The French Beauty Brand That Uses Bacteria to Treat Troubled Skin
On one of the advertisements for French beauty brand Gallinée, the text reads: "You are 50% bacteria. This is not an insult."
The 5-year-old brand's unique selling point is its use of bacteria in its formulations, namely, probiotics. Founded by veteran pharmacist Marie Drago, Gallinée's pitch goes like this: There's good bacteria in your body too — so why not use more of it to treat problematic skin?
Drago herself gives off a similar vibe: Impish and playful, but also intelligent and hopeful. It's something that she says she couldn't help but infuse into her skincare brand — especially after her own exhausting and heartbreaking journey to good skin.
Drago was previously diagnosed with Pyoderma Gangrenosum, a rare inflammatory skin disease characterised by spontaneous ulcers. "Don't look it up on Google image," she quips, "It's not pretty."
Drago says she tried treating her condition with numerous drugs and topical creams, none of which worked. Eventually, she switched to a diet "focused on probiotics and prebiotics" — and noticed immediate results.
She says she wanted to apply her findings to her own beauty brand to help others find relief: Today, Gallinée has found a loyal following among those with problematic skin conditions like acne, rosacea and psoriasis.
"It's like turning a bad situation into a good one," says Drago. "I'm proud to help others out there with sensitive skin like mine."
Below, Drago tells us about how she incorporates good bacteria into her formulations and why Gallinée's products are so effective for inflammatory skin conditions — offering up some amusing bon mots along the way. ("Pharmacists are specialists in nothing, but have an opinion about everything," jokes Drago of her own profession. "Parisian pharmacists are the worst.")
You grew up with an autoimmune disease. What was it like, and how did you treat it?
I was diagnosed years ago with something quite gross called Pyoderma Gangrenosum. Don’t look it up on Google image, it is spontaneous ulcers that occur on the leg and it’s not pretty. I went through an array of treatments, from high-dose corticosteroids (I gained 10 kg and grew sideburns) to my favourite, a drug you give to people who receive a transplant, to quieten down their immune system as much as possible. Luckily it’s not a painful disease, but seeing your ulcer getting bigger every morning for no reason was a big stress for me, and stress really doesn’t help!
I was really relieved when I finally got the diagnosis. That’s where it got really interesting: Pyoderma is a very rare disease, but over the last decade it is becoming less and less rare. It’s part of this wave of inflammatory diseases that are popping up all around the world, probably because we’ve been damaging our microbiome so much. This started a whole journey of science research for me, that gave me the idea of creating Gallinée.
When did you make the discovery that probiotics and prebiotics were good for you?
Thanks to my autoimmune disease, I focused on a probiotic and prebiotic focused diet. The switch proved effective, inspiring the revolutionary idea of “if consuming probiotics and prebiotics can do so much for our gut, why is no one taking care of the bacteria on our skin?”.
Turning this bad situation to a good one, I am now proud to be a pioneer of microbiome skincare, helping others out there with sensitive skin like mine.
How do you create each product? Could you walk me through the process using an example in your line?
I have the chance to be both on the science and marketing side, which I know is quite rare. For our Face Vinegar Toner for example, I was having a drink with a Korean friend in London, and we were discussing drinking vinegars, as it was on the menu of this cool place. She was saying in Korea her grandmother used it on cuts and bruises, and I was telling her that in France my grandmother used it to make hair shiny. Then I realised vinegar could actually be a postbiotic: it’s produced by good bacteria and can have great effect on the skin and its microbiome. I thought it would be so cool to have vinegar as a key ingredient in a face product.
I went back home, looked at a lot of science papers on acetic acid (the active ingredient in vinegar), and found how it can be used against eczema. Then I contacted some ingredient manufacturers to find good vinegar and briefed my lab on the formula I wanted - we added a really interesting prebiotic from algae.
After a few trials I found a perfect combo of ingredients that I was really was happy with. We then decided on a packaging and a name (I had to fight a little bit to call it a Face Vinegar). We then did all the testing, the results came back amazing both for sensitive and problem skin, and we even developed two patents on this product!
It was a bit scary to launch it, as we were the first ever vinegar product for the face in Europe, but it’s now our most famous product, and it makes me so happy.
What is it about Gallinée’s formulations that make them so effective for people with inflammatory skin conditions?
I find it so interesting that until recently these diseases were so common but so badly understood. For acne we knew a bacteria was responsible, but we thought that killing all bacteria on your face and hope for the best was the right way. For eczema, psoriasis and rosacea we could see the inflammation but didn’t really understand what was causing it.
Today we understand better and better that it all comes from an inbalance of the skin microbiome. If your microbiome is a bit damaged, some bad bacteria takes the power and provokes inflammation: C. acnes for acne, S. aureus for eczema, and so on.
The revolution is to say that instead of killing this bacteria, the best is to help rebalance your microbiome, so that good bacteria comes back into power and manage the problem themselves.
Gallinée is only a beauty brand, but we have excellent results for people prone to these problems. I found it so interesting that we just completed a big microbiome study, and we saw that our products reduced the share of the bad bacteria without harming the good ones!
What’s the difference between pre, pro and postbiotics — and how does Gallinée use these different ingredients?
Probiotics are just another name for good bacteria. The ones we use in cosmetics are not live anymore, but they still have an interesting anti-inflammatory effect. They have been used in beauty products for quite some time.
Our big idea was to say that if bringing good bacteria to your skin is good, why not put your own microbiome to work? And for that we use a lot of prebiotics, which is the name for a nutrient that will feed selectively good bacteria. It’s great because when you grow the good you starve the bad, in a very efficient but very gentle manner.
We also add postbiotics. It’s the name for something produced by a good bacteria that will have a positive effect on other good bacteria. We use lactic acid a lot: It’s produced by good bacteria, it helps kill the bad ones, and it create the perfect environment for the microbiome to thrive.
Associating the three creates a great synergy for products that are amazingly effective while being super gentle. It was the subject of my pharmacy thesis and the idea base of all Gallinée formulations.
You also have a background in pharmacy. How did that help you in creating Gallinée?
In France we study pharmacy for six years, and have a doctor title. I feel so lucky to have this education, I use it 10 times a day. I know it is quite unusual compared to other brand founders, but I find it so cool: I know how a production line work, I know exactly what ingredients I want in a formulation, I can read scary science papers about the microbiome and translate it into an innovative product, and I have quite a good knowledge of human physiology.
Pharmacists are specialists in nothing but have an opinion about everything (Parisian pharmacists are the worst!), so it helps a lot when you’re creating your brand, you have this confidence about the products and how they are made which is really useful.
There are some drawbacks of course: I never trained in sales or marketing. Luckily the Gallinée team is full of people that are really good at that!
Fun Fact: In France if you find mushrooms in the forest you can take them to your local pharmacist to check if they’re edible. So we do two years of Mycology. It’s not the skill I use the most.
What are some of Gallinée’s key products?
Our Face Vinegar Toner and Face Mask & Scrub. These are two products I simply can’t live without. The Face Vinegar Toner is very special, because we have two patents on it: it’s soothing for sensitive skin, but also purifying for oily skin. It’s great at brightening and smoothing the skin for a perfect glow.
The Face Mask & Scrub is a 2-in-1 face mask and exfoliator which is ideal for refining dull-looking complexions. The gentle, non-abrasive formula buffs away the top layer of dead skin cells to reveal bright, radiant skin.
What’s next for Gallinée? What new products do you have in the pipeline, and what do you hope your brand will ultimately achieve?
We have very modest goals: We just want to change the face of the beauty industry forever. For the microbiome to thrive, doing less is usually the best. So we promote a minimalist routine and stripped-down formulations. It’s a quite unusual in an industry trying to sell a lot of products, but we think it’s the best for the skin (and the planet).
It’s great because for us it means all beauty products have to be rethought and formulated better. We started with skincare, and we’ll always be a skincare brand, but we also launched a scalpcare range (I could talk forever about the way haircare is not done properly for ages), an intimate care product, an oral care range (such an interesting subject too).
Everywhere on your body there is a microbiome that wants to help you — and that means we have 50 years of fun and innovation planned!
