Elisabeth Sigmund
Elisabeth Sigmund
Back in the days when women only used soap and water for skin care, Elisabeth Sigmund was already developing preparations for natural skin care, which were later to become the basis for WALA's Dr.Hauschka Skin Care products. She discovered the balancing action of Anthyllis and created a special form of cosmetic treatment, which is used today by Dr.Hauschka Estheticians worldwide.
Elisabeth Sigmund was born in 1914 in Vienna. After finishing school she began studying medicine but had to abandon her studies after a serious illness. A beautiful woman, now aged over 90, she speaks to us with verve and enthusiasm about her life.
What made you turn to skin care after you had broken off your studies?
When I went to the Austrian Alps to convalesce after my illness I had plenty of time and leisure. My thoughts turned again and again to skin care, the "step child" of medicine. In those days baths and massage were used to care for the body; the feet and hair were also cared for. Caring for the face, however, was considered vain and decorative cosmetics were quite out of the question. But the face is the first thing we reveal. In the peace and quiet of nature it became clear to me that I wanted to take cosmetics into my heart.
A bold decision in those days..
Yes, I also realised that my cosmetic work would have to be different from the conventional preparations and treatments. When I got back to Vienna I spent a lot of time browsing in the university library and the national library where I found a veritable treasure-trove of old, mostly handwritten monastic works. I went to second-hand book shops, attended courses and acquired my first diploma. Finally I devoted myself heart and soul to a renewal of cosmetics, particularly of facial care.
The word cosmetics comes from the Greek kosmeo, to order, harmonise…
But it also means to decorate or adorn. We can harmonise, even adorn ourselves in the sense of the Greek word, but we must not deceive the senses. So I researched, studied, mixed and stirred. My mother used an Almond paste for facial cleansing and this became an early model for the Dr.Hauschka Cleansing Cream. Gradually I filled not only my mother‘s dressing table with 'Elisabeth Cosmetics', but also supplied all our friends and acquaintances. However, again and again an inner voice asked whether face care could really be a profession, a vocation and my life's work.
When did you find the answer to this question?
In 1938. I know the date exactly because that was when Rudolf Steiner’s book "Das Künstlerische in seiner Weltmission" appeared. Rudolf Steiner writes there: ".. the word schön (beautiful) is related to the word scheinen (to appear). Something that is beautiful appears, that is, allows its inner being to become visible. For that is the essence of the beautiful, that it does not conceal itself but that it allows its inner being to become visible, to appear in the outer form. So that an object of beauty is something that reveals its inner being in its outer form .." If I had not read these words of Rudolf Steiner I would not have become an esthetician. But now I was able to put my conception of the occupation of esthetician into practice and begin to gather experience. Also to try to act in the spirit of Rudolf Steiner's words about the beautiful. But first of all – through family circumstances – my life took me to various cities in Austria and Germany.
And then the war came..
..during which I was conscripted as a nurse. In 1948, I moved with my husband to Sweden and opened my 'Salon for Beauty Care', in Swedish 'Salong för Skönhetsvard', in Stockholm. One day, a Swedish student, whose family were friends of ours, came back from a holiday job with WALA in Germany. What he told me about his experience there was so interesting that I immediately ordered various substances from WALA. I tried adding these to my cosmetic preparations. That was when WALA's Dr.Hauschka Skin Care was born.
One of the ingredients of many Dr.Hauschka Skin Care products is Anthyllis which you are considered to have discovered for skin care..
Yes, an old Russian woman who had fled to Stockholm during the revolution in Moscow, had once said to me, a woman far younger than herself: "Pay attention to every sign, really every sign!" It must have been in the fifties when I was daydreaming on a Swedish island. In the midst of all the green on the island, a small meadow clover was flowering. I suddenly thought of the rare herb Anthyllis, and had the feeling that I had to follow that up. (In German Anthyllis is called Wundklee which literally means wound clover.) The little meadow clover led me – like a sign – to a book in my library in which there was a small treatise about the little known Anthyllis.
Which indicated the special powers of Anthyllis?
There was nothing very special about this treatise, in fact it even turned out later that some of the substances mentioned there weren't actually constituents of the plant. But I wanted to get to know this plant and managed to get it through a gardener. I worked with Anthyllis leaves in various products and began – first in my Salon for Beauty Care – to test the preparations on adventurous clients, first only on one side of the face. We were rewarded: skin, which was prone to acne, prematurely aged skin or skin prone to dryness, responded by regaining a normal skin texture. This healing power of Anthyllis is quite unique.
How did your clients respond to the experiments?
They were very satisfied. I also developed my own technique for facial treatment. I had read that Dr. Vodder in Copenhagen was developing lymphatic drainage. This was the foundation for the lymphatic stimulation, which still forms the heart of the Dr.Hauschka Treatment today.
Touch plays an important role in cosmetics..
Yes, the good relationship that an esthetician builds up between herself and her client often develops through the facial care. The physical contact also encourages the client to open up sooner. You have to ask the right questions. In my mind, I used to call it the 'cross-examination'. This often enabled me to find the causes of disharmony or strain visible in the client's facial expression. A woman does not open her heart to any doctor like she does to her esthetician. That is something I have experienced again and again.
How did your collaboration with WALA come about?
I had visited WALA briefly in 1955. In 1962 – quite unexpectedly – I received a letter from them asking whether I had any ideas for a skin care approach, which was to be something really special and fit in with the WALA ideas. In reply I wrote a long, detailed letter describing the ideas for a 'different' kind of cosmetics and cosmetology, which had arisen in my salon in Sweden. By return of post I received an invitation from Dr. Rudolf Hauschka and in the summer I travelled to Eckwälden where I received an enthusiastic welcome. "I love you for your letter", Dr.Hauschka said to me. Then we worked non-stop for four weeks: Mrs Hauschka-Stavenhagen, Dr.Hauschka, Mr Kaphan, Mr Kossmann, Mrs Mewes, Mr Plantener, Dr.Schoppmann, Dr.Vogel and myself. In 1967, the skin care preparations we had developed were launched.
..based on the preparations you had developed in Sweden?
Yes, I had developed various cosmetics for my clients to which I specifically added Anthyllis extracts. Incidentally, in the 1950s I had developed the foot bath Balett, which was a success in Sweden. The formula was used practically unchanged for today's Dr.Hauschka Sage Bath. Shortly after my intensive working visit to WALA I was pressed to terminate my existing contracts in Sweden and move to Eckwälden.
Many cosmetics manufacturers develop different products for different skin types..
Dr.Hauschka Skin Care is based on a fundamentally different concept. It was created for the regulation and normalisation of the complexion – for all skin conditions. This face care is suitable for all different states and conditions of the skin since its harmonising action helps restore a healthy, balanced complexion. Anthyllis improves the skin's resistance to the numerous environmental aggressors and the impressions of the day. Skin that tends to be dry or greasy is rebalanced.
At the age of 93 you have very beautiful skin. Do you also use the newer formulas developed by Dr.Hauschka Skin Care?
Of course! I love to use Quince Day Cream, for example. I took to it at once because it is so good. When I later saw the formulation it was obvious that it also contained Anthyllis. But I had already been using it enthusiastically, particularly in the summer.
It would be no exaggeration to say that you have lived your life 'in the service of beauty'. Are you satisfied with what you have achieved?
Oh yes, but nevertheless it is important to be aware that cosmetics cannot do everything. Thoughts are reflected in the face, the good and the bad. Even the best skin care cannot hide these; you simply have a very well cared for but unbeautiful face. A person needs two beauties, an inner and an outer one.
