Indie Beauty Profile
Marie Drago, Gallinée
Probiotics have moved from the food sector into beauty. And industry leaders, like Johnson & Johnson, ingredient makers like Sabinsa, and researchers around the globe are working to make personal care and bacteria cooperative. At the same time, innovative skin care brands like Gallinée are a big part of this industry shift too, creating products that care for the skin and for the microbiome. As they say at Gallinée,“Bring your skin to life!”
Here, the beauty entrepreneur shares a profile of herself and the brand.
Name: Marie Drago, PharmD, Founder
Indie Beauty Company: Gallinée
Launched: April 2016
Headquarters: London, UK
Cash flow: Gallinée successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign back in 2015—really good proof for us that there was a real market for bacterial beauty. Now the brand has sold 10,000 products in 9 months.
Team work: 2 full-time employees and 1 part-time
Distribution: Gallinée is sold across the UK at Harvey Nichols, WholeFoods, and pharmacies, and also online through the Hut Group, Birchbox, FeelUnique and the company’s own ecommerce website.
Years in beauty: 15
Years at Gallinée: >1
Entrepreneurial experience: Gallinée is my first company. And, I was lucky to have worked in beauty startups and SME before this.
The business: Gallinée skincare focuses on the skin microbiome thanks to a complex of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics.
The wow-factor: Gallinée products support your skin microbiome, and Gallinée is often described as the first bacterial beauty brand.
The customer: Thanks to the very special formulations, the same product can be used by young problem skin, sensitive skin, or dry skin. We tend to target in priority urban women with sensitive skin.
Milestone moment: I will never get used to people telling me they know and use the brand, it is a very strange feeling. We do all our PR in house and when we launched, the brand was featured in Elle, Vogue and Glamour. Seeing our products sitting between Dior and Clinique was a moment of pride and wonder.
Advice for fellow indie beauty entrepreneurs: Never be scared to talk about your ideas with the people around you. The more you talk the more you refine your concept and people are always willing to help enthusiastic entrepreneurs. I was told early in my career that no-one is going to steal your idea, probably 10 people already have had the same idea before. What’s going to make the difference is the work bringing it to the market.
Just one: Asked about her go-to product, Drago says, Gallinée Hydrating Face Cream is quite special. I love the fact it’s super light but really moisturizing and ultra-concentrated. The smell is surprising, there is no perfume but the actives give it this gingerbread aroma. It is developing a bit of a cult following for people with sensitive skin, I have heard of customers buying them by 4.
