Speick

Speick is a German natural cosmetics brand based in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, near Stuttgart. It builds nearly its entire range around extract of the Speick plant (Valeriana celtica), a rare high-alpine herb, and traces its origins to a single salmon-coloured soap first made in 1928 [3]. The company behind the brand, Speick Naturkosmetik GmbH & Co. KG, remains a family business, now run by the third and fourth generations of its founding family.

The brand is still active, with regular product launches and news through 2024 to 2026, and it markets itself under the tagline "Sustainably ahead!". Over its history it has positioned itself less as a maker of soap than as an early advocate of gentle, plant-based body care.

Speick began during the depths of the 1928 economic crisis, when Walter Rau, son of the Stuttgart soap-making family behind Vereinigte Seifenfabriken, founded the Feinseifenwerk Walter Rau [2]. Rau, an anthroposophist, wanted to move beyond ordinary curd soap and make a soap intended for caring body care rather than cleaning alone — an idea the company still describes as a cosmetic revolution for its time.

The result was the original Speick soap, a salmon-coloured bar scented with extract of the Speick plant. According to the company, this was the first soap conceived to promote gentle body care instead of cleansing alone [3]. The founder's anthroposophical outlook shaped the firm's early character, and its guiding principle is still quoted as "Being human, always growing and developing."

One brand-site page gives the founding vision as dating to 1958 rather than 1928 [5]; this figure appears only in that single extract and conflicts with the company's own history, its founding story and outside coverage, all of which place the founding in 1928 [2][3][11]. The 90th-anniversary marked in 2018 likewise counts from 1928 [9].

The plant that gives the brand its name is central to its identity. Valeriana celtica is a high-alpine herb that today grows almost exclusively in the Nockberge Biosphere Park in Carinthia, Austria, at around 1,800 metres. The company describes its composition as unique and, to this day, impossible to reproduce synthetically [8]. Growing no more than about 15 centimetres tall, it develops its distinctive scent as its pale blossoms turn yellow in late summer.

Harvesting is done by hand. Licensed alpine farming families gather the plant during a short window in late August and September, drying it in purpose-built barns, and the company says it maintains fair-trade relationships with them. Speick states that all products carrying the Speick brand name contain this extract; a separate line, "Made by Speick," is formulated without it.

The brand is owned and operated by Speick Naturkosmetik GmbH & Co. KG, based at Leinfelden-Echterdingen. It has remained an independent, family-run company rather than part of a larger group. Leadership has passed to Wikhart and Valentin Teuffel, described as the grandson and great-grandson of Walter Rau, placing the business in its third and fourth generations.

Speick frames itself around the pairing of tradition and innovation, arguing that the two "are by no means opposites." The company says its aim is to make natural cosmetics that support "the health, vitality and natural beauty of every person," working with raw materials from biologically regulated cultivation where these are available in suitable quality and quantity. Fair trade, regional production and environmental protection recur throughout its stated values.

The range is organised into several series, including Speick Original, Pure, Natural Aktiv, Organic 3.0, Men, Thermal Sensitiv and Sun, alongside the extract-free Made by Speick line. By its 90th anniversary in 2018 the assortment had grown to around 130 products spanning categories such as shower gel, shampoo, deodorant, face creams and micellar water [9]. The classic Speick Original soap remains the signature product.

The brand carries several natural-cosmetics certifications, and its materials name the COSMOS Standard (at both Natural and Organic levels), Ecocert, Cosmebio, the Soil Association, ICEA and BDIH, of which it says it was a founding member. It states that around 90% of its products are vegan, that the whole range is gluten-free, and that it has conducted no animal testing since its founding in 1928 [6]. Its formulas exclude silicones, petroleum-derived ingredients, synthetic fragrances, colourants and parabens, and it says it uses only RSPO-certified palm oil.

Sustainability is presented as central to operations rather than a marketing layer. The company reports cutting its energy use by roughly two-thirds since 2008, and says it draws mainly on photovoltaic power, supplemented by green electricity and biogas heating [4].

Speick describes itself as the first natural cosmetics brand to receive the German Sustainability Award (Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis), in 2013 [7]. It also cites the CSR Award of the German Federal Government in 2014 and a Vivaness Best New Product Award in 2020 [7]. An outside account differs slightly on the CSR honour, describing gold and silver medals awarded in 2014 and 2015 [11]. More recent product tests include an OEKO-TEST rating of "very good" for its Speick Original liquid soap refill and, per the company, a "good" result from Stiftung Warentest for a Made by Speick hair soap.

Speick remains an operating, independent family business. Its most recent documented activity dates to mid-2026, with a steady stream of product launches and news posts across 2024 to 2026, and manufacturing continues at its site in Leinfelden-Echterdingen.