Atashi

Atashi, marketed as Atashi Cellular Cosmetics, is a Spanish facial skincare and complexion brand owned by Laboratorios Phergal, a family-founded laboratory group based in Torrejón de Ardoz, on the eastern edge of Madrid [1]. The company describes the line as hypoallergenic, dermatologically tested "dermopharmaceutical" cosmetics built around plant cells, biotechnological extracts and vitamins, and pitches it at all skin types, sensitive skin included.

The brand is most closely associated with its tinted DD Cream, which has drawn celebrity attention and several magazine awards, and for a serum called L'Essenza Eterna. It remains active, with a running blog, a direct online shop and an award collected in 2025.

Atashi was not acquired; it was created inside Laboratorios Phergal and has stayed there. The company's own history page gives no founding date, saying only that the brand has "more than 15 years of history" and has been around for "more than 16 years since its creation" [3]. A 2024 trade-press profile of Phergal is more specific but describes two starting points. It dates the first Atashi line, a "high sensory cosmetics" range sold through pharmacies, to 2006, and the present Atashi Cellular Cosmetics range, based on gardenia stem cells, to 2014 [13]. Both dates come from that single article rather than from the company. The brand's own "more than 16 years" fits the earlier date better, and this article follows 2006 for the brand and 2014 for the current range.

The name is part of the brand's story. According to the company, "atashi" means "I" in Japanese, and it has built a manifesto campaign around the word under the hashtag #YoMeMíConmigo, roughly "I, me, myself, with me" [3]. In the campaign film, one model plays the aria "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Bizet's Carmen on the piano while another sculpts a figure, a scene the brand presents as a metaphor linking beauty, cosmetics and art. The accompanying text speaks of self-care "without layers, without artifice", and Atashi says the idea draws on the simple skincare rituals of Korean women and a pared-back, "skinminimalist" approach to routines.

Laboratorios Phergal is a privately held Spanish company; Atashi's site calls it a group of "100% Spanish capital". The trade profile traces the laboratory to 1984, when José Elvira Gálvez, then a young telecommunications engineer, founded it in Torrejón de Ardoz to turn his maternal grandfather's handmade herbal ointments into a professional business [13]. Its first registered product was a hemorrhoid cream, sold through a network of herbalist shops. In 1994 the pharmacist María del Pino Navarro joined to lead research and development; Atashi's corporate pages now name her as Phergal's general director.

According to the same profile, Phergal earned good-manufacturing-practice certification in 1995, which opened exports to the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, and built its own factory in Torrejón de Ardoz. Its largest mass-market brand is the Naturtint hair colour line, launched in 1997 and said to account for around 46% of sales, while Farmatint, an ammonia-free hair colour, leads its pharmacy business. Its other brands include Yacel, Elifexir and Clearé Institute, the last of which dates from 2005. The group says it sells in more than 40 countries, with exports as its main source of revenue.

Phergal describes its Madrid site as covering 41,506 square metres, with a production plant, a research laboratory, a logistics centre and offices. The company does not say outright that Atashi is made there. Phergal also states on its own website that it is now a certified B Corp, a label for companies that meet set standards of social and environmental performance; that claim is made at group level rather than for Atashi in particular [9]. The brand's site and Phergal's contact page give different street addresses, both within the same Torrejón de Ardoz postcode.

Atashi presents itself as a pharmacy-grade line rather than a mass-market one. Its history page says the brand's philosophy centres on research that combines science and nature to produce formulas that are both effective and safe, with rigorous testing for effectiveness and skin tolerance. The brand's "Código Atashi" text describes its approach as uniting dermopharmaceutical science with cosmetic innovation to create rituals that respond to real needs. Its tagline, "Resucita tu piel, Calma tu mente", translates as "Revive your skin, calm your mind".

At the heart of the pitch is what the brand calls native plant cells. Atashi's argument is that slowing skin ageing depends on protecting the skin's own stem cells, which handle repair and renewal, and it says the plant cells in its formulas can reactivate and regenerate them [4]. The ingredient most closely tied to the brand is a cell extract from gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides). The company claims this stimulates the production of new collagen and limits its breakdown by outside factors such as ultraviolet light. Other plant-cell ingredients named across its ranges include edelweiss, cranberry, Burgundy black grape, Asian orchid and lilac, alongside Ganoderma mushroom and fermented organic golden millet.

A Korean influence runs through the more recent products. The site has a dedicated "Korean cosmetics" category, and its K-Bioferment line is described as anti-ageing, revitalising and multi-correcting treatments based on Korean skincare. Instead of single products, the brand increasingly sells routines it calls rituals, grouped by "lifestyles" and "life moments", along with gift boxes and an online skin-diagnosis tool.

Phergal's page for the brand describes Atashi Cellular Cosmetics as a set of treatment lines with their own formulas. The Antiedad (anti-ageing) line is said to repair the skin and reactivate collagen production. Firmeza y Luminosidad (firmness and radiance) targets ageing linked to chronic inflammation of the skin. The Antioxidante line is pitched as protection against environmental stress, UV and infrared radiation, and pollution. Fresh & Pure is aimed at combination, oily and acne-prone skin, and SuperNight covers overnight treatments. K-Bioferment, the Korean-inspired range, uses bio-ferments and "skin boosters" and claims an instant lifting and plumping effect.

The product most often linked to the brand is the DD Cream Nude Skin Perfection SPF 15, a tinted cream meant to replace foundation while working as skincare. A 2020 Harper's Bazaar España article described it as formulated with gardenia stem cells and black pearl. It added that its retinol and Spilanthol 50 content gives a natural lifting effect, and that it evens skin tone, minimises pores, fades dark spots and offers SPF 15 protection for all skin types [11]. A matte version, DD Cream Stay Matte, sits alongside it.

The serum L'Essenza Eterna is the brand's other headline product. A 2024 Diez Minutos feature listed its active ingredients as pure bakuchiol, a plant-derived ingredient often used as a gentler alternative to retinol, along with natural ferulic acid and Myramaze-Essence, an extract of Myrothamnus, known as the "resurrection plant". Beta-carotene and lutein were included for protection against oxidative stress and the blue light of screens [12]. The same feature showed the serum sold in gift boxes, one of them paired with a gua sha massage stone.

Other recurring products include the K-Bioferment Therapy Cream and Luxury Therapy Serum, the Advanced Primer Instant Blur Cover Up and the Radiant Instant Skin Antifatigue Flash Peel Glycolic, a glycolic-acid peel. The range also includes eye-contour creams, a SuperNight Dermo Filler Mask, and a high-strength restorative serum and toner under the Terapia Antioxidante Longévite name.

Atashi's history page lists a string of awards, most of them from Spanish magazines [3]. The DD Cream Nude Skin Perfection won Clara magazine's best makeup product award in 2023. L'Essenza Eterna was named best anti-ageing facial product in Clara's 2024 awards, received InStyle's Pro-Age Breakthrough Cosmetic award in 2024, and won best serum in Glamour's beauty awards, in a year the page does not specify. In 2025 the DD Cream was named Best Complexion Product at the Pure Beauty Global Awards, and the brand quotes Pure Beauty Magazine calling it ideal for a "no make-up make-up" effect.

Press coverage has often come through celebrities. In 2020 Harper's Bazaar España reported that the actress Paula Echevarría uses Atashi's DD Cream in place of foundation and has declared herself an "unconditional fan" of it [11]. A 2024 Christmas gift feature in Diez Minutos tied the brand's gift boxes to the model and actress Mar Flores [12]. The brand's homepage also links to coverage in Spanish titles including Telva, Vogue, Glamour, Woman, La Razón, Semana and El Mundo's Yo Dona.

Atashi's corporate responsibility page speaks for Phergal as a whole and rests on three pillars: social work, sponsorship and what it calls natural awareness [2]. Under the first, Phergal says it works with the Fundación Vicente Ferrer on social projects in India. In 2015, according to the company, its support helped the foundation provide decent housing for 13 Dalit families and families from other disadvantaged castes. Under the third, the company says its formulas use a high share of natural, organic and organically farmed ingredients. The page quotes María del Pino Navarro describing skincare and sustainability as commitments the company has kept for more than 30 years. These statements concern the parent company in general, not Atashi specifically.

Atashi is active. It runs its own online shop and a regular blog; the most recent post, on what a facial peel is and what it does, is dated 29 October 2026 [8]. The brand is sold mainly through pharmacies, where its site offers a pharmacy locator, as well as through department stores such as El Corte Inglés, online marketplaces including Amazon, and its own website. The 2025 Pure Beauty Global Award is the most recent honour the brand lists.