A 50 ml jar of The Rich Cream costs ₹29,050 in India. The Elixir, 30 ml, costs ₹48,700 — ₹1,623.33 a millilitre, the highest figure this site has priced. What the brand says you are buying is TFC8, and behind TFC8 is a professor. The professor is real, the chair is real, and the patent register carries his name. So does the gap between that record and the evidence published for the cream.
A London-registered company selling German-origin skincare, priced in India from ₹5,400 to ₹48,700 on 5 September 2026. Its founder heads a department at Universität Leipzig, has 96 records in the biomedical index and a granted US patent assigned to the company that sells the cream. The brand’s own evidence pages name no journal, no laboratory and no study. Indian MRP runs at 90–98% of its own US list price.
Snapshot
- Operating company
- ASC Regenity Limited (10523270), London, incorporated 13 December 2016
- Ownership
- Independent — two individuals on the parent’s control register, no institution
- Origin on the pack
- Germany, on all six Indian declarations read
- Indian importer of record
- Reliance Retail Limited
- Dearest per millilitre
- ₹1,623.33 — The Elixir, 30 ml
How it started
Universität Leipzig’s own departmental page names Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Augustinus Bader as head of Cell Techniques and Applied Stem Cell Biology. That is the institution’s page, not the brand’s, and the two agree on department and title.
The publication record holds up too. A full-name author query in PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s index, brings back 96 records dated 2002 to 2022, 17 of them on skin, wounds or ageing. One is a randomised controlled trial of erythropoietin in burn injuries across 13 German burn units, in Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2018. The founder page claims “190+ Peer-reviewed papers”; that index counts biomedical journals only.
Then the strongest link. US patent 11,197,812, “Cosmetic formulations for topical applications containing erythropoietin-derived molecules”, was granted on 14 December 2021 and assigned to ASC Regenity Ltd, the company that sells the cream. A patent means an office found an invention novel and non-obvious; it is not a clinical result. But a register link from the science to the seller is more than this category usually offers.
The founder page calls the Cicatrix Study Award 2010 “Europe’s largest scientific prize”. Cicatrix e.V.’s own page puts the 2010 Studienpreis at €10,000, from a burns-patients’ association in Esslingen, open to clinics in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- Prof Augustinus Bader and Charles RosierTwo people, each in the 25–50% share band
- AC Therapeutics Limited (10522129)The only entity on the seller’s control register
- ASC Regenity Limited (10523270)London, 13 December 2016 — sells the brand
He has been a director since incorporation, with no resignation recorded. A US$25 million round at a US$1 billion valuation was announced on 10 November 2022, led by Impala with General Atlantic; no institution appears on these registers.
What they actually make
TFC8, the brand says, is “our patented technology that powers Augustinus Bader Skin, Body and Haircare”, “composed of high-grade vitamins, lipids, and high-performing, proprietary peptides naturally found in skin”. That names no ingredient and no concentration. TFC8 is a trade name, not an INCI term, and appears in no ingredient list we read. A PubMed search for TFC8 brings back two results, neither about skin.
The evidence hub carries twelve dated brand-journal articles and no journal name, no DOI and no named laboratory. Its “Body of evidence” page describes a twelve-week Body Cream trial “measured by clinicians”, with no participant number and no institution. Panel sizes do appear on product pages: The Rich Cream cites a 30-person clinical trial and a 107-person consumer perception study, which is people being asked what they think. None names a study, a laboratory or a publication.
“Skin looked 52% younger” is the brand’s own line for The Cream. Twenty people, aged 40 to 75, over four weeks.
Sephora India’s pages for both creams carry “clinically proven to help reduce the signs of aging including the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and hyperpigmentation” — with no percentage, no panel size and no study on the listing. The Indian buyer gets the conclusion without the panel. Read the founder’s papers as evidence about the scientist, not about the jar.
What Augustinus Bader costs in India
Twenty-four Indian listings were checked on 5 September 2026 across Sephora India, Tira and AJIO Luxe, eight opened as product pages to confirm MRP. Every US figure below is the brand’s own list price on its own US store, not a retailer’s street price.
| Product and size | Indian MRP | India ÷ US list |
|---|---|---|
| The Rich Cream, 50 ml | ₹29,050 | 98% |
| The Elixir, 30 ml | ₹48,700 | 94% |
| The Cream, 50 ml | ₹27,000 | 91% |
Three of ten matched pairs. US$1 = ₹94.4309, 4 September 2026. Indian MRP includes 18% GST and US list prices exclude sales tax; stripping it moves the table to 76–83%.
So the number on the box is not an Indian mark-up. All ten pairs sit below parity, at a median of about 92%: it is dearer in America than here. The price is a decision taken at source.
- Pack
- The Elixir, 30 ml
- Indian MRP
- ₹48,700
- Price per millilitre
- ₹1,623.33
- Checked on
- 5 September 2026
That is about two and a half times Shiseido’s Future Solution LX at ₹660 a millilitre, and roughly 7.3 times the ₹214–223 ceiling of India’s premium Ayurvedic shelf. The Rich Eye Cream at ₹1,226.67 and The Serum at ₹1,123.33 also clear Shiseido, and eleven of the fifteen priced sizes clear ₹214–223. The same brand sells a conditioner at ₹36 a millilitre — a 45-fold spread inside one brand on one day, which says the format sets the per-millilitre price, not the name. Discounting is nominal: ₹500 off most Tira lines, 1.7% on the ₹29,050 jar, and none at all on Sephora India. On those selling prices this is a luxury-tier range.
Who Augustinus Bader is actually for
This is a range for a buyer who has decided a moisturiser may cost as much as a phone and wants the person behind it to be checkable. On that test it does better than almost anything at the price. It is a poor fit for a buyer who wants the study behind the number on the page: every trial is described, none is cited, and the strongest published work is about burn injuries, not these products.
Reputation and controversies
We found no regulatory action, product recall, advertising adjudication or consumer commission order against Augustinus Bader in India. Indian Kanoon carries no matching result for the brand’s full name on 5 September 2026, on a database that answered a control search the same day. The advertising council’s outcome file carries nothing under “Augustinus Bader” or “Bader” on that date — two terms, one date, not a certified clean file. ASCI is a self-regulatory industry body, not a statutory regulator, and imported prestige brands barely advertise in the channels it polices, so an empty file says more about the market than about any brand in it. Nobody has ruled on these pages as they read today.
PETA’s directory lists the brand on neither its cruelty-free list nor its companies-to-avoid list, and a control search the same day found a listed company. Nothing is missing here: the brand’s own pages make no cruelty-free and no vegan claim at all, so there is no claim to check. Its sustainability figures carry the brand’s own hedge — “an estimated 70% of our packaging is plastic-free” — and its ECOCERT/COSMOS reference is to packaging glass, not any formulation.
The sunscreen earns credit on one side of the ledger. The page for The Sunscreen SPF 50 publishes its filters and their percentages — titanium dioxide 9.102% and zinc oxide 13.175% — which very little of this category does. On the same pages there is no test method stated, no laboratory named, no report published, and no PA rating, the grade Indian buyers look for.
Buying it in India
Six statutory declarations were read on Sephora India on 5 September 2026 and all six are identical. The importer is Reliance Retail Limited, at a Dhobi Talao address in Mumbai matching the registered office on CIN U01100MH1999PLC120563. Origin is Germany, shelf life three years, no manufacturer named and no registration number printed. All six name Reliance Luxe Beauty Limited as marketer — Sephora India’s own operating company, not an arm of the brand.
All three readable Indian channels — Sephora India, Tira and AJIO Luxe — belong to that group, and the Indian corporate register carries no company with “Augustinus” or “Bader” in its name. On six declarations read on one date, the retail group is importing on its own account. No exclusive or authorised appointment has been announced anywhere we looked, which is a separate question from who imports it.
Who makes it, and what a printed MRP is worth, are questions this site asks of footwear too: Bata‘s Indian listed company is a separate entity from the brand on the box, and Campus makes its own product. The same reading works on a Metro shoebox for a fraction of the money.
Read the block on the box
Importer, marketer, origin and shelf life are printed there by law. Look for an “RC No.” too: imported cosmetics need a CDSCO registration number, and none of the six listings carried one. Ask the seller for it.
Divide the price by the millilitres
₹29,050 for 50 ml is ₹581 a millilitre; ₹48,700 for 30 ml is ₹1,623.33. Inside one range that moves 45-fold.
Check the size before you compare
The brand’s own pages without a size in the address show the smallest variant, so a $99 or £80 figure is a mini, not the 50 ml.
The Cream and The Rich Cream differ
One Indian retailer’s brand page shortened the second name to the first. At 50 ml they are ₹27,000 and ₹29,050. Read the full title before paying.
Common questions
Who owns Augustinus Bader?
ASC Regenity Limited, a London company incorporated on 13 December 2016. Its control register names one entity, AC Therapeutics Limited, whose own register names exactly two people — Charles Rosier and Prof Augustinus Bader — each in the 25–50% share band.
Did the professor sell the brand and keep only his name on it?
No. He has been a director since December 2016 with no resignation recorded, and is one of two people on the parent’s control register.
Is TFC8 published or patented?
The brand calls it patented technology. US patent 11,197,812, on cosmetic formulations containing erythropoietin-derived molecules, was granted on 14 December 2021 and assigned to ASC Regenity Ltd. No page we read says TFC8 is the subject of that patent, and TFC8 is not an INCI term.
Is Augustinus Bader cruelty-free or vegan?
The brand makes neither claim on its own pages, and appears in PETA’s directory on neither list. Animal testing of cosmetics has been illegal in India since 21 May 2014.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Universität Leipzig, 5 September 2026 — the chair
- PubMed author query, 5 September 2026 — 96 records
- Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2018, PMID 30429786 — the burns trial
- US patent 11,197,812, granted 14 December 2021 — title and assignment
- Augustinus Bader, Our Founder — the “190+” figure and the prize
- Cicatrix e.V., Studienpreise 2010 — the €10,000 award
- Companies House, AC Therapeutics Limited — the two individuals
- Augustinus Bader, The Sunscreen SPF 50 — the filters
- Sephora India, The Cream 50 ml — ₹27,000 and the declaration
- Tira, The Rich Cream 50 ml — ₹29,050
- Augustinus Bader, The Science of TFC8 — the TFC8 wording
- PETA Beauty Without Bunnies, 5 September 2026 — neither list
- BeautyMatter, 10 November 2022 — the 2022 round
Credit where it is owed. The chair at Universität Leipzig is on the university’s own page, the 96 indexed records and the burns trial sit in ordinary journals under the founder’s own name, and US patent 11,197,812 is granted and assigned to the company that sells the cream. He is still a director of it. Almost nothing at this price shows a reader that much.
What the money does not buy is a published study of the thing in the jar. Every trial is described on the product page and none is cited, and the strongest published work is about burn wounds, not a night cream. At ₹1,623.33 a millilitre for The Elixir, about 2.5 times the dearest Shiseido we priced, that is the whole question. The arithmetic at least clears the brand of gouging Indian buyers, at 90–98% of its own US list.
Buy it because you have read the professor’s papers and want to back the man — not because you have been shown what the cream does, because on 5 September 2026 that had not been shown anywhere we could find it.
