GAME-CHANGING BEAUTY

As founder of Gisou, Negin Mirsalehi has created a top tier cult-brand, inspired by her mother’s work as a hair stylist and her father’s beekeeping. After years of using honey for the hair, Negin’s mother created a honey-infused hair oil which inspired Gisou’s hero product. Now, having branched into skincare, the beauty entrepreneur is making big waves throughout the industry as more and more people discover the benefits of her brand and its natural origins.

What inspired you to launch your business?

“I’ve always been passionate about bees and natural beauty. As a sixth generation beekeeper, I grew up learning about beekeeping from my father in our own family bee garden. I also learned about the importance of bees and about the powerful benefits of honey for overall health. We used honey for everything from healing cuts and scrapes, to soothing sore throats and nourishing our hair. It’s incredibly rich in vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Honey’s impressive nutrient properties inspired my mother, a hairdresser by trade, to experiment with it to create her own haircare solutions. She came up with the original formula that ultimately inspired Gisou’s Honey Infused Hair Oil – a multipurpose haircare essential our entire family has been using on a daily basis for years. Since I was young, I have received compliments about my hair, which only increased when I started blogging about fashion and beauty. Back then, I was one of the first ‘influencers’ on Instagram. I mainly shared content focused on my outfits and beauty tips and received a lot of questions about my haircare routine. Once I began to share more about my personal life, such as my family’s bee garden and beekeeping heritage, I noticed my followers were curious to learn more about that as well. Ultimately, their curiosity inspired me to combine my passions for haircare, natural beauty and beekeeping by launching Gisou in 2015 with my mom’s homemade family recipe, the Honey Infused Hair Oil. It’s the one product I use day in and day out to keep my hair nourished and moisturised. I am very happy to be able to share this haircare secret with the world through Gisou. Although our product line has expanded since then, the Honey Infused Hair Oil remains our bestselling, most iconic hero. To this day, Gisou remains my biggest passion. It is our mission to not only continue to develop nourishing honey-infused products, but also to educate and engage our community on the importance of honey bees and beekeeping and inspire them to raise awareness for their importance with us.”

Gisou’s first product, the Honey Infused Hair Oil, received a lot of attention. Why do you think it was such a success?

“The Honey Infused Hair Oil is a multipurpose essential all hair types can benefit from on a daily basis! It’s our best-selling haircare hero infused with Mirsalehi Honey from my family’s bee garden to deeply nourish, moisturise, strengthen, protect, and heal the hair follicle from within. To maintain the health of my hair, I apply it daily, whether it be after my washing routine to lock-in moisture, before my styling routine to enhance smoothness, after styling to tame frizz and enhance shine or before I go to sleep at night to deeply nourish my hair while I sleep. For these reasons, it’s the Gisou product I recommend everyone start with when introduced to Gisou.”

Having branched into skincare recently, are you working on any other beauty categories that we can look forward to?

“My family and I have always believed in the power of natural ingredients for overall health. With the transformative effects of honey for hair in mind, I was inspired to apply the power of natural ingredients like honey and the rich botanicals our bees forage on, to complexion. Although I can’t share too much, I will say that there are so many opportunities to apply the power of natural ingredients to enhance everyone’s natural beauty! Watch this space.”

Where does the brand name ‘Gisou’ originate?

“‘Gisou’ means golden hair lock in poetic Persian; it’s a nod to my heritage.”

How important is sustainability to the foundation of your brand?

“Sustainability is a core value and ongoing priority at Gisou with no finish line. We know we’re not perfect, but we’re passionate about improving and working hard to do so. We are well-aware that a 360 approach is required - product, packaging, procurement, people. On World Earth Day 2019, we published our first Sustainability Promise and made the 360 commitment to work towards a cleaner and greener Gisou, stay accountable and never stop improving in the years to come. We renew this commitment each year with a recap of our progress and goals for the future, focusing on improving our bee-centred approach, raising awareness for the importance of honey bees in our ecosystem, prioritising efficacy and sustainability throughout all of our product formulations, and improving the sustainability of our packaging.”

What is your everyday skincare routine?

“I have to cheat a little bit because it’s not one beauty product but two which never fail to help me feel refreshed and renewed each time I use them together. I love to mix a few drops of our Honey Infused Hair Oil into our Honey Infused Hair Mask for an extra nourishing deep treatment. During my weekly self-care sessions, about 1-2 times a week, this combination really helps make my hair (and my spirits!) feel refreshed and renewed.”

What one beauty product do you use that never fails to lift your spirits?

“I definitely like to try out different skincare products. At the same time, I really focus on being gentle with my skin, so I try not to experiment too much, too often. At the moment, my skincare routine starts with a gentle cleanse, followed by a toner and a hyaluronic acid serum before finishing off with our Honey Infused Face Oil as the last step in my skincare routine. I gently massage about 2-3 drops of it into my skin. For extra hydration during the day, I like to mix a few drops in with my foundation. At night, I moisturise my hands with a bit of oil to restore them while I sleep, and I also sometimes mix a few drops with my Face Tanning serum to wake up to a bronzed glow the next morning. That’s it!”

Your hair is worthy of its own IG account. What is your secret?

“Thank you so much! Honestly, I am all about taking good care of my hair by being gentle and focusing on its overall health, which was instilled in me by my mother. I don’t overwash, try to keep heat styling and colouing treatments to a minimum, and also don’t brush my hair too often. Along with that, I treat my hair with haircare products that nourish it from the inside out. I really believe in the natural healing powers of honey, which is why all Gisou products are formulated with my family’s Mirsalehi Honey to deeply nourish, moisturize and strengthen, sealing split ends, reducing frizz, taming flyaways and leaving behind healthier-looking hair. Starting with the basics - I wash my hair about 2-3 times a week, maximum. We especially formulated the Honey Infused Hair Wash and Conditioner to be effective, yet gentle. Post-washing, I make sure to lock in moisture by applying the Honey Infused Hair Oil. I have our Travel Size with me wherever I go so that I can easily reapply throughout the day to tame frizz, smooth flyaways and enhance shine. I like to treat my hair to a deep treatment 1-2 times a week by mixing our Honey Infused Hair Mask with a few drops of Honey Infused Hair Oil. When I do heat style, which is about as often as I wash my hair, I never forget to protect my hair with our Propolis Infused Heat Protecting Spray. I apply a pea-sized amount of the Propolis Infused Polishing Primer to prevent frizz, reduce drying time (if I’ve just washed my hair), enhance volume, hair texture and ensure my hairstyle will hold. I also like to use the primer on its own, to define and enhance my natural hair texture or achieve a sleek look.”

Do you have any self-care rituals that keep you in a good head space?

“The ultimate self-care ritual for me is spending a day or afternoon with my dad in our family bee garden - without my phone. Being completely offline in nature helps me relax like nothing else.”

What are your favourite three beauty trends for SS22?

“I love experimenting with different makeup looks. I like to mix things up once in a while but I do tend to stick to the basics for the most part. Like fashion, makeup is really a way for me to express my creativity or mood at any given moment. For SS22, I will definitely try to incorporate more hair accessories, like the hair clips seen at Tom Ford or maybe even the bubble ponytail holders which remind me of my childhood. Quite simple but also trending for next Spring is ultra-fresh skin. I’m looking forward to perfecting my minimal makeup look by adding more highlights and focusing on good quality skincare products and routines. Lastly, I would say I am warming up to using blush - I’m not a big blush user, but I think it can help you look really fresh and youthful as well!”

With your upcoming nuptials on the horizon (congratulations, by the way) what beauty products will you be relying on come the big day?

“Thank you so much - my fiancé, Maurits, and I are very excited. To be honest we haven’t quite gotten to planning much about our wedding at all, but we should definitely get started on that soon! Although I haven’t even thought much about my beauty look for that day, what I do know is that the Honey Infused Hair Oil will undoubtedly be a part of my wedding-day beauty line-up. It’s the one product I have been able to rely on since I was a little girl. I am also thinking that I will do my own makeup. I want to look like myself and I think that no one knows your face better than yourself.”

Have you ever visited Ireland or have any plans to, and if so, what would you most like to see?

“I have actually never been to Ireland! But now that Gisou will be launching at Brown Thomas, I really have the best excuse to visit soon, Covid-19 permitting. I heard so many amazing things about the beautiful nature in Ireland - one day, I would love to go on a hike to see the Cliffs of Moher. But I am even more excited to meet our Irish community members who I can finally share our products with, through Brown Thomas.”

MORE TO READ

From game-changing haircare to game-changing skincare, discover the skincare range adored by celebrities and beauty editors alike in The Brand Every Skincare Nerd Should Try: 111 Skin.