Bakel

Bakel is an Italian skincare company based in Udine, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. It was founded by Dr. Raffaella Gregoris, a chemist who built the brand around a single editorial idea: cosmetics made only of active ingredients, with nothing added for texture, scent or shelf life. The company's own account gives the founding year as 2009 [3], while several editorial profiles place it in 2008 [10]; trade coverage describing the launch as roughly twelve years before 2022 points to the same late-2000s window [8].

The brand is still operating. Its e-commerce site carries current collections and a loyalty programme, its products are stocked in hotel spas across Italy, and its most recent flagship launch took a 2023 industry award. Bakel positions itself within the clean-beauty movement, but with an unusually clinical emphasis: efficacy first, transparency and safety alongside it.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

Raffaella Gregoris trained as a chemist and holds qualifications in skincare chemistry and cosmetology. Before founding the company she taught on the Pharmacy faculty at the University of Milan [9]. According to interviews, she started Bakel out of frustration with what she saw as marketing exaggeration in skincare, wanting a range "free of tricks and slogans" that relied on ingredients validated by dermatologists and plastic surgeons [9].

The company frames its origin around what it calls "a simple but apparently impossible idea: the creation of completely clean and absolutely effective products." Editorial accounts say the brand launched with a starter range of six fluids and presented at the Cosmoprof trade fair in Bologna [10][8].

Bakel describes its approach as "Advanced Clean Beauty," and the distinction it draws is that clean formulation should mean greater effectiveness than conventional cosmetics, not less. The central claim is a range "made of 100% active ingredients and zero useless substances," with preservatives and ingredients the company considers controversial removed rather than reduced.

Three principles recur across the brand's material: efficacy, transparency and safety. On transparency, the company says it dedicates a full face of each package to the ingredient list, on the reasoning that a buyer should be able to understand exactly what a product contains. Products are described as dermatologically tested and free of heavy metals, nickel and gluten. Gregoris has summarised the position bluntly in trade press: "It's not marketing, it's science" [8].

The line spans face and body care: cleansers, exfoliants, masks, and anti-ageing serums and creams, organised on the brand's site by skin concern and skin type. Long-standing products include the hyaluronic-acid serum JALU-TECH, the vitamin C serum THIO-C and the eye treatment COOL-EYES. Across the range the recurring active ingredients are hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, biomimetic peptides and ceramide-rich vegetable oils, mapped by the company to six mechanisms it identifies in skin ageing.

The brand's most distinctive product is Jalu-3D, a patch made from intertwined ribbons of pure hyaluronic acid and the first item in what Bakel calls its 3D range. The company says the underlying technology — a polymer given a three-dimensional structure that can interact with skin in a solid state — is protected by five patents [5], and that it was developed over roughly seven years. Bakel reports that clinical testing showed the patches delivering more than ten times the average absorption of a topical treatment [5], and trade coverage cites a 32 percent increase in collagen density [8]. The patches are sold with sustainability claims attached: a compostable film in recycled, recyclable paper packaging.

Bakel's environmental messaging runs under the heading "Beauty Conscious," advocating what it terms "healthy beauty in a healthy environment" through products it describes as sustainable, transparent and safe. The company states that all its formulas are made in Italy, that its products are vegan and cruelty-free, and that it uses eco-sustainable airless packaging. Editorial profiles additionally report Kosher and gluten-free certification and nickel and heavy-metal testing.

In 2023, Jalu-3D won the Prix d'Excellence de la Beauté, an award run by the French edition of Marie Claire, in its High Tech category for cosmetic-technology innovation [7]. The brand has also drawn trade attention in the United States: Women's Wear Daily reported that Bakel was named "Newcomer of the Year" by Beauty Biz WWD, which it characterised as the first and only Italian skincare brand to receive the recognition, coinciding with the U.S. launch of Jalu-3D [8]. The company was profiled earlier by UK title Get The Gloss in 2015, when its products were sold through Space NK and the London pharmacy John Bell & Croyden [9].

Bakel is active. As of 2026 the official site at bakel.it operates as a live storefront with current collections, a store locator and a loyalty programme, supported by active social channels, and the brand maintains Skin SPA partnerships with a number of Italian hotels and resorts. Its last major public milestone is the 2023 Marie Claire award [7]. A separate .com domain associated with the brand carries an expired security certificate, but the Italian site remains the working storefront.