Interview
When Andrea cried over cleansing milk
Hi Andrea! Please tell us about the time in 2008 when you finally held your first product in your hands. That’s how this interview with Rudolph Care’s founder, Andrea Elisabeth Rudolph, begins. The interview that turns back the clock and makes time stand still, in the present, right now. Because Rudolph Care’s iconic skincare is still going strong and has perhaps never been more relevant. We’ve never demanded so much from our beauty products as we do today, in 2024. Products need to work on the skin. They need to have a positive effect. Products should be responsibly produced, be as sustainable as possible, created with the very best, highest quality effective ingredients and with the next generations in mind. They should also feel wonderful between your fingers, and infinitely good on your skin. Or is it just Rudolph Care that thinks this way?
A collection of classics
In 2008, Andrea held her first product in her hand. It was a cleansing milk, and it was a dream come true. Andrea was so touched by all the hard work that had gone into it: research, development, refinement, financial challenges, production, one step forward and two steps back, and a never-ending stubbornness and unwavering belief that it would succeed. She had to succeed in creating the line of skincare products that she herself had been missing: responsibly produced products that work and provide that luxurious feeling of indulgence.
And suddenly she was standing in the big production hall in Denmark with the proof: the cleansing milk! Right there in her hands! Andrea’s eyes welled up, her tears nearly overflowing with pride and relief.
“Hey, there’s no need to cry...” said the man standing next to Andrea, the very local West Jutland worker in one of the Danish manufacturing companies where Rudolph Care’s skincare is still produced.
Andrea clearly remembers that sentence, that man, the groundedness, the contrast to her own inner life that was bubbling over. Because this was the beginning of the dream to offer the world the uncompromising beauty products that could meet Andrea’s exacting standards.
“There is so much identity in the products we keep in our bathrooms. I wanted to make the kind of products that you love to display on the shelf. They needed to look good. But they also had to stand for something,” says Andrea. She pounds the table in front of her, making the serum and cream bottles almost jump into the air. She makes it clear that the same philosophy still applies today:
“The products were created in the name of health and from a place of activism. They need to be mindful of the environment and they need to have a positive effect on the skin.”
The first eight products were launched in 2009 and are still in the range 15 years later.
“Even back then, I had a dream of creating classics, a collection of products that would be constant. Products that work and that you can’t do without once you start using them. I think I’ve done my absolute best. Rudolph Care’s products are as well thought-out as they can be. They are of the best quality. And you know what?” Andrea asks.
What?
“It’s not difficult to sell a cream the first time. But you’ll only buy it again if you’re happy with it. It’s so satisfying for me. And if a customer buys it a third, fourth or fifth time, it’s the greatest honor. We’ve succeeded!”
On losing the sense of touch
The red, or purple thread, if you will, in Rudolph Care’s skincare is the açai berry. The deep purple, almost black, berry that Andrea fell in love with on a trip to Brazil when she was pregnant with her first child, Isolde. Andrea lounged on the beach and ate açai ice cream. She found that the açai berry could do much more than just taste good. It made perfect sense to use it in skincare. Despite its diminutive size, the açai berry has what could be described as superpowers. The berry contains high levels of antioxidants, which the skin likes to soak up and the body benefits from. Because every day, all year round, we are exposed to pollution, light, sun, food and the world around us, and antioxidants help neutralize these degrading elements.
“The acai berry turned out to be a real gem. Not only because of the wild properties of the berry as an ingredient, but also because we’re actually helping to protect and preserve the rainforest,” says Andrea. Rudolph Care works closely with local producers in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, where the açai palm grows and is harvested. This is also where Rudolph Care supports local, community-driven projects for the people who live in the area.
“It’s the açai berry that brings it all to life,” says Andrea.
And then she had another great idea. Sounds just like Andrea.
While developing the first seven products, all with açai oil and extract as a common ingredient, Andrea developed a taste for the juice and power of pure, precious açai oil. So, why not try to make a product with only açai oil? A rhetorical question, as it turned out.
“It was love at first sight! It was everything my skin dreamed of. This oil is so rich, and with so much volume, yet it has this absurd ability to interact so well with our skin that the oil is instantly absorbed and provides suppleness, flexibility, elasticity and glow without greasiness. I was absolutely delighted with the product and in reality, it was so simple, because the quality of the oil is so extremely high,” says Andrea.
Andrea loves oils. There are five key oils in Rudolph Care products, and yes, they have been there from the very beginning: olive, jojoba, coconut, almond and, of course, açai oil.
“I was fed olives and olive oil as a child. It’s like candy to me.”
The sense of taste is one thing, but when it comes to Rudolph Care products and skincare in general, it’s the sense of smell and especially the sense of touch that play the main roles. Because textures and consistencies are an important sensory part of using products, of applying them. That speaks to the sense of touch. But maybe we’re not always super aware of our sense of touch and how to stimulate it?
“We don’t know what it means to not be able to feel anything, until the day that you can’t feel anything.”
Andrea knows this. After undergoing chemotherapy, radiation and surgery during her breast cancer treatment, she has lost sensation in her chest and upper back.
“We know what it’s like to not be able to smell, because it can happen when you have a cold, just like you can lose your sense of taste. And if we want to know what it’s like not to be able to see, we can close our eyes. But the sense of touch...” Andrea leans forward as if to emphasize that this isn’t just about cream.
“The sense of touch is important! When we touch the skin and apply our products, we activate the sense of touch, and this embodies self-love and care.”