Six decades of professional expertise and science-led skincare.

Founded in Alcoy, Spain, more than 60 years ago, Germaine de Capuccini has grown from the vision of pioneering entrepreneur Carmen Vidal into an international professional skin care brand present in more than 6,000 aesthetic centers, clinics, med spas and other outlets worldwide.

Today, CEO Anke Menkhorst sees significant potential to take that Spanish heritage further around the world, with a focused expansion strategy including Japan.

Menkhorst brings a personal understanding of the Japanese market to that ambition. Before joining Germaine de Capuccini, she spent 16 years working for a Japanese company and considerable time in Japan. She sees parallels between the brand’s emphasis on long-term skin health and a Japanese beauty culture known for sophisticated routines, professional expertise and a long-term approach to care.

As Germaine de Capuccini expands its international footprint, it is also investing in patented technologies, professional education and sustainability while keeping its research, development and production firmly rooted in Spain.

Menkhorst shared how the company’s Spanish heritage continues to shape its philosophy, why longevity is changing the conversation around beauty and what could make Germaine de Capuccini relevant to Japanese consumers and professionals.

Bridges: Germaine de Capuccini was founded by Carmen Vidal in Alcoy in 1964, a pioneering woman who created her own professional skincare brand. What began with that vision has grown into the No. 1 professional skincare brand in Spain today, with a presence in more than 50 countries.

Menkhorst: She was able to establish her own business and, from the beginning, focused on hero products and ingredients, but also on professionals – the skin care therapists. Her vision was always to provide the best service and a full-service proposition. Since the beginning, we have made significant efforts in education around products, technologies and protocols, but also around business.

She was also a real example of female leadership. When you think about the roughly 6,000 clinics and centers we work with today, the majority are still run by women entrepreneurs. She understood the importance of supporting them from the beginning.

Another thing she focused on was long-term skin health: offering professionals and consumers a system with relevant products throughout the different stages of their lives.

We are a very Spanish company, and we pride ourselves on developing and producing in Spain. Even when we talk about ingredients and packaging, we try to keep things close to home wherever possible.

Japan is one of the world’s most sophisticated beauty markets. What makes it interesting for Germaine de Capuccini?

I worked for a Japanese company for 16 years, so I spent a lot of time in Japan. I know how big and important the Japanese market is, but I am also very aware of its specificities.

I know how much people in Japan love Spain from a cultural perspective. At the same time, Japanese beauty perceptions and customs are very sophisticated.

When considering global trends in longevity and healthy aging, clear parallels emerge between Spanish and Japanese skincare philosophies. Our approach toward skin care is about the long-term ability to influence your skin’s health. Many of the things that have been part of our brand from the beginning could therefore be very interesting and attractive to a Japanese audience.

Of course, we all want short-term results, but what we really want is to have our best skin throughout the different phases of our lives. That is something I also remember from Japan: the idea that you choose a system that evolves with you throughout your life rather than simply chasing short-term trends.

Beauty has moved beyond simply having a perfect face. It is increasingly about being your best self throughout your life, and skin health is one of the main conversations today.

How does Germaine de Capuccini’s professional model differentiate the brand as it expands internationally?

Being a professional and premium brand, we look for long-term relationships. When we enter a market, we want a partner who can really be the right quality partner for the long term. That is why we are careful when making those decisions.

Worldwide, we are available in more than 6,000 outlets. Our base is aesthetic centers, as well as clinics and med spas. One area where we are growing strongly is in more advanced clinics and med spas, where the worlds of health, beauty and longevity increasingly come together.

We offer what I would call the full package. A system that includes clinically advanced patented formulas, professional protocols, technical devices and education.

We have a large education team that continuously trains our professional partners across our outlets worldwide. I think that makes a real difference. We develop our technical devices together with our formulas and protocols. Combining these elements and maximizing their effect is an important part of what differentiates us.

Which recent innovation best demonstrates what that integrated research and professional model can deliver?

One example is Expert Lab, our recent exosome-based innovation featuring TECXOSOME™*, our biomimetic exosome technology.

At Germaine de Capuccini, we have our own R&D and our own production. That makes us very agile, but it also makes us highly integrated in our approach. We have a phenomenal R&D team that is able to develop patented technologies. For us, innovation is not simply about using the latest active ingredient. It is about developing the complex that enables those ingredients to perform effectively in the skin.

Exosomes are communicators between cells. If you combine them with other ingredients that can support cellular renewal in the skin, you can create a complex that is highly effective in the short term but can also make a difference when we talk about longevity.

Within TECXOSOME™, we combine exosomes with ingredients such as PDRN, a trend that originated in Asia. What we do is take ingredients known within the medical-aesthetic world and examine how they can fit into our vision of creating long-term skin health.

There have been many exosome launches because it has become a major trend, but simply putting exosomes into a formula does not mean it will work effectively. You need a complex that is biomimetic so it actually works with the skin. That integrated approach is where we believe we can really make a difference.

That is also why proof is so important to us. We don’t want to make a promise simply because an ingredient is trending; we want to understand the science behind it and have the evidence to support what we say.

*Patent pending.

Sustainability and accessibility have also become part of Germaine de Capuccini’s identity. How are these commitments influencing the company’s future?

Sustainability is very important to us, and we are working on it across many different areas.

Our environmental strategy is built around ecodesign and the circular economy: designing our products and packaging with recyclability in mind, while also looking at how we can reduce and give a second life to the waste generated through our own production processes.

Because we produce skin care products, packaging is naturally an important part of this. Today, we have achieved a 90% recyclability rate across our packaging, and 100% of the cardboard and paper we use comes from FSC-certified sources. We have also focused on refillable packaging for a long time as we continue to reduce our reliance on virgin materials.

But what I particularly like is how creative our team becomes in finding solutions. We use water for our products and production process, for example, and that water has to be purified to a high level. One of our latest projects is looking at how we can reuse the residue from that purification process.

We are working with a partner that can turn that material into small tiles. Something that previously would simply have been wasted can become something new. We are even discussing whether we could create bowls from it, creating a genuinely circular impact.

That creativity is important. Sometimes you look at something and assume there is nothing more you can do with it. But when you approach the problem differently, you discover that something beautiful can come from what was previously considered waste.

We are also very conscious of keeping our production, ingredients and packaging close to home wherever possible. For us, remaining rooted in Spain is not only part of our identity; it can also help us reduce our environmental footprint.

As we expand internationally, that combination of Spanish heritage, professional expertise, clinical scientific innovation and long-term focus on skin health is something we want to continue to celebrate.