INSÌUM

INSÌUM is an Italian skincare brand based in Udine, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region of north-east Italy. It was founded in 2016 by Francesca di Lenardo and trades under the company DI LENARDO COSMETICS S.r.l. [6]. The name comes from the Latin in somnum, "during sleep", and in old Friulian means "dream" [2]. The brand positions itself as high-tech, vegan and cruelty-free clean skincare, combining biotechnological active ingredients with formulas it says are free of substances it considers irritating or harmful.

The brand remains active. Its website is currently maintained, and its products are sold through Italian specialty perfumeries and a smaller number of European and Asian markets.

Francesca di Lenardo was born into a wine-producing family in Trieste, a background the company links to the environmental and ethical values it associates with the brand. Before founding INSÌUM she spent more than fifteen years in senior communications and marketing roles in Milan, working at the agency Grey Group as Group Account Director and New Business Vice President [2]. According to the company, she returned to Udine to start a skincare venture aligned with her own vision for cosmetics. An Italian regional profile adds that she moved back to Friuli after having two children and finding it impractical to keep working between cities [6].

The brand draws explicitly on its regional setting, describing Friuli Venezia Giulia as a place of "pure, unspoilt beauty" and stating that its products are designed and made in Italy.

INSÌUM describes its purpose as creating "a sacrosanct place" where customers can step away from daily stress and spend time on skincare, using products it presents as pure, effective and pleasant to use. The company organises its identity around four stated values: Vision, Formulas, Purity and Pleasure. Its tagline is La bellezza scorre pura, which it translates as "beauty flows pure".

The positioning sits within the clean-beauty and vegan-beauty currents that grew over the 2010s, pairing a "science and nature" framing with an emphasis on transparency about what the formulas contain and exclude [8].

The brand's range spans facial skincare — cleansing, scrubs and masks, lotions, essences, eye care, serums and creams — alongside body treatments, personal care, suncare and a small make-up line. Its flagship is the TIMELESS Line, which the company frames around a single anti-ageing product intended to treat the whole face.

At the centre of the formulas is a proprietary INSÌUM BOOSTER COMPLEX containing NEUROGUARD and Tripeptide-2. Other ingredients the brand highlights include MOSSCELLTEC No. 1, resveratrol, vitamins C and E, and malic and tartaric acids [1]. The company states that its products exclude silicones, mineral oils, animal-derived materials, paraffins, PEG/PPG compounds, nanomaterials, propylene glycol, alcohols, EDTA, sulfates and parabens. It uses airless packaging to limit contamination and reports that its secondary packaging is FSC-certified and its products carry PETA certification for vegan and cruelty-free status [1].

INSÌUM's hero ingredient MOSSCELLTEC No. 1 received the European Best Ingredient Award at the In-Cosmetics event in 2018. The brand was named Most Advanced Vegan Skincare Brand at the UK Fashion & Lifestyle Awards in 2019 [6], and won Best Vegan Brand in the sustainability category at the Marie Claire UK Skin Awards in 2022. Reviewing it for that award, judge Jasmine Hemsley wrote: "This is a brand I've not heard of before. The formulation of the product I received is impressive, excludes the worst offenders in synthetic formulations and has a beautiful fragrance and feel" [7].

The brand is sold through more than 100 specialty perfumeries in Italy and abroad, and has appeared in spa settings at Baglioni Hotels and the Baglioni Resort in the Maldives [6]. Its store locator lists distribution in Italy alongside Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Russia, Ukraine and Thailand, with the strongest presence in Italy and a thinner spread elsewhere.

As of 2026 the brand is active, with an actively maintained website and ongoing retail and spa distribution. No Wikipedia article exists for INSÌUM, and editorial coverage outside Italy is limited, consistent with its scale as a small independent house.