Dr. Baumann

Dr. Baumann is a skincare brand created by a physician and a chemist, who founded Dr. Baumann Cosmetic GmbH in January 1990 [7]. Today the Dr. Baumann name, together with the SkinIdent, Dr. Baumann MakeUP, Dr. Baumann bionomeSPA and BeauCaire marks, belongs to SkinIdent AG, a company registered in Freienbach in the Swiss canton of Schwyz [11]. The range covers face and body care, a wellness line and decorative cosmetics, and is sold only through beauty salons and spa resorts rather than in shops.

The brand is built around what it calls "bionome" quality: formulas without preservatives, perfume or mineral oils, based instead on ingredients that occur naturally in human skin. It is unrelated to the American dermatologist Leslie Baumann and her Miami-based skin-type and research business.

According to the company's own history, the idea began with Dr. Ernst W. Henrich, a doctor who in the 1980s worked with beauty salons, among other things treating wrinkles with fillers. Looking at the creams sold in salons, pharmacies, perfumeries and health-food shops, he concluded that none met the standards he expected as a doctor with a dermatological and naturopathic outlook. He wanted a chemist who could turn his concepts into finished products.

He found one at a chemists' conference in Heidelberg in 1988, where he met Dr. Thomas Baumann. After two years of developing the first products together, the two men founded Dr. Baumann Cosmetic GmbH in January 1990 [7]. The brand carries the chemist's name. Both founders are still described as the owners of SkinIdent AG, and Henrich is listed as the person authorised to represent the company in its legal notice.

From the start, the company says, its products were sold only through qualified beauty salons, where a trained cosmetician would analyse the customer's skin before recommending anything. Its first rules for formulation were short: no perfume or fragrances, no parabens or other preservatives, and no mineral oils, the first two because they rank among the most common triggers of skin allergies.

The founders then turned to the question of which ingredients to use. Their answer was substances the body already produces, which they describe as "skin-identical" and which, in their view, rarely provoke allergies. The company presents 2003 as its breakthrough year, when after more than 15 years of research it launched SkinIdent, which it calls the world's first and only skincare line made solely from body-identical substances and vitamins [7]. That claim comes from the manufacturer and has not been independently assessed.

Over time the founders added ethical criteria to the dermatological ones. The company history describes a gradual change in the owners' thinking that led them to rule out ingredients from slaughtered animals and to cut unnecessary packaging. In May 2007 the then Dr. Baumann Cosmetic GmbH received a PETA Progress Award in the category of most animal-friendly cosmetics brand [9].

The brand's marks are held by SkinIdent AG, which is entered in the commercial register of the canton of Schwyz [11]. The founding company was Dr. Baumann Cosmetic GmbH; whether that company was renamed, merged into SkinIdent AG or still exists separately is not publicly documented. SkinIdent AG also owns BeauCaire, a line for young skin, which is marketed alongside the Dr. Baumann products.

Sources give a mixed picture of the brand's national identity. The owner's legal notice places the company in Switzerland [11], while the company's history shows its three production plants in Siegen, Germany [7]. Its development work is also described as taking place in its own laboratories, with manufacturing in its own plants.

SkinIdent AG sets out its outlook in a corporate philosophy that is openly critical of the cosmetics industry. It argues that the sector has long lived on advertising illusions, with each new fashion promising a breakthrough in rejuvenation even though the skin's needs do not change. Elaborate packaging, in the company's words, adds cost without improving the cream inside. It names three criteria instead: tolerability, effectiveness, and an ethical commitment to animals and the environment.

The word "bionome" is the brand's answer to the loosely defined label "natural cosmetics". It is taken from "bionomy", a dictionary term for the science of the laws of life, and is meant to signal a set of fixed rules rather than a general appeal to nature. The company points out that natural substances such as fragrances and essential oils can themselves cause allergies, and it criticises the practice of describing synthetic preservatives as "nature-identical". What matters, in its view, is whether the skin's own immune cells recognise a substance as part of the body.

The published list of bionome criteria, repeated by stockists, describes the products as free of parabens and all other preservatives, free of perfume, fragrances and essential oils, vegan, free of mineral oils and sold without unnecessary outer packaging, with a shelf life of more than 30 months [2]. The owner qualifies one of these points. A footnote on its own site states that essential oils used in some special products for particular purposes are labelled as the law requires [7], and the Dr. Baumann range includes a category of essential oils such as neroli, lavender and rose. Fragrance-free is therefore the general principle of the range rather than a rule for every product.

The products are grouped into five lines. SkinIdent is presented as the most advanced; the classic Dr. Baumann line is described as "healthy skincare of a special kind"; BeauCaire is aimed at young skin; bionomeSPA is a wellness line; and MakeUP is a decorative range designed to match the care products. The SkinIdent line alone runs from ampoules, eye care and cleansing to masks, hair care, body care and sun care, while the wider Dr. Baumann line extends to baby and children's care, men's care, sun and solarium products and food supplements.

Two ideas recur across the range. The first is the skin-identical ingredient. Product literature states that SkinIdent contains none of the substances listed as allergy triggers in a 2004 study by the IVDK, a network of German dermatology clinics, carried out for the German Federal Environment Agency [5]. The second is the multi-layer liposome, a tiny fat-based capsule built from skin-identical lipids. The company says these liposomes can carry vitamins and other active ingredients into the skin and raise its moisture content within a very short time [8]. Formulas also draw on vitamins and extracts of plant oils.

The brand's stance on animal testing is unusual. SkinIdent AG says it has never carried out or commissioned animal tests, yet it deliberately does not advertise its products as "not tested on animals" [7]. The founders argue that almost every cosmetic ingredient has been tested on animals at some point somewhere, so calling a product free of animal testing would be dishonest and misleading. The company also notes that animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in Germany since 1998.

For this reason no cruelty-free certification is claimed; the 2007 PETA prize is an award rather than a certification. The owner's history describes SkinIdent AG as one of the main sponsors of PETA and as a funder of a youth prize run by the Vegeterra foundation. On the environmental side, its main stated commitment is to leave out secondary cartons around jars and bottles.

Dr. Baumann is active. As of 2026, SkinIdent AG maintains a website for the brand in several European languages, lists its current product lines and invites wholesalers to take over distribution in individual countries. Sales continue to run exclusively through beauty salons and spa resorts, where customers are expected to receive a skin analysis and advice before buying [6].