French microbiome-focused skincare brand Gallinée, supported by Unilever Ventures, launched its first beauty supplements this month.
As with the brand’s topical skincare products, the supplements designed for sensitive skin contain prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics—each capsule contains 25 billion live probiotics (as compared to a probiotic yoghurt that encloses one billion probiotics). The supplements contain four strains of probiotics said to have a proven effect on sensitive skin or reducing eczema. “There is increasing proof that the gut microbiome can influence the skin,” Gallinée founder Dr Marie Drago tells Luxe Packaging Insight. “Called the ‘gut-skin axis’, this is quite a new area of research in the probiotics space.”
“Our priority is our formulas and this is where we invest the most, so we opt for standard packaging,” explains Drago. The beauty supplements are packaged in a jar sufficiently watertight as to not require the addition of a foil lid. Here, the brand opted for plastic, as it is lighter to transport. Galinée aims to use French suppliers as much as possible so as to reduce shipping.
“Generally, we aim for as little packaging as possible and only use secondary packaging as a surface for communication, which is the case with our skin supplements. Most of our products, however, only come in primary packs,” Drago explains. The brand is also benefitting from the trend for solid cosmetics: one of its bestsellers is a solid cleanser, which is plastic-free and is packaged in a simple cardboard box.
“We have a low level of preservatives in our products so opting for packaging like pumps and tubes that minimizes contamination is key,” she continues. However, Drago says the brand does not feature airless packaging as the cost is prohibitive.
Gallinée has also been scaling back its sampling due to a desire to reduce its use of single-use plastic; sampling campaigns in the past had featured tubes and sachets. “There are sampling companies out there that are doing great things when it comes to sustainable options, but these aren’t really accessible to us as a small brand,” notes Drago.
