Davines

Davines is an Italian professional haircare and skincare company based in Parma. It traces its origin to a cosmetics research laboratory established in 1983 by the Bollati family, which initially formulated high-end hair care for outside cosmetics and fashion houses, among them Fendi and La Perla [4]. In 1992 the company began producing its own Davines-branded products exclusively for salons, the moment that turned a contract laboratory into a consumer brand. The business remains family-owned and privately held under the Davines Group umbrella [9].

The company sits at the intersection of professional hairdressing and the sustainability movement. It is a certified B Corporation and a Benefit Corporation, and it distributes in more than 90 countries while continuing to route its customers through hairdressers and salons rather than mass retail. Chairman Davide Bollati has framed this as a deliberate choice: "We direct our consumers to hairdressers and salons, which is not to be taken for granted."

Davines was founded in Parma in 1983 by the Bollati family as a cosmetics research laboratory. In its early years it did not sell under its own name; instead it developed and produced hair care for established cosmetics and fashion companies. The pivot to a standalone identity came in 1992, when the firm started making Davines-branded hair care sold only through salons, and Davide Bollati joined the family company.

The founding date is recorded differently depending on what is being dated. The company itself counts 1983, the year the laboratory was established, as its origin [4]. Russian Wikipedia, the only Wikipedia article on the group, dates the Davines product brand specifically to 1993 [7] — a reference to the launch of own-brand products rather than the founding of the company. Both reflect the same history at different points.

A similar discrepancy surrounds Davide Bollati's background. According to the company, he holds a pharmacy degree with a Master in Cosmetic Sciences and joined the family business in 1992 [4]. Russian Wikipedia instead states that he graduated from Harvard University [7]; the brand's own account is the more authoritative for a self-reported biographical detail.

Davines is the flagship of Davines Group, an Italian family-owned company that Newsweek describes as a B Corp beauty business specializing in sustainable haircare and skincare [9]. The group has built a small portfolio around the core brand. It founded the skincare line comfort zone in 1996 for premium spas, and Skin Regimen, originally a Davines sub-line, became an independent brand in 2018.

In 2024 the group acquired the Morris Profumi plant and converted it from fragrance production to cosmetics manufacturing, expanding its industrial base in Italy [8].

For more than two decades the company operated under the tagline "Sustainable Beauty"; in 2026 it shifted to "For a Good Life" [4]. Its stated mission is "to do our best for the world, creating good life for all, through beauty, ethics and sustainability," and it describes its products as born from intuition and made with an artisan spirit using advanced cosmetic technologies. The brand's values centre on beauty, ethics, sustainability, regeneration and what it calls radical interdependence.

Commercially, Davines positions itself as a professional, salon-distributed brand rather than a retail one. Roughly 82 percent of its revenue is international, and its hair care reaches around 8,500 salons in the United States alone [8]. This professional channel is treated as part of the brand's identity, not merely a sales route.

Davines is built mainly around hair care — shampoos, conditioners, masks, treatments, oils and styling products — alongside a smaller face and body skincare range. Its catalogue is organised into named collections such as OI, Essential Haircare, Naturaltech, Alchemic, Pasta & Love and Authentic Formulas.

Ingredient development is tied to a physical site. Within the Davines Village the company maintains the Scientific Garden, a 3,000-square-metre open-air laboratory where researchers study plants for use in formulas. Botanicals grown or studied there feed specific lines: sunflower oil in the Authentic range, artichoke extract in a detoxifying line, and Agastache mexicana in an energizing line, among others. The company reports that its products contain 87.1 percent natural-origin ingredients and says it is working to raise that proportion further [3].

Sustainability is central to how Davines presents itself, and the claims are backed by third-party certification. The company achieved B Corp certification in 2016, scoring 99.3 out of 200 points, and was recertified in 2023 with 123.5 points [4]. From 2019 its Italian headquarters and U.S. branch became Benefit Corporations, a legal status committing the business to social and environmental goals alongside profit.

The company's headquarters and production sit at the Davines Village outside Parma, a complex designed by architects Matteo Thun and Luca Colombo and opened in 2018. The brand states that all electricity used at the production site comes from renewable sources. In 2021 it co-founded the European Regenerative Organic Center (EROC) with the United States–based Rodale Institute, a research effort focused on regenerative organic agriculture, which obtained Regenerative Organic Certification in 2024 [9]. The company's published targets include cutting greenhouse-gas emissions per kilogram of bulk product by 55 percent by 2030 against a 2022 baseline, and reaching net-zero emissions across its value chain by 2050.

Davines has been recognised primarily for its sustainability model. It received a B Corp "Best For The World: Environment" listing in 2018, and in 2024 won an EY award for its sustainable business model. In 2024 and 2025 the group ranked 98th in WWD Beauty Inc's Top 100 list of beauty companies [8]. The brand and its chairman have also been the subject of feature interviews in WWD and Newsweek, both focused on the company's regenerative and B Corp approach.

Davines is active and growing. Women's Wear Daily reported 2025 sales of 306.7 million euros, up 3.9 percent on the previous year, with the group employing more than 1,000 people worldwide [8]. The company has announced a five-year, 50-million-euro investment plan and is expanding the Davines Village site. It continues to operate as an independent, family-owned business distributed through salons in more than 90 countries.