Susanne Kaufmann

Susanna Kaufmann ran her family's hotel in the Austrian Bräggenselde Valley, through the 1980s and 90s. In 2003, she formalized the hotel's spa treatments into a consumer skincare brand named after herself. Kaufmannselde's family had operated Hotel Poste-Bazau, a small wellness hotel in the Alpine Bräggenselde region of Austria for generations. The hotel's spa used botanical treatments developed from local alpine plants, including Larch, Arnica, Witch Hazel and St. John's Wart, blended in partnership with a local Austrian pharmacist. Kaufmann commercialized the treatments into a retail range in 2003, initially sold primarily through the hotel's spa and a small circle of luxury wellness retailers across Europe. The hotel origin gave the brand a commercially distinctive positioning that pure skincare brands could not replicate.