Elisabeth Sigmund – Chapter 1 – A Young Girl

As a pioneer of natural cosmetics, Elisabeth Sigmund started to create her own skin care products from medicinal plants back in the mid-1930s. After WWII, she established herself with her own beauty salon in Stockholm using the products she had developed. She also used this as a base to develop a holistic skin care treatment. Her cooperation with WALA began after a one-year study trip to India, which in turn resulted in the creation of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care and Dr. Hauschka Esthetician Training.

Every month, we want to reveal more details of Elisabeth Sigmund’s colourful life: for example, of her search for medicinal plants for use in skin care, her development of a revolutionary skin care concept or her experiences in India.

Christened Elisabeth Gabriela Anastasia, Elisabeth Sigmund was the second-born daughter of the Resch family. She came into the world in Vienna’s wealthy Heitzing district in an era characterised by the flair of gas lanterns, carriages and washerwomen, as well as the sound of songs from the many lavender sellers. However, it was also the time of the First World War. Although not an immediate threat to Vienna, this did cause a devastating supply crisis. Elisabeth Sigmund associated the period with her father having to go to the Italian front as a reserve officer.

Coming from a wealthy family, when the War came to an end, Elisabeth and her sister Albine, who was two years her senior, learned to enjoy the finer side of life. Beautiful clothing, cosmetics and long holidays in the country were as much a part of this as literature, music and frequent trips to the theatre. It was at this time that Elisabeth developed her great love of aesthetics and the theatre.

Hamamelis facial toner and almond paste
At home in the Resch household, one place that held an ever fascinating draw for Elisabeth was her mother’s dressing table. The things to be discovered there were almost endless. For example, the Kaloderma rice powder, which both daughters were allowed to use to conceal minor skin imperfections and powder their nose. Elisabeth later discovered that this was based on rice flour. She also enjoyed the pleasant feel of Dostal’s beauty pearls – small, solid pearls that could be mixed with a little water to create a wonderfully foamy lather for cleansing the face. Elisabeth alternated the beauty pearls with almond paste, which came in a long, porcelain box. She also loved using a facial toner that the chemist would prepare with hamamelis, otherwise known as witch hazel.

 

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The Language Of Nature

Dr. Hauschka Body Washes make showering a unique experience – a gift for the body, mind and soul.

Dr. Hauschka body washes make showering a unique experience – a gift for the body, mind and soul. This is based on unmistakable fragrance worlds that evoke images and stories, and stimulate our senses.

Jörg Zimmermann, perfume specialist at Dr. Hauschka, tells us how he creates the Dr. Hauschka fragrances and what the secret code of nature is all about.

Dr. Hauschka: Can you train your sense of smell?

Jörg Zimmermann: Yes. It is not just about smelling it is about conscious smelling. It is like turning on a switch in your memory so that on smelling an individual substance you create associations with it and internalise the fragrance. Later, when you smell the substance again, you automatically associate it with certain imagery and can recognise it. Conscious smelling is a minor change in perception: we have a clear knowledge of how the fragrance affects us, where we smell it, how we perceive it and what we associate with it. Anyone who trains in this art and writes down their experiences will develop their own fragrance index for reference at any time.

Dr. Hauschka: Was there a specific moment when knew you were destined to be a perfume specialist?

Jörg Zimmermann: When I was four, I went exploring on my own in a nearby forest and had an intense experience with nature. I can still remember it well: at midday, the sun hit the forest at an angle, shining through the young trees and onto a small cluster of wood anemones that had sprung up all over the fresh forest floor. I suddenly felt like a face was looking at me; like these little flowers wanted to give me a message. I felt their desire to be looked at, but how was I to understand their essence? I looked at the flowers for a long time and fell in love with them. They bade me to move closer and absorb their silent message through their scent. I carefully knelt down on the ground and cautiously placed my nose by the opening of the greenish-yellow flowers. For a moment, I believed in magic; a natural power that dominates us and rules everything. Was this love in its purest form?

The joy I felt was overwhelming. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. My greatest wish was to hold onto and remember it. Through scent, I had connected with nature. From then on, I could not help but wonder about the hidden world behind things. I wanted to understand the essence of everything I came across, remember things through their scent and enable others to share my experiences.

Dr. Hauschka: But is that actually possible? After all, we do not smell the plants directly but simply their fragrance through the products?

Jörg Zimmermann: It is not about smelling plants directly but rather how we are affected by our memory of doing so. Stimuli are needed to trigger the memory. If you imagine that each essential oil represents the essence of a plant, you can envisage what it means to convert this into a sensual experience that tells a story.

By integrating the essence of individual plants you create the essence of an overall product. This sensual processing method humanises the substance and makes it accessible.
As a perfume specialist, I regard it as my cultural duty to subject the essential oils to processes in which the ideas archetypically embedded in us become something that can be experienced. Only on smelling transitions do we actually develop the idea that the product aims to convey.

Dr. Hauschka: How do you develop a fragrance?

Jörg Zimmermann: It is very conscious, reflective work. I put myself in a state of heightened consciousness and imagine what will happen when I combine the proportions of each fragrance. For me, it is about revealing the secret laws of nature, or in other words discovering the meaning of each individual substance and how the idea of the fragrance could be logically realised so that when we smell it, we perceive an organic process and an atmosphere can be created. Secret

Dr. Hauschka: Secret laws of nature?

Jörg Zimmermann: It is like with music. I can press all the keys on a piano and make sound. Music is only created when I press certain keys in a certain way and a feeling arises from the logical sequence of the melody. The greater my understanding of nature’s secret code, the easier it is for people to enjoy all elements of a fragrance.

When I am working on a fragrance, I mentally collate the plants so that I can sense their smell. These are the times in which I have a clear picture of how things logically go together to create a metamorphosis and make tangible transitions between top and base notes.

In my memory, I always find part of one substance that contains part of another substance. There are some elements of fragrance that may be similar, such as bergamot, rose or neroli. I look at the similarities and differences so that I can add things to complement the former. Once all the parameters have been skilfully aligned and the fragrance and the idea are both tangible, something truly magical occurs.

Dr. Hauschka: Is that what makes Dr. Hauschka fragrances special?

Jörg Zimmermann: Yes. The top, middle and base notes of the Dr. Hauschka fragrances can be transmitted to the entire body. By perceiving the fragrance in different areas of our body, we trigger an inner vitality, which can be externally observed as a kind of aura. In contrast, conventional, synthetic fragrances are something we only wear externally, like accessories.

The high level of vitality and complexity associated with natural fragrances is extremely striking and explains why they are so important to humans. Humans too are highly complex and can wonderfully combine themselves with things that complement them. Attention and creativity, attraction and curiosity are created – but why is nature so good at this? It does not impose its will but instead adds refinement while stimulating and enlivening our body’s own activity.

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Dr. Hauschka Hair Care Treatments

Strengthening Hair Treatment
Restores shine and controls frizz, suitable for all hair conditions

– Works especially well to relieve itchy, sensitive scalps
– Gives strength to fine hair and softens thick hair
– Improves circulation in the scalp and encourages healthy hair growth.
– When massaged into the scalp, hair is left with a natural shine and feels soft and restored
– The healing powers of Neem Leaves and Chamomile Flowers give new vitality and softness to hair damaged by treatments and exposure such as perming, dyeing, straighteners, sun, salt water and chlorine
– Revitalises and restores 
dry, damaged, permed or colour-treated
 hair to a soft, silky condition
– An 
intensive hair treatment that renews and 
strengthens hair follicles while calming 
the scalp
– Hair becomes healthy, shiny
 and more manageable
– Neem leaf extract
 strengthens keratin, fortifying, softening
 and renewing damaged, brittle hair
– Chamomile extract soothes and 
balances the scalp
– Calms itchy, flaky conditions, encouraging hair growth, strengthening fine hair and softening dry hair

Instructions for use:
– Apply directly onto your scalp and gently massage in using small circular movements. Wrap your hair in a warm towel. Fine hair: leave in for 20 – 30 minutes; Dry hair: leave in for 30 – 60 minutes. Alternatively, you can leave the treatment in overnight. Shampoo twice and condition. Recommended as once a week treatment.

Hints and tips:
– Wonderful to use for a scalp massage
– For full-bodied, curly or frizzy hair, it may be used as a leave-in styling product to scrunch into hair ends to help define individual curls
– Apply to protect hair before exposure to sun and saltwater, scrunch in a small amount
– Sun, sea and sand can leave hair dull, dry and weakened. A wrap once or twice a week, particularly following summer holidays, will restore natural shine and vitality, leaving hair soft and manageable

Revitalising Hair & Scalp Tonic
A leave-in treatment for all hair conditions that fortifies and invigorates

– Adds natural shine, volume and manageability to all hair conditions
– Works especially well with itchy, sensitive scalps
– Gives strength to fine hair and softens thick hair
– Strengthens hair as it calms and balances an excessively dry or oily scalp
– Neem leaf strengthens keratin, fortifying fine hair and discouraging breakage
– Arnica and Birch Bark extracts nourish and balance an oily or dry scalp
– Rosemary, Borage and Horse Chestnut support healthy hair follicles
– Extracts of Neem leaves, Stinging Nettle, Birch Bark and Burdock Roots promote regeneration, help to prevent dandruff and hair loss, and strengthen and revitalise both hair and scalp
– Rosemary essential
 oil enlivens, supporting healthy hair 
follicles
– Improves circulation in the scalp and encourages healthy hair growth
– Gives fine hair more volume
– Makes strong hair more manageable
– Recommended for thinning hair

Instructions for use:
– Apply directly onto your scalp and gently massage in using small circular movements, dry and style hair as normal
– This is a leave-in treatment, apply after shampooing hair, or at least 2 or 3 times a week
– If your hair is very fine, use every day

Note: Some of the herbal extracts may accumulate as a sediment at the bottom of the bottle, this does not affect the quality of the product, just shake the bottle to put them back into suspension

Hints and tips:
– Acts as a great freshener in between shampooing, or if you are unable to wash your hair for a period of time
– Helps to stimulate new hair growth when hair has thinned or been lost through illness, pregnancy or menopause
– For fine hair that tends to look greasy very quickly, brush a small amount of Silk Body Powder into the hair as well, this will absorb excess oil, and help to hold the shape of the hair

 

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3 Dos & Don’ts for a Youthful Make-up

Tips from Karim Sattar, Dr. Hauschka International Make-up Artist

1) Don’t use black mascara on bottom lashes, too harsh and downward for the longer bottom lashes which adds years, you want your make-up to be uplifting

Do use softer colour mascara on your lower lashes

We recommend soft black Pearl Anthracite Volume Mascara, pretty Aubergine Volume Mascara, Blue or Brown Mascara for lower lashes. Try using a different colour from black for your Kajal Eye Pencil too. We love Aqua as a complementary colour for enhancing brown eyes, Brown for enhancing blue/green eyes or try Anthracite Kajal Eye Pencil for a softer black.

2) Don’t use glittery eye shadow

Do use matte eye shadow

As we get older a matte eye shadow is much more flattering. Always apply light colours in the natural valley at the inner corner of the eye by your nose and always apply your crease colour from outwards to inwards, not the other way around. Perfect choice is Dr. Hauschka’s Eye Shadow Palette of matte colours.

3) Don’t overdo powder

Do powder in a downwards direction as you don’t want to enhance your facial hair, and set by misting Toner, which also gives a more natural look to your make-up.

In general use less make-up as you get older. You don’t want powder sitting in creases. Apply foundation with a foundation blender brush for an ‘airbrushed’ finish and tap your powder brush to remove excess powder and apply downwards.

Tips:

Apply a little of your blusher colour to underneath the brow which gives an instant uplift to your look, taking off years.

To achieve a more translucent make-up, mix Foundation with your Dr. Hauschka Moisturiser.

 

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Limited Edition Beauty Ritual Sets

Care for your skin with the same energy as you live your life.

Just stop for a moment every now and again and enjoy a little ‘me time’. Even if it is only for a few minutes – time taken for yourself is time well spent. Feel good rituals – care for your skin with the same energy as you live your life.

Revitalising Beauty Ritual with Revitalising Mask for refining and refreshing
Harmonising Beauty Ritual with Soothing Mask for calming and balancing
Regenerating Beauty Ritual with Firming Mask for noticeable strengthening and elasticity

Limited Edition Beauty Ritual Sets

Revitalising feel good ritual
for refining and refreshing
benefits all skin conditions

Included in the Revitalising Beauty Ritual Set, Dr. Hauschka Revitalising Mask leaves the complexion smooth and even. The herbal composition of quince, anthyllis and chamomile stimulates the skin’s natural activity and helps it to retain moisture. With premium botanical oils from jojoba, apricot kernel and wheat germ, it clarifies and refines. A beauty ritual that infuses your skin with well-being.

Revitalising Mask is also highly recommended for a sun-stressed skin.

Contents:
Revitalising Mask 12.5 ml
Clarifying Steam Bath 10 ml
Clarifying Clay Mask 10g
Porcelain Bowl and Mask Brush

Harmonising feel good ritual
for calming and balancing
for sensitive, irritated and stressed skin

The Dr. Hauschka Soothing Mask in the Harmonising Beauty Ritual Set provides relaxing, intensive care that restores the skin to its natural balance. The herbal composition of lady’s mantle, borage, buckwheat and mullein soothes and strengthens the skin. Rich botanical oils, fresh quince seed extract and luxurious witch hazel water help the skin to retain its moisture. A beauty ritual that restores the skin and evens the complexion.

Contents:
Soothing Mask 12.5 ml
Clarifying Steam Bath 10ml
Clarifying Clay Mask 10 g
Porcelain Bowl and Mask Brush

Regenerating feel good ritual
for noticeable strengthening and elasticity
for mature and dry, dehydrated skin

The Regenerating Beauty Ritual Set contains the Dr. Hauschka Firming Mask to smooth and firm skin which has lost some of its tone, elasticity and capacity for regeneration – intensive care whose effects can be felt almost immediately. The herbal composition of rose, marshmallow and pansy boosts the skin’s capacity for regeneration. A beauty ritual that leaves the skin feeling firmer and smoother.

Contents:
Firming Mask 12.5 ml
Clarifying Steam Bath 10 ml
Clarifying Clay Mask 10 g
Porcelain bowl and mask brush

3 Step Dr. Hauschka Beauty Ritual

Step 1
Clarifying Steam Bath opens your pores and relaxes your skin
Pour the contents of the small bottle into half a litre of hot water in a large bowl. Place a towel over your head and lean over the bowl, allowing the steam to rise onto your face for 5 to 10 minutes. Enjoy the ascending heat and feel how extracts of daisy, nasturtium and witch hazel stimulate the circulation in your skin. Blackheads are softened and impurities reduced.

Step 2
Clarifying Clay Mask cleans and deep cleanses
Using the small porcelain bowl, mix the entire contents of the Clarifying Clay Mask with one to two teaspoons of water. Apply the mask to your face, neck and décolleté and leave it for 5 minutes to take effect. Sit back and relax while medicinal clay and extracts of nasturtium and witch hazel bind with your skin’s metabolic products. Remove the mask with warm water, leaving your skin soothed and your complexion clear.

Tips:

1) Watch where your Clarifying Clay Mask dries first on your skin. This indicates an area which is dehydrated. Are you missing this area with your moisturiser? Do you need to include Hydrating Mask into your weekly regime for a moisture boost?

2) Before using it for the first time and after every subsequent use, wash the mask brush in lukewarm water and a little mild shampoo. Always lay it flat to dry in a sunny place. If you place it upwards to dry, moisture seeps down and may compromise the glue.

Step 3
Cream Masks tailored to your skin condition with medicinal plant extracts
Generously apply Cream Mask to your face (including eye contour area as an eye mask as well), neck and décolleté. After a minimum of 20 minutes, use a warm, damp cloth to remove the mask and complete your feel good ritual.

Steps 1, 2 & 3

Revitalising Mask
soothes, enlivens and refines all skin conditions

Revitalising Mask offers soothing care and deep renewal for all skin conditions. The appearance of redness or blemishes diminished, pores are visibly refined and skin appears more even and toned. Skin glows with a healthy radiance.

Formulation: Quince seed, anthyllis and chamomile extracts rapidly support the skin’s processes of renewal, helping to maintain moisture, visibly minimise pores and calm the appearance of redness and irritation. Nurturing jojoba, apricot kernel and wheat germ oils clarify and smooth skin. Applying this mask will help you to feel pampered and offer your skin a sense of well-being.

Skin condition: Benefits all skin conditions

Soothing Mask
calms sensitive and irritated skin

Soothing Mask calms and balances sensitive, reddened and irritated skin, guiding it to comfort and radiance.

Formulation: Alchemilla, borage, buckwheat and mullein combine to calm and fortify skin, helping skin to become less reactive. Quince seed extract and witch hazel help retain moisture while nourishing shea butter joins macadamia nut and coconut oils to provide protection. Anthyllis soothes and balances redness and irritation. Applying this mask helps to revive your skin and supports an even complexion.

Skin condition: For sensitive, irritated and stressed skin.

Firming Mask
visibly minimises fine lines and wrinkles

As we age, the skin’s natural processes of cellular renewal slow and it loses elasticity and resilience. Firming Mask protects and fortifies, minimising the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while nurturing and hydrating for smooth, supple, enlivened skin.

Formulation: Rose, Marsh mallow and pansy support the skin’s natural processes of renewal. Rose petal extract, rose wax, rose essential oil and avocado and almond oils support elasticity as they pamper and enrich the skin. Mango butter and beeswax enliven and replenish. Applying this mask supports your skin feeling stronger and smoother.

Skin condition: For mature skin

Cream Mask Use:
After cleansing and toning, apply a generous amount of Cream Mask to the face (include eye contour area as an eye mask), neck and décolleté. Remove after a minimum of 20 minutes with a warm, moist cloth.

We recommend using a Cream Mask once to twice a week.

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