Droste-Laux Naturkosmetik

Droste-Laux Naturkosmetik is a German natural cosmetics company based in Augsburg. It was started in 2006 by the druggist Michael Droste-Laux together with Henning and Jan Kreke [2], and it specialises in what it calls "basische" (alkaline) natural cosmetics: skin, body and hair care set to a pH of 7.4 and built on mineral healing chalk and powdered gemstones. The products carry the founder's name on the label, sold as "Michael Droste-Laux", while the company itself trades as Droste-Laux Naturkosmetik.

The cosmetics are only one part of a wider concept. Around them the company sells alkaline bath salts, herbal teas, foods and oral care, all tied to an acid-base "deacidification" method named after Michael Droste-Laux and to the idea of beauty "from inside and out". The company describes itself as a small business that still works in a niche. It remains active, with newsletters and new products appearing in 2026.

According to the company's own account, its story began in 2006, when Michael Droste-Laux, a Drogist (druggist) and self-described specialist in acid-base balance, teamed up with Henning and Jan Kreke and persuaded them of the merits of "an alternative, an alkaline natural cosmetics". The about page frames that year as the start of a "journey" rather than a formal founding; in a 2022 magazine interview, Jan Kreke referred to 2006 directly as the company's founding year [11].

Descriptions of Michael Droste-Laux's profession differ slightly between languages. The company's German-language site calls him a Drogist, whereas an English-language customer profile published by GfaW, the organisation behind the Natural Cosmetics Standard, describes him as a chemist [12].

The founders set out, in the company's words, to "rethink beauty, cosmetics and health". Their starting point runs through all of the brand's later material: most conventional cosmetics are formulated on an acidic basis, while Droste-Laux chose to work with the chemical opposite, the base. The company points to ordinary curd soap (Kernseife), which is alkaline, as a sign that people have washed and cared for their skin with alkaline products for centuries. It says the range was developed with a great deal of commitment and attention to detail for unusual and valuable raw materials, and it describes the result as a small, carefully chosen assortment.

The company's emblem is a flying fish. On its about page, the team explains the choice: with its ideas and products it still swims against the current, and swimming with the current "does not match our nature".

In October 2022 the German sustainability magazine LifeVERDE published an interview with managing director Jan Kreke, conducted by Constanze Julita, covering alkaline natural cosmetics, the product range, certification and the company's view of sustainability. In it, Kreke said that Droste-Laux had deliberately set itself against a market that still promotes acidic cosmetics at pH 5.5. When the company started, he recalled, alkaline nutrition was already widely known, but alkaline natural cosmetics occupied an unknown niche.

In August 2025 the company announced a change of preservative across its cosmetics [10]. Its products had always been preserved with alcohol, which the company notes is common in natural cosmetics but can dry out the skin. It said it would gradually switch to magnolia extract and pentylene glycol, which it describes as equally stabilising but moisturising and kinder to the skin. The face wash cream and the face mask were to be the first products with the new formula. As of that announcement, the hand cream, face cream, toothpaste and body lotion were to follow over the coming months. Separately, the company has introduced its face wash cream with a new formula and in a new 100 ml size.

The business is run as Droste-Laux Naturkosmetik GmbH & Co. KG, a German limited partnership registered at the Augsburg local court [5]. Its general partner, the partner with full liability, is Droste-Laux Verwaltungs-GmbH, and the company is represented by Jan Kreke, who also serves as managing director. Its legal notice names no parent group, and no acquisitions or changes of ownership are documented.

Droste-Laux builds its identity around pH. The company sets its cosmetics at pH 7.4, which, according to its philosophy page, matches the pH of the healthy fluid between the body's cells. Kreke has contrasted this with the pH 5.5 widely promoted for conventional skincare. The brand's tagline, "Mehr, als nur ein Basenbad" ("More than just an alkaline bath"), points to the broader programme: deacidification, alkaline cosmetics and alkaline nutrition treated as one system.

At the centre of that system is the "Säure-Basen-Methode nach Michael Droste-Laux", the acid-base method named after the founder. It is a concept rather than a patented technology. The company argues that modern Western eating habits, stress, pressure to perform and too little sleep leave people with a daily surplus of acid. This acid, it says, is stored in the connective tissue and eventually pushed out through the skin as blemishes, spots and irritation. Its alkaline cosmetics, Droste-Laux says, work in a way similar to a healing earth, creating a pull on the skin through what it calls skin osmosis, so that acidic toxins are drawn out and neutralised "as if by blotting paper" [4]. These are the company's own explanations; no clinical testing of them is documented.

The skincare is meant to support the skin's ability to regulate itself rather than target individual skin problems. For that reason, the company says its products suit every skin type, climate and age. Kreke put it plainly in 2022: the company does not offer five different face creams, but one for everyone [11].

The brand's tone mixes naturopathy with a spiritual note. Its homepage says it draws on old naturopathic knowledge as well as the latest scientific findings, and it compares the balancing of acids and bases to the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. The stated mission is to give the body something good while flattering the soul. Kreke summed up the approach as alkaline products "with a touch of subtlety for the soul", a reference to the powdered gemstones added to the formulas.

The cosmetics rest on two mineral base ingredients: Rügen healing chalk (Rügener Heilkreide) and Swiss healing-stone powder, which the company says contains natural magnesium and calcium carbonate. A company newsletter describes healing chalk as consisting mainly of calcium carbonate with trace elements. On its homepage, Droste-Laux states that the chalk promotes cell vitality and has an anti-inflammatory and neutralising effect [1]. Micro-fine powders of aquamarine, rose quartz and rock crystal are added to round off the formulas on a "subtle" level. The leave-on products (face cream, body lotion and hand cream) also contain evening primrose oil, which the company describes as rich in linolenic and gamma-linolenic acids for the skin's barrier layer.

Body care makes up most of the range. Its central product is the Basisches Edelsteinbad, an alkaline gemstone bath salt that the company says brings bath water to between pH 8.5 and pH 9.5. It is sold in several sizes, from a single-use sachet to a 1.6 kg pack, alongside a separate sport bath salt. The body line also includes a shower cream, a deodorant cream with shea butter and Swiss stone pine oil, a hand cream, a body lotion, a relaxation fluid with essential oils and gemstone soaps, the newest of which is made with stone pine oil. Facial care consists of a single face cream, a face wash cream and a face mask, and hair care of one shampoo with almond oil.

Oral care forms a smaller line: an Ayurvedic mouth oil for oil pulling and an alkaline toothpaste, which Kreke described as tackling over-acidification "already in the mouth". Beyond cosmetics, the company sells alkaline teas and foods, among them a loose tea with 49 herbs, a deacidification tea with seven blossoms and an alkaline "Vital-Granulat". It says all herbs, seeds and fruits in these products come from certified organic farming, and that its blossom tea is of pharmacy quality.

Across the cosmetics, Droste-Laux says it uses only natural ingredients and avoids chemical dyes and fragrances, animal-derived substances, silicones and petroleum derivatives. The range is vegan and, according to the company, made in Germany and Austria.

The company's own pages differ on the wording of its certification. Its cosmetics category page, and Kreke in the 2022 interview, state that the cosmetics are certified under the Natural Cosmetics Standard (NCS) [7]. The philosophy page uses the more cautious phrase that the products "meet the NCS criteria" [3]. GfaW, the organisation behind the standard, lists the company among its customers [12].

Droste-Laux does not put sustainability at the front of its marketing. In the 2022 interview, Kreke described the goal as becoming "a little better every year", whether in social matters, recycling, packaging or resource use [11]. For its sales packaging, the company takes part in a nationwide German take-back and recycling scheme run by Recycling Dual GmbH, as required under the country's packaging law.

Droste-Laux Naturkosmetik is active. In August 2026 the company published a three-part newsletter series on alkaline topics, including a post on healthy daily habits dated 21 August 2026 [9], and in September 2026 its shop listed a gemstone soap with stone pine oil as new. The company sells through its own online shop, offered in six languages (German, English, French, Italian, Polish and Romanian), and runs a separate phone line for trade customers and resellers. It continues to describe alkaline natural cosmetics as a niche, while saying that more and more people are taking to alkaline body care.