Gallinée

Gallinée is a British skincare brand built around the skin microbiome, founded in London by the pharmacist Marie Drago. Its products use a patented complex of prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics, working from the premise that supporting the skin's resident bacteria — rather than scrubbing them away — leads to calmer, healthier skin. Since September 2022 the brand has been owned by the Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido, which acquired all of its outstanding shares [1][2].

Editorial sources place the consumer launch in 2016, though the exact founding date is recorded differently across sources (see History & milestones). The brand sells across more than 30 countries, with the United Kingdom and France as its core markets [3], and remains in operation as a Shiseido sub-brand.

Gallinée was created by Marie Drago, a Paris-born pharmacist who had been based in London for more than a decade. Drago trained in industrial pharmacy and later completed a pharmacy thesis specifically on the skin microbiome and topical probiotics — the work that became the scientific foundation for the brand.

The starting point was personal. In her twenties, Drago was diagnosed with pyoderma gangrenosum, a skin condition caused by an autoimmune reaction, and turned to a prebiotic and probiotic diet that improved her symptoms. According to the company, that experience led to the question at the heart of the brand: what happens if you care for your skin's bacteria the way you might care for your gut? The early business was modest, launching in London on family-and-friends capital after a small crowdfunding campaign.

The brand's earliest public step was a 2015 Kickstarter campaign, which raised close to £15,000 [3]. A consumer launch followed in London with an initial set of skincare products built around the patented pre-, pro- and postbiotic complex.

Sources do not fully agree on which year to treat as the founding date. Most beauty editorial, including BeautyMatter, gives 2016 — the year of the consumer launch [2]. Shiseido's own acquisition press release records the company as founded in 2014, which more likely reflects the date of company registration [1]. The 2015 crowdfunding campaign sits between the two. 2016 stands as the headline year, since it marks the brand's launch to the public and is the most commonly cited figure.

In February 2018, Unilever Ventures took a minority investment stake in the company. Four years later, in September 2022, Shiseido Europe S.A. acquired all of Gallinée's outstanding shares, making it a wholly owned part of the Shiseido group.

Gallinée is owned by Shiseido Company, Limited, through its subsidiary Shiseido Europe S.A., which completed the full acquisition in September 2022 [1]. Earlier, Unilever Ventures had held only a minority stake from 2018; it was never the parent company [2]. After the Shiseido deal, founder Marie Drago joined the group as Chief Creative Officer for Gallinée, reporting to Shiseido's EMEA leadership [1].

Within Shiseido, Gallinée sits alongside brands such as Clé de Peau Beauté, NARS, Serge Lutens, Narciso Rodriguez and Drunk Elephant.

The brand's guiding idea is summed up in its tagline, "happy skin needs happy bacteria." Rather than the conventional approach of killing bacteria on the skin, Gallinée describes its aim as supporting and restoring the skin's natural microbiome. Its stated mission is that "caring for your bacteria is the solution to healthier, better-looking skin."

In practice the approach combines prebiotics to feed beneficial bacteria, lactic acid to keep conditions favourable for them, and formulas designed to protect rather than strip the skin's bacterial ecosystem. The brand positions itself toward sensitive-skin users looking for gentle, science-led care, and frames itself as a holistic beauty company that also looks at the gut-skin connection.

Gallinée's range spans skincare, body care and haircare, alongside supplements that target the gut-skin axis; at the time of the Shiseido acquisition it counted around 17 products [2]. At the centre of the formulas is a patented combination of probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics [2], marketed in later products as a "Triple Biotic Complex" in its Universal Face Cream.

Among its better-known items are the Universal Face Cream, a foaming facial cleanser, and a perfume-free solid cleansing bar formulated at a skin-friendly pH of around 5.8. Beauty Independent described that cleansing bar as a bestseller that had sold out twice [3]. The brand has also extended the microbiome concept into supplements, such as a Youth & Microbiome product.

After the acquisition, Gallinée said it had significant innovation plans tied to a partnership with a Shiseido research centre focused on skin and body data analysis.

Gallinée makes several sustainability claims about its products and packaging. The company states that all of its products are 100% vegan and that it uses only vegan ingredients, prioritising biotech-derived or highly renewable sources such as algae where possible. It also describes itself as cruelty-free, though no third-party certification is named in available sources.

On packaging, the brand says its best-selling foaming facial cleanser is now made from recycled plastic and is itself recyclable, and that it is working to move its range toward recycled, recyclable and lower-waste formats. It describes its packaging as intentionally minimalist and says it is committed to improving it further.

Gallinée is an operating brand owned by Shiseido following the full acquisition in 2022 [1]. Founder Marie Drago has remained its public face: in early 2024 she was scheduled to speak at NutraIngredients' Probiota event and discussed the brand's innovation plans, confirming ongoing activity [5].