Ahava (Cosmetics Brand)

Ahava is the consumer brand of Dead Sea Laboratories, an Israeli company that develops, manufactures, and markets cosmetics based on Dead Sea mud and naturally occurring minerals.[1] Its business history combines kibbutz-linked manufacturing, proprietary mineral formulations, international distribution, tourism-based sales, and ownership by China’s Fosun Group.[2][6]

The idea of marketing Dead Sea mud as cosmetics emerged at Kibbutz Ein Gedi in the 1970s. An initial factory, called Ein Gedi Health Products, was established in 1981, followed in 1982 by a joint factory involving Ein Gedi, Mitzpe Shalem, Kalia, and Almog. After early financial difficulties, a research department led by pharmacist and cosmetic-chemistry specialist Dr. David Melomed developed dermocosmetic products from the mud and minerals. In 1984, the kibbutz movement decided to establish a modern factory at Mitzpe Shalem; the enterprise later became Dead Sea Laboratories.[2]

Accounts differ over the company’s precise early chronology. Ahava’s current About Us page says its founders established the company in 1988, and a 2007 report likewise dates Dead Sea Laboratories to 1988.[7][8] A 2003 interview, however, recounted that the business began in 1989 in partnership with Mepro-Hagoshrim, whose original product was an electric hair remover for women. That product had once generated $100 million in annual exports, but copycat products entered the market and the company went bankrupt. Dead Sea and other local kibbutzim subsequently joined as partners and transformed the business into a cosmetics company.[1]

The Ahava name was chosen with international customers in mind. The founders wanted a name that combined a Hebrew identity with an international feel because they envisioned tourists and overseas markets as customers. They selected a Hebrew word that could be written in Latin letters and pronounced without confusion, and associated the repeated A shapes in AHAVA with the earth and the V with the sky.[9] The company’s origin account also centers on Ziva Gilad, who in the late 1980s watched visitors float in the mineral-rich Dead Sea and gather mud to take home. Ahava describes the wish to let people carry the Dead Sea experience beyond its shores as the inspiration for the brand.[10]

The company’s products have been linked to several kibbutzim and business partners. A Hebrew Union College thesis describes Ahava products as manufactured at Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem and characterizes the kibbutz’s development as a transition from communal shared living to a “multi-million dollar business.” It says Mitzpe Shalem joined with Ein Gedi and Gaon Holdings to create products sold in department stores around the world and online.[11] A reference account on Israel’s resource-based industries describes Dead Sea Works as a subsidiary of Israel Chemical Industries and says it produced cosmetics through its subsidiary Dead Sea Laboratories, marketed under the Ahava name.[12] That historical account does not provide separate ownership, production, or sales figures for Ahava.

Ahava’s defining commercial proposition is skincare made with Dead Sea mud and naturally occurring minerals. Dead Sea Laboratories develops, manufactures, and markets cosmetics based on those materials; in 2003, the company said its products were sold under both the Ahava brand and private labels. It described Ahava as strong in North America and gaining ground in the United Kingdom.[1]

Ahava identifies Osmoter™ as its signature blend of minerals sourced from the Dead Sea. The company says it is produced through natural solar evaporation, was patented in 1989, contains minerals including magnesium, sodium, potassium, and calcium, and appears in all its products. Ahava describes Osmoter as helping draw moisture toward the skin’s surface.[3] The company says its factory, laboratories, and research centers are on the Dead Sea shore and presents proximity to the source as an advantage for scientists studying and working with the minerals. It also describes itself as the only cosmetics company with facilities in the region.[3]

The company says its in-house research and development team works on turning Dead Sea resources into skincare products. Its Formulation Laboratory works on high-electrolyte colloidal systems for cosmetic applications, while its Skin Biotechnology Laboratory investigates the biological effects of minerals on skin. Ahava also says its researchers collaborate with universities and research institutes and publish in scientific journals.[3] These are company statements about its research programs and facilities.

Product development has included ingredients from beyond the Dead Sea. In a 2011 account, Ahava research and development vice president Dr. Zeevi Maor said the idea of combining Dead Sea and Himalayan ingredients followed a visit to Nepal and exchanges with local dermatologists. The report said development took six years and produced the Extreme range, including an Extreme Day Cream and an Extreme Night Treatment. It attributed the claim that the formula reduced wrinkle depth to the company.[13]

The Extreme formula was described as combining ingredients from the Himalayas and the Dead Sea. The reported Himalayan ingredients included Tibetan wild blackberry, Tibetan raspberry root extract, and bryophyte seaweed. Dead Sea ingredients included Osmoter, Dunaliella salina seaweed, and date-seed extract. The report described Osmoter as a patented Ahava ingredient and attributed the stated skin benefits to company research.[13]

In 2003, the company described four cosmetics lines: Ahava Advanced, Dermud, Time-Line, and Ein Gedi. Ein Gedi was positioned mainly as a lower-priced mass-market line for Israeli and tourism markets. The company also reported a Japanese private-label partnership with Nikken Sohonsha that combined Ahava products with Dunaliella algae from the Dead Sea; its packaging featured an image of the algae and used bright orange, pink, and gold colors.[1] In 2001, Dead Sea Laboratories announced a high-end anti-aging skincare range aimed at women aged 35–55 for simultaneous launch in Israel and abroad. At that time, it marketed products in more than 30 countries; Ahava body lotion held a 13.5% share of the low-end cosmetics market and its face lotion an 11% share.[14]

Ahava says its products are vegan, contain no animal-derived ingredients, and are not tested on animals. It also says all products undergo dermatological and allergy testing, and that products intended for use around the eyes are ophthalmologically tested and fragrance-free.[3]

Dead Sea Laboratories developed from a kibbutz-linked operation into a business with international sales. In 2006, exports accounted for 42% of the company’s $23.4 million in sales. A 2007 report said Ahava products were sold in 25 countries through 22 independent distributors.[8] In 2011, chief executive Yaacov Ellis said the company exported to 30 countries. The same account described a German subsidiary, a United States joint venture, 15 branded stores—including six in Singapore—and sales through major retail chains. Those figures describe the company at that time, not its current network.[13]

In 2014, the Anti-Defamation League reported that Sephora sold Ahava products in Europe but had stopped selling the brand in the United States several years earlier for business reasons, not political ones. Sephora said it did not boycott Israeli brands.[15] A 2024 account said Ahava products were sold in about 50 countries and that the company was owned by China’s Fosun Group. It also described the role of tourism in building sales, including sales points in Dead Sea hotels and a visitor center at Mitzpe Shalem that received tour buses.[2]

Fosun Group signed an agreement in April 2016 to acquire all Ahava shareholders’ holdings for NIS 290 million, reported as approximately $77 million. The sellers included Gaon Holdings, the Livnat family, Shamrock Israel Growth Fund Advisors, Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, and Kibbutz Kalia. A Fosun vice chairman said the group aimed to extend the brand’s success to China and other countries.[6] An INSS appendix gives a conflicting figure, listing a 2016 Fosun investment of $300 million in Ahava and classifying Fosun Ltd. as state-owned; the appendix does not explain the discrepancy with the reported NIS 290 million acquisition price.[16] A later INSS study includes the Ahava acquisition among Chinese investments and mergers and acquisitions identified in Israel.[17]

After the acquisition, Fosun pursued expansion, particularly in China. In 2018, Fosun cosmetics-group managing director Tom Zheng said Ahava’s sales had risen by 15% annually since the acquisition. He said the company aimed to make Ahava one of China’s top 10 luxury labels by sales and planned to focus on anti-aging technology and personalization, including work on high-end face masks with a Korean cosmetics brand owned by Fosun.[18]

Ahava’s production base became the subject of differing reports and plans. In 2015, the company said it was examining a possible additional plant in the Tamar Regional Council, inside the Green Line, with a proposed NIS 10 million investment. Its stated reasons were expanding production needs and changes in cosmetics-manufacturing regulations in some Western countries. Ahava said Tamar was one possibility, alternatives were being considered, and no decision had been made.[19]

A March 2016 report described the Ein Gedi project as a factory move from Mitzpe Shalem and said a deal had been signed. It reported a planned NIS 25 million investment, a 25-year land lease, an estimated two-year construction period, and a visitor center. The report said moving would help mitigate difficulties associated with European boycotts of goods produced in the West Bank.[20] An INSS report subsequently stated that Ahava, along with SodaStream, moved its plants to sites inside the Green Line, without specifying when the Ahava move occurred.[21] In 2024, Ynet reported that Ahava’s factory, product shop, and a new visitor center were at the entrance to Ein Gedi, with another visitor center at the entrance to Mitzpe Shalem.[2]

A 2026 Jewish News report said Ahava denied operating a production facility at Mitzpe Shalem and stated that all manufacturing had been moved into territory it described as internationally recognized Israeli territory by 2022. CEO Ron Michael told Sky News that production activities had been consolidated there by 2022. The report also carried Ahava’s statement that the Mitzpe Shalem site was owned by a local kibbutz and that its mud, salts, and botanicals came from what the company called “undisputed Israeli territory.”[22]

The same report said campaigners questioned Ahava’s historic connection to Mitzpe Shalem and cited photographs said to show chemical containers dated 2025 and 2026 and piles of earth that researchers believed could be Dead Sea mud. It also reported that Ahava and parent company Fosun International were added to a UN database of companies linked to settlement-related activity in September 2025. Ahava disputed the classification, saying it did not accurately reflect the current factual or legal situation of its operations.[22]

Ahava presents environmental conservation as part of its production policy. Its current materials describe the use of green and sustainable methods, including natural solar evaporation and a wastewater system that uses vegetation to filter waste before water is returned to the environment.[3][7] These descriptions are company statements rather than independent environmental assessments.

Ahava describes its Sea-to-Store program as a year-long initiative for sixth-grade students that has operated for more than 15 years. Participating students learn about Dead Sea resources, science, production, research and development, operations, marketing, and environmental conservation. They visit the factory, gain hands-on experience in manufacturing and quality control, and present products they have developed.[23]

Ahava’s factory at Mitzpe Shalem became a focal point for campaigns against the brand. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies says campaigners objected to the company’s factory there and identifies Oxfam, Who Profits, and Al-Haq as organizations that led boycott efforts, including through reports.[4] A 2012 Jerusalem Post report described campaigners’ allegations that Ahava extracted and exported Palestinian resources. Ahava denied the allegation and said it took minerals from Israeli waters. The report also noted that Israel disputes the position of countries that consider West Bank settlements illegal.[5]

CODEPINK launched its “Stolen Beauty” campaign against sales of Ahava products in 2009. FDD reports demonstrations at department stores carrying the products and says protesters blocked access to the company’s London store. It says the store’s landlord later did not renew its lease and several department-store chains stopped carrying Ahava products.[4] In a British legal case reported in 2014, four demonstrators convicted of trespassing inside the Covent Garden store appealed their convictions. They argued that Ahava’s activities aided settlement construction, that its goods were connected to alleged war crimes, and that product labels misled consumers. The court rejected the appeal, ruling that the protesters’ actions were too far removed from the alleged crimes to justify disrupting the lawful sale of cosmetics. The report said the London store closed in September 2011 after four years of demonstrations and counter-demonstrations.[24]

Boycott activity also took place outside the United Kingdom. A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs page includes a caption describing a boycott demonstration outside an Ahava branch in Berlin in October 2012.[25] In an account of a Maryland action in late July 2010, the same organization reports that Sabeel activists organized a boycott of Israeli-made Ahava products at a beauty-supply store. Israel supporters responded by buying Ahava products there, a response described as a “buycott.”[26]

NGO Monitor says DanWatch issued a statement on September 26, 2014, titled “Danish trade with cosmetics from settlements: AHAVA.” NGO Monitor characterizes the statement as implying that Ahava illegally extracted Dead Sea resources and disputes that implication; its account is therefore an attributed description of a politically contested allegation, not an independent determination.[27] NGO Monitor further says the statement reportedly helped prompt several Danish retailers to remove Ahava products from displays, without identifying the retailers or quantifying the products or stores affected.[27] It also reports that a 2012 document said businesswoman Abigail Disney would waive profits from an Ahava factory in which she had invested following activity by Who Profits; the page provides no further details about the investment or factory.[28]

The company’s plans to move production arose amid commercial considerations and political pressure. A 2015 report connected the contemplated move to pressure from pro-Palestinian and BDS groups while also reporting Ahava’s stated reasons of production needs and changing manufacturing regulations.[19] A 2016 report described the Ein Gedi facility as a relocation, and later accounts differed over when production was fully consolidated there.[20][22] The 2026 report on Superdrug removing Ahava listings from its online marketplace likewise presented competing accounts: campaigners questioned the company’s historic connection to Mitzpe Shalem, while Ahava denied current production there and disputed the classification of its operations in the UN database.[22]

Commercial performance was reported alongside these pressures. A 2015 report said Ahava’s 2014 revenue was NIS 183 million and its workforce had fallen from 299 in 2013 to 225 at the end of 2014. It said sales had been affected by reduced tourism during Operation Protective Edge and by the economic crisis in Russia. The report also noted that the company’s London outlet had closed about three years earlier after becoming a focus of demonstrations over the factory’s location.[19] In 2014, the ADL reported that Sephora’s decision to stop selling Ahava in the United States had been made for business reasons rather than political ones.[15]