# Sober ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 2017 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Berlin | | Status | Active | | Manufacturing | Southern Germany (cosmetics and perfume, family-run manufacturers), Berlin (accessories) | | Distribution | Multi-channel | | Website | https://www.soberberlin.com/ | Sober is a German skincare and fragrance brand based in Berlin. It was founded in 2017 by Simon Schier and Philipp Roth, two entrepreneurs who had run earlier start-ups together and were dissatisfied with the skincare available to men [10]. The company, which styles its name in lower case as "sober" and also trades as SOBER Berlin, began with a single face cream for men and has since grown into a broader line of face care, haircare, soaps and eau de parfum for both women and men. The brand is run by sober care GmbH, an independent Berlin company led by its two founders [6]. It markets its products as vegan, developed and made in Germany, and free of a long list of ingredients it considers harmful. Its own description of what it sells has shifted over the years: the founders once said the brand was deliberately not natural cosmetics, while the company now calls its range "high-tech natural cosmetics". ## Origin & founders Schier and Roth had known each other since 2002, when both became self-employed, and say they worked side by side on several company launches over the following fifteen years, selling many of those ventures. In an interview with the lifestyle site sturbock, the pair described how, at the latest by the time they passed thirty, they began paying attention to cosmetics and were disappointed by what the market offered men. Schier grew up in a small village near Koblenz; Roth, a trained graphic designer, comes from Essen in the Ruhr area. At Sober, Schier handles finance and order fulfilment, while Roth is responsible for the corporate identity and product design. Marketing, partnerships, retail and product development they share. A key figure from the start was Prof. Dr. Michael Schirner, a physician specialising in pharmacology and toxicology. Schirner earned his habilitation in pharmacology at the Free University of Berlin in 2000, with a focus on substances that act against the spread of tumours, and began his career in tumour research at the pharmaceutical company Schering AG. The founders say they met him during the start-up phase and, together with him, concluded that men's skincare had considerable room for improvement [9]. According to the company, Schirner has led its research and development since 2015, a date that precedes the brand's formal founding [3]. The first product was a men's face cream, the Hydra Defence Cream. Early coverage framed Sober squarely as a men's brand. In October 2017 the Berlin magazine männer* introduced it as a new label from Roth and Schier based on Pappelallee in the Prenzlauer Berg district, quoting the founders on how men's skin differs from women's: it is driven largely by testosterone and produces more sebum. A year later, Berlin's daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel profiled the start-up as its "company of the week", describing a business devoted to men's skin care without the conventional ingredients of the cosmetics industry [7]. ## History & milestones The company's own timeline traces a steady widening of the range. After the 2017 launch of the Hydra Defence Cream came a fragrance line in 2018, haircare in 2019 and soaps in 2020. In 2021 the brand introduced Youth Infusion, an anti-ageing cream it presents as a milestone in its research. A 2023 entry, titled "Travel without Traveling", marks the development of its perfume collection, whose scents are named after places around the world. Along the way the audience changed. A 2018 review on the German men's style blog vierneuntel tested an all-male lineup that included an after-shave repair fluid, a body lotion and a compact travel shaving brush with synthetic bristles and a black anodised aluminium handle. Today the company describes its offer as cosmetics "for women and men", and its website groups fragrances by scent family such as floral, oriental, aquatic and spicy. ## Ownership Sober has no parent group. The company describes itself as having operated as an independent business since 2017, and its legal notice names Schier and Roth as managing directors of sober care GmbH, registered at the district court in Berlin. Independence is also one of the three values the founders list for the brand, alongside clean beauty and sustainability; they have said they want to be credible and are "not a corporation", adding that this matters more and more to consumers wary of greenwashing. No acquisitions or outside owners are known. ## Philosophy & positioning Sober calls its approach "Clean Beauty", which it defines as a concentration on essentials. Rather than producing a large number of cosmetics, the company says it keeps refining one coordinated care line. It describes its formulas as combining active ingredients "from nature and science": plant extracts such as aloe vera and green tea, oils from organic farming, and ingredients from skin research such as peptides, hyaluronic acid and panthenol. All formulations, according to the brand, are vegan and based on aloe vera. The list of what the company leaves out is long. It says its products contain no parabens, silicones, synthetic fragrances or dyes, mineral-oil derivatives such as paraffins, microplastics, PEG-based compounds, sodium lauryl sulfate or drying alcohols. Products are labelled dermatologically tested, and the brand displays a Dermatest seal. How the brand labels this approach has changed. In the early interview, the founders stated that Sober was deliberately not natural cosmetics, but "Clean Care" free of skin-damaging substances [9]. The 2018 vierneuntel review likewise noted that the company combined natural and synthetic substances instead of pursuing pure natural cosmetics [10]. The current mission page, by contrast, says the company develops and produces "vegan high-tech natural cosmetics" in Germany [2]. No natural-cosmetics certification, such as COSMOS or NATRUE, is known for the range. The brand's tagline, "Luxus muss nicht teuer sein" ("luxury doesn't have to be expensive"), points to an accessible price position, and the vierneuntel review described the founders' aim as making products that were both high quality and affordable. The range is sold through the company's own online shop, on Amazon, where the brand says many of its products carry the "Amazon's Choice" badge, and through boutiques and salons. ## Products & innovation The Hydra Defence Cream remains the brand's founding product. According to the company, it was the first to use its proprietary D5 Cell Complex, a blend that the vierneuntel review described as combining botanical kernel oils, vitamins and active ingredients; the cream also contains hyaluronic acid. The männer* article recommended it for tired eyes and under-eye bags and noted its suitability for sensitive skin. Other products named in coverage include the Gentle Facial Cleanser, a mild three-in-one face wash with kaolin, activated charcoal and panthenol, and the Timeshift Anti-Aging Serum, built on green tea and peptides. In the sturbock product test, the serum was presented with a claimed reduction in visible wrinkle depth of up to 46 per cent [9]. The same piece described the Daily Revival Shampoo as the world's first anti-hair-loss shampoo based on Sandalore and cited figures of 17.4 per cent less hair loss; these are product claims and have not been independently confirmed. The Youth Infusion Cream, launched in 2021, is the brand's main anti-ageing cream. The fragrance range consists of eaux de parfum named after cities and places, among them Casablanca, Detroit, Istanbul, Kyōto, Marseille, Mandalay, Mendoza, Bangkok, Okinawa and Mahé. The company also offers fragrance and skin consultations on its website. Sober's research page frames its science around inflammation. It argues that microscopic inflammation in the skin leads to the death of collagen-producing cells, and that only a few plant oils can correct the underlying disturbances in cell metabolism. Schirner, who leads this work, has been a guest scientist at Harvard Medical School and, according to the company, has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications. Where the products are made is described in two ways. The company's sustainability page says all its cosmetics and perfumes are made by family-run manufacturers in southern Germany, with accessories produced in Berlin workshops [4]. In the earlier founder interview, the cosmetics were said to be contract-manufactured by a family business in Hesse, and shaving products made in Solingen [9]. Both accounts agree that the products are developed and made only in Germany; production may have moved, or the descriptions may simply differ. ## Sustainability Sustainability is a central part of how Sober presents itself. The company says it ships its parcels carbon-neutrally and is carbon-neutral as a business, and calls itself "climate-positive". For every delivery it says it plants a tree through Eden Reforestation Projects, and it offsets plastic through Plastic Bank. Packaging relies on glass rather than plastic, paper-based outer boxes and cardboard carrying the FSC label, and the company takes part in Germany's Green Dot packaging-return system. On animal testing, the brand's line is that it tests "on friends, not animals". PETA's cruelty-free company database lists sober care as cruelty-free, stating that neither its ingredients nor its finished products are tested on animals [11]. The company's mission page goes further and says PETA certified it with the "Leaping Bunny" [2]. That wording conflates two programmes: Leaping Bunny is run by Cruelty Free International, not PETA, and no Leaping Bunny certification for the brand has been confirmed. The PETA listing is the verified cruelty-free credential. ## Recognition According to its press page, Sober's product design won four awards in 2020: the iF Design Award, the German Design Award, the European Design Award and the Plus X Award, the last for quality and innovation [5]. The company also reports winning a PETA Vegan Beauty Award in 2022, and says GQ Germany named one of its perfumes the best summer fragrance of 2018, describing its woody amber notes as an expression of a love of freedom. These awards are reported by the brand and have not been confirmed with the award bodies. The same page lists coverage in German, Austrian, Swiss and British titles between 2017 and 2021, including Men's Health, GQ, Focus and Glamour. Independent coverage confirmed from the brand's early years includes the männer* profile of 2017, the vierneuntel product test of 2018 and the Tagesspiegel company feature of November 2018. ## Current status Sober is active. As of 2026 the company runs a live online shop under the copyright line "2017–2026 sober care GmbH" and publishes an online magazine with articles on skincare, ingredients, fragrance and men's care [1]. The brand remains independent and owner-managed, with its headquarters on Pappelallee in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district, and its press and digital presence is mainly German, alongside an English-language version of its website. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 2015 | Prof. Dr. Michael Schirner (pharmacologist, habilitation FU Berlin 2000, formerly Schering AG) heads sober's research & development, per the brand ('Seit 2015 ist Prof. Schirner Leiter der Forschung & Entwicklung bei sober.') — predates the 2017 founding | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2017 | sober founded in Berlin; launch of first product, Hydra Defence Cream with D5 Cell Complex | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2018 | Fragrance line introduced (timeline entry 'FASZINIERENDE DUFTWELTEN') | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2018 | GQ Germany names a sober perfume 'Bester Sommerduft 2018' (self-reported on brand press page) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2019 | Haircare range introduced (timeline entry 'GESUNDES HAAR BEGINNT IN DER KOFPHAUT') | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2020 | Soaps introduced (timeline entry 'SIEDEKUNST und Aromatherpaie'); product design receives iF Design Award, German Design Award, European Design Award and Plus X Award (self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2021 | Youth Infusion anti-aging product launched | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | | 2022 | PETA Vegan Beauty Award (self-reported on brand press page) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2023 | Timeline entry 'Travel without Traveling' (fragrance line; current perfumes are named after places such as Casablanca, Detroit, Kyōto, Marseille) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung | ## Certifications {#belagg-certifications} - **PETA Animal Test-Free** — Listed in PETA's programme for animal test-free cosmetics — “Yes, sober care is cruelty-free.” — https://crueltyfree.peta.org/company/sober-care/ ## Awards {#belagg-awards} | Year | Awards | Category | Source | |---|---|---|---| | 2022 | PETA Vegan Beauty Award | Vegan / cruelty-free cosmetics (category not specified on brand page; self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2020 | iF Design Award | Product design (self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2020 | German Design Award | Product design (self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2020 | European Design Award | Design (self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2020 | Plus X Award | Quality and innovation (self-reported) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | | 2018 | GQ Germany — Bester Sommerduft 2018 | Fragrance (self-reported; the specific perfume is not named on the press page) | https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **Hydra Defence Cream** — 2017 \| sober wird gegründet - Premiere der Hydra Defence Cream mit revolutionärem D5 Cell Complex. — https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung - **Youth Infusion Cream** — 2021 \| Zeitlos schön - Mit Youth Infusion wurde ein Meilenstein in der Anti-Aging Forschung erreicht. — https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung - **Timeshift Anti-Aging Serum** — Das Time Shift Serum von sober ist ein wahrer Anti-Aging Booster auf der Basis von Grüntee und Peptiden. — https://sturbock.me/sober-im-portraet/ - **Daily Revival Shampoo** — Das Daily Revival Shampoo von sober ist das weltweit erste Anti-Haarausfall Shampoo, das auf Sandalore basiert. — https://sturbock.me/sober-im-portraet/ - **Gentle Facial Cleanser** — Der Gentle Facial Cleanser von sober ist ein milder und tensidarmer Gesichtsreiniger mit 3-in-1 Formulierung — https://sturbock.me/sober-im-portraet/ ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Aloe vera · Green tea · Organic plant oils · Peptides · Hyaluronic acid · Panthenol Source: https://www.soberberlin.com/ ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - D5 Cell Complex® — https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **männer* (maenner.media)** (2017) — Short profile 'Sober: Das Beste für den Mann' (22 Oct 2017): new Berlin men's care brand by Philipp Roth and Simon Schier; recommends the Hydra Defence Cream. — https://www.maenner.media/body/wellbeing/das-beste-fuer-den-mann/ - **vierneuntel.de** (2018) — Hands-on test of the men's skincare range (May 2018, updated Aug 2018); notes founders, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg base and the 'Clean Care' concept. — https://vierneuntel.de/sober-hautpflege-aus-berlin/ - **Der Tagesspiegel** (2018) — 'Firma der Woche' feature 'Ohne Tiegelchen und Töpfchen' by Magdalena Thiele (30 Nov 2018) on the start-up's men's skincare; paywalled, only intro retrieved. — https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/ohne-tiegelchen-und-topfchen-4013707.html - **sturbock.me** — Founder interview and product test ('sober im Porträt'); publication date not visible in fetch. — https://sturbock.me/sober-im-portraet/ ## Sources 1. (T1) https://www.soberberlin.com/ 2. (T1) https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/mission 3. (T2) https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/forschung-und-entwicklung 4. (T2) https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/gesellschaftliche-verantwortung 5. (T2) https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/presse 6. (T2) https://www.soberberlin.com/pages/impressum 7. (T3) https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/ohne-tiegelchen-und-topfchen-4013707.html 9. (T3) https://sturbock.me/sober-im-portraet/ 10. (T3) https://vierneuntel.de/sober-hautpflege-aus-berlin/ 11. (T3) https://crueltyfree.peta.org/company/sober-care/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-01 Please cite with a link to the article URL.