# M. Gebhardt ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1986 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Wessobrunn | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Kloster Wessobrunn, Wessobrunn, Germany (in-house manufactory) | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ | M. Gebhardt is a German natural skincare brand, sold under the full name Martina Gebhardt Naturkosmetik. Martina Gebhardt founded the company in 1986, and its creams, cleansers and body products are made today in an in-house manufactory at Kloster Wessobrunn, a historic monastery complex in Bavaria that the founder bought in 2014. The brand is closely tied to biodynamic farming. In 2010 its entire range was certified by Demeter, which Wikipedia describes as a first for any cosmetics company worldwide [9]. It is made by MG Naturkosmetik GmbH, which also produces a sister line, SENSISANA Naturkosmetik. Since 2023 the founder's son, Michael Spring, has managed the company, and the brand remains active. ## Origin & founders Martina Gebhardt was born in Munich in 1959 and trained as an architect. Her interest in skincare began, by her own account, with an accident in early childhood. In a 2018 portrait published by Demeter, the biodynamic certification association, she recalled hugging a neighbour's dog at the age of three. The dog bit her and left a scar on her cheek. As a teenager she came across a salve that helped, watched how it was made, and then began buying raw materials from the pharmacist to mix creams of her own [10]. A feature in the German magazine mint describes that salve as one based on natural wool wax, an ingredient that still forms part of the base of many of the brand's creams. The creams were a private business long before they were a company. Gebhardt told the sustainability magazine LifeVERDE in 2018 that she had been making natural cosmetics and selling them among people she knew for years, and that she officially founded her company in 1986, after finishing her architecture studies [11]. According to the German Wikipedia article about her, she registered Martina-Gebhardt-Naturkosmetik as a limited company (GmbH) in Issing in October 1986 [9]. The Demeter portrait adds another chapter to her life story. Gebhardt spent six years in Taos, New Mexico, rebuilding "Old Martina's Hall", an adobe building around 230 years old. Her training as an architect and her cosmetics business came together again decades later, when she bought a historic monastery to house the company. ## History & milestones From the start, the formulas were built around plant oils, waxes and herbal extracts. The step that set the company apart came in 2010, when Gebhardt had the whole range certified by Demeter. Demeter is the label for biodynamic agriculture, an organic farming method based on a course of lectures Rudolf Steiner gave in 1924, which also takes the movements of the sun and moon into account when sowing and harvesting. Wikipedia records the brand as the first cosmetics company in the world to have its complete range Demeter-certified [9], and Gebhardt made the same point in her LifeVERDE interview. The company's own certificates page goes a step further. It states that the company is the only natural-cosmetics maker worldwide offering 100 percent of its products in Demeter quality [4]. No independent source confirms the "only" claim; the "first" claim is the one supported by third parties. In 2014 Gebhardt bought Kloster Wessobrunn [10]. The company moved its headquarters there, and production followed. The brand now describes its skincare as made in its own manufactory on the monastery grounds. Demeter's member directory mentions a biodynamic monastery garden that supplies medicinal plants. According to the company, the grounds also have three artesian springs, wells where water rises to the surface under its own natural pressure, and one of them supplies the water for its plant essences. The size of the business has been reported at a few points. The 2018 Demeter portrait counted more than 140 products and around 60 employees [10]. Wikipedia gives figures for 2021: about 140 products, 35 employees and annual revenue of five million euros [9]. The two staff figures refer to different years and may not cover the same scope of operations. In 2023 the founder's son, Michael Spring, born in 1995, took over management of the company [9]. The company presents the handover as a milestone that keeps its values within the family. Spring has said he practically grew up with the business and could picture himself running it from an early age. Gebhardt, for her part, said she was glad her son would continue her life's work, noting that not every founder manages a succession within the family. In 2026, the year the company marks 40 years since its founding, its online shop moved to a new system with a refreshed design. ## Ownership The brand is produced by MG Naturkosmetik GmbH, which the company's website names as its operating company and describes as having made natural cosmetics for more than 30 years [2]. The same firm makes a second line, SENSISANA Naturkosmetik. According to mint, SENSISANA is positioned as a premium line that uses spring water from the monastery; it is organised into its own care systems, named KAMELIE, MARITIM and KALMUS, alongside a range of facial oils. Company names differ between sources. Demeter's member directory still lists the business as Martina Gebhardt Naturkosmetik GmbH, under an older web address [13], while the current brand website uses MG Naturkosmetik GmbH. Wikipedia refers to the original firm as Martina-Gebhardt-Naturkosmetik and to the business Spring now runs as MG Kosmetik. No available source states whether or when a formal change of company name took place. Wikipedia also notes that Gebhardt herself has owned Kloster Wessobrunn since 2014. No sale of the company to an outside group is documented, and management passed within the founding family in 2023. ## Philosophy & positioning The company's guiding motto is "Lieber schöner Sein, statt schöner Schein", a German play on words that roughly means it is better to be beautiful than merely to appear so. The brand describes its aim as creating a harmonious and original balance between skin and nature, through natural ingredients and long-term business relationships. Its website calls Martina Gebhardt a pioneer of the organic sector. M. Gebhardt presents its approach as a return to older knowledge. Its website traces the word "cosmetics" to the Greek kosmos, meaning order and harmony. It points to recipes from ancient Egypt as evidence that creams and salves could be made long before synthetic preservatives, emulsifiers and perfumes existed. It also credits Benedictine monks and nuns with preserving centuries of knowledge about medicinal herbs, and says this tradition feeds into its own production. In practice, the formulas rest on a base of plant oils, wool wax and beeswax. To this the company adds herbal extracts, essential oils and its own spagyric essences, described below. It calls its recipes authentic and minimalist. Gebhardt told LifeVERDE that a deliberately limited number of ingredients keeps the creams pure and easy on the skin. In the same interview she said the products contain no preservatives yet keep for at least eighteen months, because they are filled into opal glass jars and bottles that protect them from light and germs [11]. Sources differ slightly on emulsifiers, the ingredients that bind oil and water into a cream. Wikipedia states that Gebhardt uses neither surfactants (cleansing agents) nor emulsifiers. The brand, by contrast, explains that beeswax, honey and wool fat serve as natural emulsifiers in many of its creams. The two statements agree on the absence of synthetic emulsifiers. Sourcing and production are central to how the company describes itself. It says its ingredients come mainly from Demeter or certified organic farming, and the Demeter portrait puts the share from those sources at more than 95 percent, with all raw materials of natural origin. Under Demeter's cosmetics rules, at least 66 percent of ingredients must come from biodynamic farming and the rest must be organic. The company lists biodynamic production, local manufacturing in its own workshop and environmentally friendly packaging among its quality principles. It also states that ingredients such as polyethylene glycol (PEG), silicones, parabens, synthetic fragrances, paraffins and other petroleum products are excluded. ## Products & innovation The range covers face and body care. It includes cleansers, toners, light face lotions and richer creams, eye care, peels, masks, lip care, body lotions, hand and foot care, products for babies and children, and a men's line. Products are grouped into lines named after a key ingredient or purpose, including HAPPY AGING, ROSE, GINSENG, SHEABUTTER, YOUNG & ACTIVE, TASSILO LINDE, ALOE VERA, SUMMER TIME, HAND & NAIL, HAPPY FEET, BABY & KIDS and WILD UTAH, the men's range. The mint feature also mentions serums, facial oils, plastic-free peels and a vegan dental care range. Among the products the company highlights as customer favourites are the ROSE cream, which it describes as a soothing, rich face cream for dry and sensitive skin; the SHEABUTTER cream for very sensitive, dry skin; the GINSENG cream for mature skin; and the HAPPY AGING face lotion, a lighter formula for mature skin. Its ingredient guide focuses on medicinal and garden plants, among them chamomile, calendula, damask rose, sage, aloe vera, cowslip, pomegranate, ginseng and baobab. The brand's most distinctive technique is spagyrics, a traditional herbal method that the company traces to the Orient and the Himalayan cultures and links to Paracelsus, whom it names as one of the founders of the method. The name combines Greek words for "to separate" and "to unite". Plant material is both distilled and burned to ash; the salts from the ash are dissolved and crystallised repeatedly until they are pure, and are then recombined with the distillate to form an essence. M. Gebhardt makes its own spagyric essences using mineral-rich water from the monastery's artesian spring. Not every product is vegan. The company says many of its creams contain beeswax, honey or wool fat, while all of its toners, lotions, cleansers, masks and oils, as well as its dental care series, contain no ingredients of animal origin [4]. Two certifications appear on the products. The Demeter label covers the whole Martina Gebhardt Naturkosmetik line. Both lines also carry the "Hase mit schützender Hand" (rabbit with a protective hand) seal of the IHTN, a German association of manufacturers of natural cosmetics that are not tested on animals. The seal was introduced in 1979 as an internationally registered trademark and requires that products are made without animal testing and contain no raw materials for which an animal was killed or harmed. A separate COSMOS Natural certification applies only to the SENSISANA line. ## Recognition The company lists a series of "sehr gut" (very good) ratings from ÖKO-TEST, in issues published between 2019 and 2025 [4]. Rated products include the HAPPY AGING cream and HAND & NAIL hand cream in 2019, the ROSE cleanser and CALENDULA cream in 2020, the ROSE cream in 2021, the GINSENG cream and BAOBAB foot bath in 2022, and the CALENDULA cream for baby skin in issue 02/2025. It also lists three products as winners of a Green Award in 2022: the CALENDULA super protect baby care, the SHEABUTTER cleanser and the EYE CARE cream. The founder and her company have been the subject of features in the German press. Demeter's own journal profiled Gebhardt in November 2018 under the title "Die Wurzelsucherin" (The Root Seeker); as the certifier of her products, Demeter is not a fully independent observer. LifeVERDE published an interview with her in July 2018, and mint magazine ran a feature on the company's production at the monastery. ## Current status M. Gebhardt is active. The company has been run by Michael Spring since 2023, with production and headquarters at Kloster Wessobrunn. Its website, available in German and English, relaunched on a new shop system in 2026, and the most recent ÖKO-TEST rating it lists dates from early 2025. October 2026 marks 40 years since the company's founding. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1986 | Martina Gebhardt founded Martina-Gebhardt-Naturkosmetik as a GmbH in Issing (October 1986). | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Gebhardt | | 2010 | Entire range Demeter-certified; Wikipedia and LifeVERDE describe it as the first cosmetics company worldwide to achieve this. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Gebhardt | | 2014 | Martina Gebhardt bought Kloster Wessobrunn; the company moved its headquarters and manufacturing there. | https://www.demeter.de/die-wurzelsucherin | | 2022 | Three products (CALENDULA super protect, SHEABUTTER cleanser, EYE CARE cream) listed by the brand as Green Award 2022 winners. | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2023 | Founder's son Michael Spring took over management of the company. | https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Gebhardt | | 2026 | Online shop relaunched on a new system (homepage relaunch notice; footer © 2026). | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ | ## Certifications {#belagg-certifications} - **Demeter** — “100% unserer Produkte sind Demeter-zertifiziert” — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate - **Ihtn Hase MIT Schuetzender Hand** — “Das Siegel "Hase mit der schützenden Hand", auf das auch MG Naturkosmetik vertraut, wird vom Internationalen Herstellerverband tierschutzgeprüfte Naturkosmetik, Kosmetik und Naturwaren e.V. (IHTN) vergeben” — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate ## Awards {#belagg-awards} | Year | Awards | Category | Source | |---|---|---|---| | 2022 | Green Award 2022 | CALENDULA super protect (baby care) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2022 | Green Award 2022 | SHEABUTTER cleanser (sensitive skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2022 | Green Award 2022 | EYE CARE cream (eye care) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2025 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | CALENDULA Cream, issue 02/2025 (baby skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2022 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | GINSENG cream, issue 02/2022 (tired skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2022 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | BAOBAB foot bath, issue 02/2022 | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2021 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | ROSE Cream, issue 02/2021 (dry skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2021 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | SUMMER TIME face & body after sun, July 2021 issue | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2021 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | CALENDULA body oil, Spezial Schwangerschaft & Geburt 2021 | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2020 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | ROSE cleanser, issue 10/2020 (dry skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2020 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | CALENDULA cream, issue 10/2020 (dry, sensitive skin) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2019 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | HAPPY AGING cream, issue 8/2019 (skin over 30) | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | | 2019 | ÖKO-TEST rating 'sehr gut' | HAND & NAIL hand cream, issue 10/2019 | https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **ROSE cream** — Beruhigende, harmonisierende und reichhaltige Gesichtscreme für trockene und empfindliche Haut. — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ - **SHEABUTTER cream** — Milde und reichhaltige Gesichtscreme für sehr sensible und trockene Haut. — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ - **GINSENG cream** — Vitalisierende und reichhaltige Gesichtscreme für anspruchsvolle, reife und regenerationsbedürftige Haut. — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ - **HAPPY AGING face lotion** — Regenerierende Gesichtspflege für reife und anspruchsvolle Haut in leichter Formulierung. — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/ - **SALVIA Creme (founder's first cream)** — Her first cream, the SALVIA Creme, still exists today in nearly unchanged form and contains lanolin (wool wax) as a key ingredient for scar treatment. — https://www.mint-magazine.de/naturkosmetik-aus-dem-kloster/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Damask rose (Rosa damascena) · Calendula (Calendula officinalis) · Sage (Salvia officinalis) · Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) · Ginseng (Panax ginseng) · Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis) · Cowslip (Primula veris) · Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Source: https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/wirkstofflexikon ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - In-house spagyric essences (spagyrische Essenzen) made with water from an artesian spring on the Kloster Wessobrunn grounds — https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/qualitaetsmerkmale ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **Demeter Journal (Demeter e.V.)** (2018) — Founder portrait 'Die Wurzelsucherin' (19 Nov 2018): founding story, 2010 Demeter certification, 2014 purchase of Kloster Wessobrunn, 140+ products, ~30 export countries. Note: published by the brand's certifier. — https://www.demeter.de/die-wurzelsucherin - **LifeVERDE** (2018) — Interview with Martina Gebhardt by Gessica Mirra (24.07.2018): 1986 founding, preservative-free formulas, opal-glass packaging, move to Wessobrunn. — https://www.lifeverde.de/nachhaltigkeitsmagazin/gruene-wirtschaft/naturkosmetik-von-martina-gebhardt-seit-1986 - **mint Magazin** — Feature 'Naturkosmetik aus dem Kloster' on production at Kloster Wessobrunn and the founder's first SALVIA cream. Publication date not captured. — https://www.mint-magazine.de/naturkosmetik-aus-dem-kloster/ ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/our-story 4. (T2) https://www.mg-naturkosmetik.de/pages/zertifikate 9. (T3) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martina_Gebhardt 10. (T3) https://www.demeter.de/die-wurzelsucherin 11. (T3) https://www.lifeverde.de/nachhaltigkeitsmagazin/gruene-wirtschaft/naturkosmetik-von-martina-gebhardt-seit-1986 13. (T4) https://www.demeter.de/betriebe/martina-gebhardt-naturkosmetik-gmbh --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-01 Please cite with a link to the article URL.