If you’re on the Augustinus Bader bandwagon, then you know about the label’s signature “TFC8” complex. Bader infuses this proprietary blend of peptides, amino acids, and vitamins into its top-shelf skincare to improve cellular renewal. And with the recent launch of The Skin Infusion, a four-week treatment devised to replenish and reset your skin, the German house unleashes “Advanced TFC8” to double down on those therapeutic benefits.
In theory, this singular product could replace most other treatment serums and creams in your roster, at least during its month-long use. You can certainly keep a serum or two in rotation, but I wanted a skincare detox of sorts. As someone whose skin is basically a science beaker—grooming editors are very much guinea pigs—I relished the chance to shelve almost every other product and just focus on Bader’s reset for a month or more.
I used it from mid-May into June, after two particularly skin-drying ventures to the Azores and Spain, where I drank a lot of wine, broke out after numerous cheese binges, hiked high altitudes with ample sun exposure, and hopped planes frequently. My skin needed a reset, not more experimentation with dozens of new products. Enter The Skin Infusion.
And you know what? My skin loved it. Not a single blemish in that seven-week runtime. (The trial lasted longer than the brand suggests it should, despite consistent daily use. More on that below.) Afterward, my skin felt rested, relaxed, and got numerous compliments for its radiant glow throughout use, too. I did continue using my retinol at this time; that’s something I won’t ever shelve, and even Bader says you can continue retinoid use with The Skin Infusion, to maintain those pore-clearing and skin-firming bemefots.
Augustinus Bader recommends using The Skin Infusion every three to four months as a re-up for your skin—consider it a nice alternative to a facial, or a way to need one less round of Botox per year. Along with the juiced-up TFC8, it also uses Vitamin D activators, powered by beet root extract to maximise absorption of the sun’s Vitamin D dosage into the skin. (Don’t ditch your SPF, though, since you’ll still need to thwart UV rays, which helps slow down signs of ageing.) It’s also got panthenol and zinc PCA to nourish and fortify the skin.
There are three 15 ml vessels in each package; swap them into the pump as you go through; I felt like I was using a generous amount—the recommended two to three pumps, both day and night—and the routine lasted me nearly seven weeks; that’s probably because I wasn’t rubbing it into my décolleté like the brand suggests. I blame my propensity for chest hair, but that only means I got two bonus weeks of use across my face and neck. It is a bit tough to blend this cream into the skin; not as if it’s cold butter on toast, but it’s not the most smooth, elegant delivery. We’d recommend dotting it broadly over your face and neck before fully rubbing it in.
If you do treat it as a necessary reset—even just once a year or as a supplement for all the other products you might normally use—then I think there’s great value in these vessels. I’ll happily do another round of The Skin Infusion, even if it goes against the current of my guinea-pig piled-up product-testing gig.
