Phergal

Phergal, legally Laboratorios Phergal, S.A., is a Spanish laboratory that develops, manufactures and sells cosmetics, hair colour, hair care, nutricosmetics and food supplements. It was founded in 1984 by José Elvira Gálvez [9] and is based near Madrid, where it runs its own production plant, research laboratory and logistics centre. Rather than a single product line, Phergal is a house of brands: its portfolio includes the hair-colour range Naturtint, the pharmacy skincare lines Atashi and E'lifexir, the lip-care brand Volumax, the hair-care specialist Clearé Institute, the low-waste range Dr Tree and the body-care brand Yacel.

Exports have played a large part in the company's growth. In a 2019 interview, its general director said that 69% of turnover was generated outside Spain [15], and the company now says its products are distributed in more than 40 countries across five continents. Phergal remains active, publishing company news and award announcements through 2026.

The company's own history begins in 1984, when José Elvira Gálvez started producing and selling dietary and pharmaceutical products made with plant extracts. According to Phergal, these were sold through herbalist shops, with roughly 2,300 points of sale in the early years. In 2023 the company described him as its founder and executive chairman.

Spanish trade press tells a more specific origin story. In a 2019 profile, the marketing magazine IPMARK described Phergal as a small family business that had been making an anti-haemorrhoid cream, Natur-Hemo, by hand; according to that account, Gálvez created the company so that the cream could be registered as a health product and sold in herbalists and pharmacies [15]. A 2024 company history in Marketing4eCommerce also places the business's beginnings in Extremadura, in western Spain [16]. The company's own website does not mention either the cream or Extremadura, and the same Marketing4eCommerce article elsewhere places the 1984 founding in Torrejón de Ardoz, near Madrid.

The second figure in Phergal's story is María del Pino Navarro. She joined as technical director and head of research and development, leading the formulation of the company's first dermocosmetic products. The company's timeline dates her arrival to 1994 [9]; in the IPMARK interview, however, she says she joined "just in 1995" [15], in the middle of the transformation of the first factory. Navarro took over as general director in 2013, with responsibility for the company's strategy and its expansion in Spain and abroad.

The turning point came in the mid-1990s with hair colour. In 1995 the company launched Farmatint, which it describes as the first "healthy" permanent hair colour without ammonia, sold through pharmacies. IPMARK credits the discovery of this ammonia-free formula with taking the company into foreign markets. A year later, in 1996, Phergal opened a new factory in Torrejón de Ardoz with 5,500 square metres of total space.

In 1997 the company followed Farmatint with Naturtint, a version of its ammonia-free colour made for the mass-market retail channel. IPMARK called Naturtint the company's biggest commercial milestone. According to Navarro, large organic retail chains such as Holland & Barrett in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and Whole Foods in the United States picked up the product at a time when shoppers in the US and northern Europe were looking for hair colour with natural ingredients.

The 2000s brought a steady run of new brands. Volumax, a lip-care line, and Yacel, a body-care brand for the mass market, arrived in 2001. In 2005 Phergal launched E'lifexir, a range of targeted body treatments for pharmacies, along with the premium nutricosmetics line Innovage and Clearé Institute, set up to deal with hair problems. The same year the company bought a logistics platform in Torres de la Alameda. Atashi, positioned by the company as sensorial skincare for pharmacies, followed in 2006.

Also in 2006, Phergal acquired Laboratorios Gayoso, a company specialising in pharmaceutical products [9]. IPMARK headlined its 2019 profile of Phergal with the proverb of the small fish eating the big one.

Later milestones were mostly product-led. In 2013 the company gained ISO 9001 quality and ISO 22716 good-manufacturing-practice certification, and Clearé Institute introduced Colour Pharma, a hair colour aimed at mature hair. Launches through the mid-2010s included sports cosmetics under E'lifexir, new Yacel for Men lines, firming and brightening products from Atashi, and, in 2017, the E'lifexir Baby Care range. In July 2023 Phergal marked its 39th anniversary at its facilities in Torrejón de Ardoz, and its English-language website later carried the headline "40 Years of Inspiration".

Phergal is an independent company. No parent company is named in public sources, and IPMARK described it in 2019 as a family business. Its founder, José Elvira Gálvez, was described by the company in 2023 as its executive chairman. The company's one documented acquisition is that of Laboratorios Gayoso in 2006.

The address of its headquarters is given in two slightly different ways. The legal notice on the Spanish website gives the registered office as Calle Hierro 79 in Torrejón de Ardoz, in the Community of Madrid [13]. The footer and "About" pages of the company's websites instead list Calle Silicio 62, 28850 Madrid [2]. Both addresses carry the Torrejón de Ardoz postcode 28850; the second uses "Madrid" for the wider region.

Phergal presents itself as a "100% Spanish" dermopharmaceutical company, and it describes its own place in the cosmetics, hair-colour, hair-care and supplement markets as a leading one. Its stated mission is to offer "the most effective, innovative and safe products" to support beauty, well-being and health. The Spanish website names three core values: innovation, strict scientific rigour and pharmaceutical experience. The English site sums up the approach in a tagline: "We do science with humanity."

Much of this positioning rests on plant-based formulation. According to the company, its products are built on botanical and natural extracts chosen for their effect while keeping the risk of allergic reactions low. Phergal says every product is tested dermatologically, clinically and on children's skin, and that efficacy is checked through studies on people as well as in the laboratory. It credits a team of pharmacists, dermatologists, chemists, nutritionists, engineers and biologists with this work, and says speed to market, from spotting a technology to launching a product, sets it apart.

The company sells through three main channels: pharmacies, mass-market retail and natural health stores. Abroad it works through a network of exclusive distributors, while in Spain it has its own sales force of more than 35 managers. Figures for its international reach vary by page and by year: IPMARK reported a presence in more than 30 countries in 2019, the English website now says more than 40, the Spanish website says more than 45, and Marketing4eCommerce gave "more than 43" in 2024. The company lists emerging markets in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East and North Africa alongside established sales in Europe and the United States.

Phergal splits its portfolio into two groups. The pharmacy brands are Atashi, E'lifexir (including its Baby Care line), Volumax, Clearé Institute and Dr Tree. Naturtint and Yacel, including Yacel for Men, are sold as mass-market and perfumery brands.

Naturtint's range includes permanent and semi-permanent hair colours, root touch-up products, shampoos, conditioners and hair masks. Phergal describes Naturtint as the leader of its category in international markets. The brand's UK website states that Naturtint is made by Laboratorios Phergal in Madrid to good-manufacturing-practice standards [17].

On the skincare side, Atashi, marketed as Atashi Cellular Cosmetics, covers anti-ageing, firming, antioxidant and night-care lines, including the K-Bioferment range. Products that the company highlights include the DD Cream Nude Skin Perfection and the L'Essenza Eterna anti-ageing serum. E'lifexir focuses on body care, with oils for stretch marks and firmness, among them the Minucell Intensive Oil and a Bakuchiol Anti-Sagging Oil. Its Cóctel de Belleza Nocturna, a night treatment, won an innovation award from the Spanish newspaper La Razón in 2015.

Volumax was introduced as what the company calls the first anti-ageing line for lip volume and care; its more recent products include the Plump It Nutri-Colour lip product. Clearé Institute covers hair problems such as dandruff, weak hair and curly hair. Dr Tree includes solid shampoo bars, solid body bars and family-care products, and the company calls it its most eco-friendly brand.

Phergal says its 41,506-square-metre facility in the Madrid area includes a production plant, a research laboratory, a logistics plant and offices. In addition to ISO 9001 and ISO 22716, the company reports ISO 14001 environmental certification. It also lists Ecocert and COSMOS certification, which apply to particular lines such as Naturtint, Dr Tree's solid shampoos and Clearé Institute rather than to the whole range.

Phergal has made sustainability a larger part of its public profile in recent years. The company is certified as a B Corp by B Lab [4], a label for companies that meet set standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability; the date of certification is not stated on its website.

In 2026 the company announced that it had offset all of its carbon dioxide emissions, 393 tonnes, through a reforestation project in Asturias [6]. The same announcement said Phergal had received the "Calculate and Offset" seal from Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge for the second year running. An earlier report on the company's certifications page gave an offset share of 94.56%. On the Naturtint website, Phergal also states that its products are cruelty-free and that it opposes animal testing.

Phergal publishes a long list of awards, many of them from consumer magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, InStyle and Clara [5]. These include prizes for Atashi's DD Cream at the Clara Beauty Awards in 2022, for the L'Essenza Eterna serum from Glamour and Clara in 2024, and for Volumax Plump It Nutri-Colour from Glamour and InStyle in 2026. Atashi's K-Bioferment Instant Blur Magic Eyes was named best national product at the Vogue Beauty Awards 2026. Atashi's DD Cream also won gold for best complexion product at the Pure Beauty Global Awards in 2025.

Several awards recognise the company's environmental work. Dr Tree received gold as best eco brand at the VPC Awards in 2023 and again in 2024, and Dr Tree Eco Packs won Men's Health's Cuídate award for best eco product in 2023. In 2024 La Razón's sustainability awards gave Phergal its prize for best laboratory of sustainable dermopharmaceutical cosmetics, and in 2025 the Beauty Innovation Awards gave it the prize for best sustainable innovation company.

Business awards reflect the company's focus on exports. In 2022 Phergal received the Marketplaces Awards Spain prize for best internationalisation through online marketplaces, and Marketing4eCommerce reported that it was a finalist in a category for internationalisation strategy. The company has also received an Alphega Development Award in the dermocosmetics category. In 2026 the Digital Beauty Awards ranked Naturtint as the second-best hair-care brand in the digital environment.

Phergal is active. In September 2026 the company announced that Jesús Mazo had been appointed commercial director, and that four of its brands were finalists in the 2026 Pure Beauty Awards [1]. Its websites continue to list new awards from 2026, and it describes its distribution as covering more than 40 countries on five continents.