For centuries, the people of Budapest have turned to mineral-rich thermal baths for healing and restoration. Today, those same waters are at the heart of Omorovicza, a luxury skincare brand founded by Stephen and Margaret de Heinrich de Omorovicza. Drawing on family history, dermatological expertise, and a commitment to natural, sustainable beauty, the brand has grown from its Hungarian roots into an international name, while still staying true to its origins.
The Ethicalist sat down with co-founder Stephen de Heinrich de Omorovicza, to talk about Hungary’s baths, the science of bottling their benefits, and the role sustainability plays in shaping beauty today.
TE: Omorovicza has such deep roots in Budapest’s spa culture. Can you share the history that inspired the brand?
It all started when I moved to Hungary nearly 20 years ago. I knew about the baths, everyone does, really, but living there made me realise just how extraordinary the spa culture is. Budapest has over 100 thermal baths because of this unique geology. The Romans discovered it 2,000 years ago, the Ottomans carried it on, and today Hungarians still use them for everyday wellbeing.
They’re not just leisure pools. People go there for arthritis, for skin conditions, even for respiratory problems. There’s a whole medical culture built around them. When I took Margaret, my wife, she came out and said, ‘My skin has never looked or felt better.’ And that was the lightbulb moment. We thought: there has to be a way to capture this.
TE: You later discovered your family had its own surprising connection to this bathing culture. What was that like?
Honestly, it was a shock. We’d always thought of ourselves as steelmakers. But after moving to Hungary, I found out that one of my ancestors had actually built a famous bath in Budapest centuries ago. Suddenly there was this link I had no idea about.
It felt almost like fate. Here I was, falling in love with this culture and thinking about how to bring it to life in a new way, and then discovering that my family had already played a part in it long ago. When I shared all this with Margaret, and she experienced the baths for herself, it just cemented the idea that we were onto something that had history and personal meaning behind it.
TE: Translating centuries of bathing culture into a bottle sounds like a huge challenge. How did you do it?
It was a challenge and a long journey. You can’t just pour thermal water into a cream and expect it to work. Minerals don’t penetrate the skin easily. So we partnered with a Nobel Prize–winning laboratory in Hungary and some brilliant dermatologists.
What we discovered was fermentation. Through fermentation, the minerals are transformed into compounds the skin can actually recognise and absorb. That became our patented Healing Concentrate™, which is in every Omorovicza product. Clinical trials confirmed what people have felt for centuries: improved hydration, elasticity, resilience. So it’s really the science catching up with tradition.
TE: Sustainability is a big part of Omorovicza’s story. What does that look like in practice?
For us it starts with the formulas. We aim for 98–99 per cent natural ingredients, very little in the way of synthetics. Of course, sometimes a preservative or a vitamin is necessary, but we keep those to a minimum.
Packaging is another big one. From the beginning, we used glass jars for recyclability. More recently, we’ve introduced post-consumer recycled plastics for things like pumps and caps. All our paper is recycled, and we phased out cellophane years ago. It’s not perfect, nothing is, but our goal is for every single part of the packaging to have a second life, whether that’s through recycling or biodegrading.
TE: Luxury beauty and sustainability don’t always go hand in hand. How do you balance the two?
It’s tricky. People expect luxury packaging to look and feel a certain way, and often those materials are the least sustainable. We experimented with refillables, but the truth is most customers still prefer to buy a full product. So we focus on things that don’t compromise the experience: PCR plastics, glass, biodegradable options.
And we tell the story. Customers are more willing to embrace sustainable choices if they understand why they matter. It’s about education as much as innovation.
TE: You’ve just completed a major rebranding and repackaging project. What was that process like?
Repackaging is not for the faint-hearted! It took us years. Every decision mattered: colour, font, finishes, and then the sustainability choices on top. Do we use heavier glass? Do we change the pump mechanism? All of those have cost and design implications.
Working with Michael Nash Studio was a great experience. They helped us modernise without losing our heritage. The new look is cleaner, more elegant, but still very much Omorovicza. The response so far has been fantastic, it’s amazing how much impact a refresh can have.
TE: Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of Omorovicza and clean beauty more broadly?
What excites me is the pace of innovation. There’s so much happening in biotech, in biodegradable packaging, even in using microbes to break down plastics. The industry is moving fast.
For Omorovicza, the future is about keeping our Hungarian spa heritage while embracing new technologies. We want to prove that luxury skincare can be indulgent, effective, and responsible all at once. That’s not a trend for us, it’s our identity.
Omorovicza is available across the UAE in hotel spas including Four Seasons, St. Regis, and Park Hyatt. To learn more visit Omorovicza.com
