journey that began 26 years ago, while also saying the family company was founded "more than 20 years ago" [2]. A separate page on the shea creams repeats the "26 years" figure but also carries the heading "30 Jahre Dr. Armah Biomedica – 30 Jahre Shea Butter" ("30 years of Dr. Armah Biomedica – 30 years of shea butter"), stating that the company was founded 30 years ago [6]. This article follows 1998, the only explicit year the brand gives, as the start of the brand and its first product. No calendar year is stated for the founding of Dr. Armah Biomedica itself. At some point, which the company does not date, leadership passed to the second generation. Frederick Armah now heads the family business, and the brand describes three generations of the family as involved in developing, testing and using its products. In 2014 the shea cream drew attention from Stiftung Warentest, which listed Lavolta Original Shéa Naturcreme Soft as a "Mogelpackung", a German term for slack-fill or deceptive packaging (see Controversies). The notice identified the maker as Dr. Armah-Biomedica of Hamburg and noted that the cream was then sold in pharmacies. The brand also has a live television-shopping presence. It presents its products on the German shopping channels HSE and HSE Extra, where, in the company's words, it explains the natural ingredients and properties of its products on air [4]. ## Ownership Dr. Armah's Lavolta is family-owned, and no parent group or outside investor is named. The company describes itself as a Familienunternehmen, a family business. The online shop is operated by Lavolta GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited partnership. Its general partner, Lavolta Verwaltungs GmbH, is managed by Frederick Armah. The company's base is not straightforward to pin down. Its legal notice gives an address in Starnberg as the seat of Lavolta GmbH & Co. KG. The same notice shows the partnership registered in the commercial register in Hamburg, with the general partner and its managing director also at a Hamburg address [3]. Stiftung Warentest described the manufacturer as a Hamburg company in 2014 [9]. Starnberg is therefore the current stated address, while Hamburg is the registered and historical base. No acquisitions or sister brands are documented. ## Philosophy & positioning The company says it takes nature as its model and aims to combine nature with science, a pairing it links to the founder's training in pharmacology. It frames its mission as supporting the skin's ability to regenerate and protect itself, using natural ingredients and what it calls skin-identical ingredients, meaning substances similar to those the skin produces itself. According to the brand, caring for dry, sensitive and eczema-prone skin has always been at the centre of its work. It says its formulas leave out silicones, mineral oils, colourants and synthetic preservatives [2]. On sustainability, it makes only a general statement: it says it chooses natural ingredients that are gentle on both skin and the environment. No concrete environmental targets are published. The brand groups its values under four headings: tradition and passion, quality and skin tolerance, expertise and philosophy, and transparency and honesty. Shea butter remains the brand's central ingredient. The company says its shea comes from Ghana and repeats the view that nowhere is the quality of the shea nut better than there. Its website sets out a ten-step traditional production process. Fallen nuts are collected and dried in the sun, pre-boiled, cracked open with stones, crushed, roasted, ground into a paste and kneaded with water. The mass is then boiled to remove impurities, and the oil is skimmed off and slowly cooled while being stirred. ## Products & innovation The two original products are the Shéa Naturcremes. Shéa Naturcreme Classic is made of 100 percent purified shea butter with vitamin E. The brand describes it as a long-lasting moisturiser for very dry patches on the face and body. Shéa Naturcreme Soft uses the same base in a softer texture. The company presents it as especially gentle and suitable for very dry skin and for skin affected by atopic eczema or psoriasis [6]. It describes the pure shea creams as free of added preservatives, colourants and fragrances. Around these creams the brand has built a series of care lines, most of them aimed at the face: - **Lavolta Shéa**, a fragrance-free daily line for sensitive and dry skin, combining shea butter and vitamin E with evening primrose oil and centella asiatica, a plant extract. - **Shéa Intensiv**, an anti-ageing formula for mature, sensitive skin with edelweiss, centella asiatica, shea butter and what the brand calls four-fold hyaluronic acid. - **Vitamin Power**, which pairs vitamins A, E and C; the company says the combination stimulates the skin's collagen production and has a firming effect. - **Q10 Power**, built on a coenzyme Q10 complex that the brand says protects against free radicals and visibly reduces wrinkles. - **Ocean**, a marine line featuring an extract of wakame seaweed. - **Parakresse**, an anti-ageing line using extract of paracress, a plant that contains the compound spilanthol. - **Edelweiss**, **Aloe** and **Pfingstrose** (peony), further lines for moisture and for visible signs of ageing. Other lines include Spa, Lipps for lip care and Natural Perfect Teint, which the company says is shown to firm the skin [5]. Natural Finish extends the brand into make-up, described as silicone-free decorative cosmetics with aloe vera and jojoba oil. The online shop also lists fragrance and hair care, as well as sets and an outlet section. Several of these descriptions include effect claims, such as collagen stimulation, visible wrinkle reduction and firming. These are the company's own statements. No third-party certifications, and no vegan or cruelty-free statements, are documented for the brand. ## Controversies On 30 January 2014, Stiftung Warentest published a short "Mogelpackung" notice on Lavolta Original Shéa Naturcreme Soft [9]. The foundation reported that more than 40 of the cream's jars would fit into its folding carton, yet the carton held a single small jar. It also noted that the large outer box carried hardly more information than the jar inside. ## Current status Dr. Armah's Lavolta is active. Its online shop is operating, and in September 2026 the brand listed live broadcasts on HSE Extra on 11, 17 and 19 September [4]. The business remains in the hands of the Armah family, led by Frederick Armah. The brand also maintains accounts on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1998 | Dr. Benjamin Armah brings a 100% shea butter plant cream to market (brand wording: 'die erste 100%-ige Pflanzencreme aus Sheabutter'); still described by the brand as a bestseller. | https://www.lavolta.de/pages/brand | | 2026 | Live TV-shopping broadcasts of Dr. Armah's Lavolta on HSE Extra listed for 11, 17 and 19 September 2026. | https://www.lavolta.de/pages/sendezeiten | | — | Leadership of the family company passed to the founder's son Frederick Armah (second generation); year not stated. | https://www.lavolta.de/pages/naturcremes | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Shéa Naturcreme Classic** — 100 % gereinigter Sheabutter mit Vitamin E. Sie entspannt und fördert die Regenerationsfähigkeit sehr trockener Hautstellen im Gesicht sowie am ganzen Körper und versorgt die Haut langanhaltend mit Feuchtigkeit. — https://www.lavolta.de/pages/naturcremes - **Shéa Naturcreme Soft** — Diese besonders hautverträgliche, natürliche Soft Hautcreme aus 100 % gereinigter Sheabutter mit Vitamin E ist für sehr trockene Haut sowie Problemhaut wie Neurodermitis und Psoriasis eine echte Wohltat. — https://www.lavolta.de/pages/naturcremes ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Sheabutter (shea butter from Ghana) · Vitamin E · Nachtkerzenöl (evening primrose oil) · Centella Asiatica · Edelweiss-Extrakt · Hyaluron (4-fach) · Aloe Vera · Wakame-Alge Source: https://www.lavolta.de/pages/pflegelinien ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Stiftung Warentest (test.de)** (2014) — 'Mogelpackung' (slack-fill packaging) notice on Lavolta Original Shéa Naturcreme Soft from 'der Firma Dr. Armah-Biomedica aus Hamburg'; also notes that 10 ml cost 5 euros in pharmacies. — https://www.test.de/Mogelpackung-Lavolta-Original-Shea-Naturcreme-Soft-4660881-0/ ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.lavolta.de/pages/brand 3. (T2) https://www.lavolta.de/policies/legal-notice 4. (T2) https://www.lavolta.de/pages/sendezeiten 5. (T2) https://www.lavolta.de/pages/pflegelinien 6. (T2) https://www.lavolta.de/pages/naturcremes 9. (T3) https://www.test.de/Mogelpackung-Lavolta-Original-Shea-Naturcreme-Soft-4660881-0/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-09-30 Please cite with a link to the article URL.