From bush to bottle, Biologi and their single-ingredient formulas are breaking industry barriers.
For this pieces focus on culture, we’ll be delving behind the scenes of a brand that not only publically applauds diversity (via their incredibly stunning ambassador Sam Harris) but too, has drummed up a cult following over the past couple of years. Despite its capsule range, Biologi has been making big waves thanks to its unusually simple but efficacious single-ingredient formulas. Here we give you a behind-the-scenes look into the brand’s ethos, formulations, clinical use, and take a look at what the future holds.
Ross Macdougald, Founder of Biologi, tells us he was becoming increasingly frustrated by the number of cosmeceuticals on the market with low concentrations of actives – and so Biologi was born. “Throughout my career as a cosmetic chemist, I’ve developed countless products and formulated active ingredients which are currently sold in brands across the globe today. Biologi was actually born out of a frustration I had surrounding the low levels of plant actives that were being added to products (and usually only for marketing and labelling claims). Brands were increasingly diminishing the levels of active ingredients (as little as 2%) included in their products, meaning that what was found of the shelves contained so little percentages that it rendered the product useless. I knew that for a product to be 100% effective, it would need 100% active ingredients. However unfortunately brands just didn’t see this as commercially viable for them, (that is, they wouldn’t be able to make the large profit margins with this type of product). I wanted to change this but realised that they only way to do so was if I did it myself. So, in 2017 I launched Biologi, hitting the market with the world’s first ever 100% active single ingredient, pure plant serum.”
So how does one single ingredient work? Ross explains “Biologi taps into our revolutionary extraction system (CLECS™) which mimics the plant’s internal closed process to extract serums that work in the bottle as they do in their unique cellular environment. Biologi is the first skincare product in the world that contains natural, stable, active vitamin C. Absorption of the beneficial active plant nutrients is fast and effective allowing the serum to penetrate deeper into the epidermis to repair, restore and hydrate skin cells.”
We’ve recently seen an increasing number of skin-focused clinics, dermal therapists and nurse practitioners take on Biologi as a part of their skincare offering, so we took the opportunity to chat to one about the range’s results. Madilyn Wolens also known as The Functional Nurse, says it has been her top seller from day one. “Biologi are staple tools that help us treat our diverse patient load, from babies to teenagers, and elderly patients with poor wound healing,”. “The Biologi range is stocked both on our online retail store and used in our clinic professionally. When prescribing medical-grade treatments such as dermal needling, PRP and injectables, we want to ensure complete skin health. By having our patients on Biologi for at least 3 weeks pre and post treatment, we are ensuring optimal barrier function, introducing phytonutrients and enhancing protection for the skin. As our practice is also integrative medicine, by switching our patients to Biologi we are reducing the topical toxins and therefore toxic load on our patients’ liver. This helps immensely when clearing conditions such as eczema and hormonally driven acne.”
One of the things we love most about Biologi is their ambassadorship with Australian model Sam Harris, embracing and celebrating cultural inclusivity for the beauty industry. “We absolutely adore Sam and the awesome work she is doing with Biologi!” says Ross. “She’s a great representation for our brand as not only does she have beautiful skin, but the inner beauty of her personality shines through as well. As a brand, we are still in our infancy so are continually striving to be, and do, better. It’s always been a focus of ours to ensure people, particularly women of colour, feel included, considered and empowered.”
“We’ve always maintained a sense of inclusivity for our brand, however we don’t feel the need to shout it from the rooftops or get into the business of virtue signalling. For us, our brand is for everyone and we hope we convey that in the vast range of women we choose to represent us. In saying that, inclusivity is incredibly important in our industry, so long as it’s not tokenistic. Diversity and inclusion should just be the norm and thankfully we are seeing some changes in that respect with brands becoming more respective of broader Australia and all the amazing cultures that are a part of it.” A articulation of wording we could not have put together better ourselves!
So what does the future hold for Biologi? Ross tells us a lot of the brand’s future plans are driven by further research and development into plant extracts. “A great example of this is that we said we would never develop a cleanser because at the time we hadn’t discovered a plant extract that would have the right efficacy as a single ingredient. Then we discovered that soapberry extract (which is the ingredient of Biologi’s Bc Refresh Cleanser) which is packed with nourishing actives that gently wash away impurities and leave skin fresh, clean and clear. This is a world-first – the naturally occurring amino acids, phenolic acids and amines work in synergy to remove all traces of dirt without disturbing the skin’s natural oils and moisture essential for hydration. However, if you had have asked us about developing a cleanser from a single plant extract a year ago, we were saying that it was impossible! Our future plan is to definitely develop the range, and this often happens in synergy with our discoveries about natural plant extracts.”