Merme

Merme, styled by the company as MERME Berlin, is a German skincare brand based in Berlin and operated by MERME GmbH [7]. It was started by the Australian-born Claire Ralston, who dates the brand's beginning to her move to Berlin in 2014 [2]. What began as a single facial oil made from rosehip has grown into a compact line of face serums, creams, cleansers, mists and oils built around the idea of short ingredient lists.

The brand first drew attention in the Berlin beauty press of the late 2010s as a maker of single-ingredient plant oils. In the mid-2020s it shifted its emphasis towards active ingredients such as vitamin C and retinal, and redesigned its range and packaging. The brand is active and sells through its own online shop.

Claire Ralston grew up in Australia. According to the company's own account, the story behind the brand starts on a cattle station in northern New South Wales, a region the brand associates with tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil and aloe vera. Ralston's grandmother Mary lived there. In the founder's telling, Mary made everything herself, knew every plant in her garden and what it could be used for. The founder calls her a pioneer of minimalist skincare. Mary's nickname was Merme, and Ralston named the brand after her.

Ralston studied at the Australian College of Natural Beauty before deciding to work in the beauty industry. The company says that when she moved to Berlin in 2014 she could not find the rosehip oil she had been using, and took this as the prompt to make her own. That oil became the first product. Ralston has framed the brand's guiding idea as something she learned from her grandmother: skincare reduced to the essentials, without giving up effectiveness.

The founding year is reported differently across sources. The company ties the birth of the brand to 2014 [2], and a 2025 feature in Tush Magazine also states that Ralston founded it that year [12]. Glamour Germany, writing in November 2020, gave the founding year as 2016 [9]. Sleek Magazine, in June 2017, described Ralston as having launched her line of single-element oils "this year" [13], which may refer to the first public product launch rather than the start of the company. This article follows the company's date of 2014.

In its early years the brand was known for single-ingredient oils. Sleek Magazine's 2017 round-up of Berlin beauty described its signature product, the Facial Beauty Elixir, as 100 percent cold-pressed rosehip oil. The magazine noted the brown bottles and pink labels of the early packaging, and said the line had quickly built a following among beauty bloggers. At the time the products were stocked at Treat Collection Loft, a Berlin salon that carried several local brands.

The range then widened beyond facial oil. According to Harper's Bazaar Germany, Ralston launched an eye oil called Advanced Eye Therapy in 2018 [10], based on cold-pressed prickly pear oil. By late 2020, Glamour Germany reported that the range had grown to more than ten skincare products.

A larger change came in 2025. Tush Magazine reported that year on a redesign of the brand, covering a revised product range and new packaging in milky glass [12]. New products introduced around this time included the Milky Drops Face Moisturiser, the More Moisture Face Serum and a stainless-steel gua sha, a flat facial massage tool. The feature presented the relaunch under the heading "Simplicity is Queen" and quoted Ralston on her approach.

By 2026 the brand's homepage was promoting a new Day & Night Duo that pairs a vitamin C serum for the morning with a retinal serum for the evening.

Merme is run by MERME GmbH, a private company registered in Berlin, with Claire Ralston as managing director. No parent company or outside group owner is documented, and there is no known history of acquisitions. The brand operates as a small independent business.

Minimalism sits at the centre of how Merme presents itself. Its tagline is "Maximum effect. Minimal ingredients." The company describes its mission as combining maximum effectiveness with optimal skin compatibility. Its reasoning is that fewer ingredients can mean fewer potential irritants, which it says makes its formulas suitable even for very sensitive skin.

Merme says all of its formulas are free from fragrance and are dermatologically tested, and that it works with clinically tested active ingredients [4]. It also describes its ingredient lists as among the shortest on the market, a claim that comes from the brand itself. To help shoppers choose, the website offers a quiz that matches routines to skin types, and a glossary that explains each ingredient it uses in plain terms.

Independent coverage has placed the brand within several wider beauty trends. Tush Magazine linked it to minimalist skincare, sometimes called "skinimalism", as well as to clean beauty and natural cosmetics. The same 2025 feature stated that the formulas are vegan and made without perfume, silicones or synthetic preservatives [12]. Glamour Germany included the brand in a 2020 list of vegan beauty labels from Germany. No explicit vegan or cruelty-free statement appears on the brand's own pages, and no third-party certifications from bodies such as Leaping Bunny, COSMOS or NATRUE are documented.

The brand's positioning has moved over time. In 2017 it was described as a line of natural, single-ingredient oils. By 2025 and 2026 its range had become a set of targeted serums and creams built on specific active ingredients, while keeping the short-formula idea.

The original product was the Facial Beauty Elixir, a pure cold-pressed rosehip oil. The eye oil Advanced Eye Therapy followed in 2018. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar Germany, Ralston argued that a pure oil contains fewer ingredients than a cream, so irritation and redness occur less often. She added that the skin around the eyes is more sensitive than elsewhere, and that an oil supports the skin's natural barrier better than a cream does.

The current range centres on face serums. The Super Stable C Face Serum is built around vitamin C, and the New by Morning Retinal Face Serum around retinal. The two are sold together as the Day & Night Duo. The More Moisture Face Serum contains ectoin, an ingredient the company says protects the skin from environmental stress and calms sensitive skin. Other products include the Pore & Line Refine Serum, the Gentle Barrier Face Cream, the Glowing Guard Face Oil, the Fresh Dew Face Mist, an Antioxidant Mist with Rose Quartz and the Delicate Dissolve Face Cleanser. Several items are also sold as sets.

The ingredient glossary on the brand's website lists, among others, bakuchiol, a plant-based alternative to retinol; niacinamide; ceramide NP, a lipid that supports the skin barrier; the peptide cyclohexpeptide-90; and bifida ferment lysate, a probiotic-derived ingredient. Tush Magazine also highlighted peptides and ceramides in the newer formulas.

Product images on the brand's website in 2026 show a Dermatest "Sehr gut" ("very good") seal dated 2026 [1]. Dermatest is a dermatological testing seal, not an ethical or organic certification. The site also has an "Organic Essentials" collection, but no organic certification is documented.

Glamour Germany reported in 2020 that Merme's jars and bottles were made from recycled glass, and that the brand used cotton bags in place of cardboard packaging [9]. The magazine also said that Ralston considered it as important that her products did no harm to the environment as that they were good for the skin. These details predate the 2025 packaging redesign, which moved to milky glass. For deliveries within Germany, the company says its standard shipping uses DHL's GoGreen service.

Merme has no documented awards, but it has received steady coverage in German-language fashion and beauty magazines. Sleek Magazine profiled it in 2017 as part of a guide to Berlin beauty brands. In January 2019, both Harper's Bazaar Germany and Grazia Germany featured its Advanced Eye Therapy in articles about eye oils, with Grazia presenting it as an option for early signs of ageing and dark circles [14]. Glamour Germany named the brand among vegan beauty labels from Germany in 2020, and Tush Magazine ran a feature on its relaunch in 2025.

Merme is active. As of October 2026 its online shop was live and promoting the new Day & Night Duo, with products carrying 2026-dated test seals [1]. The company sells mainly through its own webshop, and has also been stocked by third-party retailers; its website includes a store finder. According to its FAQ, it ships to most EU countries as well as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Claire Ralston continues to lead the company from Berlin.