Introducing the Founders of Madame Gabriela

How did you meet?

GEOFFREY: We worked together for some time, starting about 12 years ago with a French luxury brand, and kept in contact after that. Both not being French, but with a joint love affair of travel and avocados, kept the WhatsApp messages flowing. Gabriela introduced me to the chicest elements of Mexico City life, and I introduced her to the joy of Vegemite in return. The rest is history.

With so many lipstick brands already available, what inspired you to create your own?

GEOFFREY: Truthfully, a late drink at The Hemingway bar inside The Ritz in Paris was the inspiration. Gabriela and I were enjoying drinks and had been chatting endlessly about the lies and misconceptions in clean beauty. We had just finished a photoshoot that day on Boulevard Saint-Michel and I was complaining to Gabriela about all the makeup brands used the on models. I was horrified that almost every item was delivered in plastic and was full of debatable ingredients. She was telling me about how underperforming and drying her new $85 “natural” lipstick was. I grew up on an organic and clean farm not far from Byron Bay, and Gabriela is the “Queen of Chic” in my mind. The tapestry of our lives is very rich in experiences and Gabriela always said that with our combined knowledge, we should work together on a beauty product. Lipstick was as common as milk and bread in both of our childhoods and seeing that lipstick mark on her martini glass as we enjoyed the French joie de vivre, I said: “How about lipstick?”.

Let’s talk about clean beauty. The term “clean” can mean different things to different brands – what does it mean to Madame Gabriela?

GABRIELA: Clean for us means two things: safety and transparency. Safety because all our ingredients are part of the non-toxic European regulatory body, the most comprehensive guide of ingredients in cosmetics to date. And transparency because we disclose all our ingredients to our customers, and we are in constant research with our chemist and lab to ensure the ingredients used are not the cause of toxicity in our bodies.

Why do you think no one has created a truly clean lipstick before?

GEOFFREY: It really comes down to cost and the dominance of the major few brands. A lipstick is such a small item, but the costs associated with making a clean luxury lipstick versus a toxic plastic tube lipstick is so prohibitive. For example, adding our super clean Manuka honey into a workable formula took more than a year of development. And probably the costliest consideration is packaging. Last year for the first time one billion lipsticks were sold in the year, and 99.9 percent of those tubes are now in landfill. The technology we use to avoid plastic tubing is infinitely more expensive, and if cosmetics brands can sell that volume without making changes, there are no incentives. Also, lipstick is an industry of many brands, owed by just a few companies. It’s highly competitive and very, as we have learnt, ruthlessly managed. Watch this space for our TV show!

I’ll be tuning in!

Now besides your game-changing formulas, you are the pioneers of a more sustainable way of packaging lipsticks. Can you tell me about that?

GEOFFREY: I have to say that we really did something extraordinary. We didn’t know it at the beginning, but we are the first clean lipstick brand to truly embrace sustainability in a real way. How can a product be clean in one way and so harmful to the environment in the other?

The longest part of our journey was sourcing outer tubes that weren’t plastic. We are part of an industry where everything is plastic: the tubes, the packaging, the labels, and of course now with micro-plastic in the eco-system it’s now inside your product and your body.

The cause is that plastic is incredibly inexpensive and manufactured by thousands of factories around the world. The opposite is true for tubes made of metals or glass – extremely expensive, and very hard to source. Our tubes are custom made and like all the supply chain, every decision was made through the lens of “blue beauty,” and our global footprint. We also only use FSC certified paper and boxes, vegetable inks and eco-friendly wrapping paper on all our shipments. The next step is allowing customers to return and recycle or reuse tubes, but as “clean” as that sounds, we need to be mindful of the footprint it requires.

While we’re unpacking terminology, besides being clean, you also describe your lipsticks as “high performance” what does this mean?

GABRIELA: Since day one, colour was a characteristic I was not willing to compromise on. Being an avid lipstick user, when I wear a red lipstick for me it means true red not translucent red. Today this is still a challenge when it comes to safe formulations. After many trial and errors we were able to accomplish true colour shades that are as clean as they are nourishing.

One of my favourite things about your lipsticks is the more I wear them, the better my lips feel. Why is that? Usually with lipsticks it’s the opposite!

GABRIELA: Your lips are asking for more Manuka honey! That among many other benefits, it draws moisture into your lips helping them stay hydrated. It’s not only the honey but the amazing synergy of the ingredient with our other organic ingredients. For example, take Avocado Oil and its oleic acid, the healthy fats nourish the skin of your lips. Your lips will keep asking for more!

Your range has three core shades, how did you land on the perfect three?

GABRIELA: By experience. Starting from the concept of less is more, we decided to approach our collection to launch with three basic shades that not only are true to their colour by themselves but also can be mixed and create other shades based on the customer preferences. The world doesn’t need 50 shades of pink. You can create your perfect pink by toning it down with the perfect nude, like Sydney at 8AM, or making it slightly more orange by mixing it with Paris at 7PM – or a combination of the three!

Oh, I like that idea of blending the shades! Can you share more application tips?

GABRIELA: I love layering shades depending on where I’m going, or my mood, or outfit for the day. I often use two shades every day. My current favourite is applying Sydney at 8AM and then dabbing a bit of New York at 1PM on top – it’s my perfect quarantine shade! At heart I’m a red lipstick woman and I’ve discovered applying red lipstick only on the bottom lip and then rubbing both lips together gives me my perfect day red look.

One of the things that stands out to me in your brand is the names of your lipstick shades: Paris At 7PM, New York At 1PM, Sydney at 8AM. I’d love to know the story behind these names…

GEOFFREY: Gabriela and I work very hard, but we travel even harder. We are gypsies at heart. From summers on Pampelonne beach in the South of France to Christmas in Finnish Lapland, travel is all we know. We both know our three cities so well and each colour reflects the ideal colour and time of each. I love breakfast at Bronte in summer, so our nude colour reflects that summer 8am morning vibe. Our vibrant, blue-toned red is a showstopper, like Paris at 7pm. And of course, New York is a concrete jungle and 1pm is when you power-lunch and kiss the success in pink.

It would be remiss of me not to ask you both for some hot travel tips to pocket for when we can roam the globe again. Geoffrey, as an Aussie living in New York, you must know where to find great coffee?

GEOFFREY: Coffee is my true obsession, and I would rather die than drink Starbucks. Little Collins is a true star in New York, owned by Australians and often so full of Macquarie Bank staff – I feel like I know the leadership team! It has great coffee and amazing food.

Paris does not short-change you in Aussie coffee either. Before you grab your croissant go to O Coffeeshop, it’s located in the more residential 15th Arrondissement, which can be a nice break from the touristy areas. It’s owned by an Aussie and my first stop when I’m there.

Gabriela, when you return to Paris where are the places you must visit?

GABRIELA: I had the opportunity of living in Paris for some years so every time I’m back, I feel a bit at home. I try to visit places that remind me of my everyday life there. A visit to Gerard Mulot and lining up with locals for pastries always warms my heart. I go and buy a Falafel at Marianne’s in the Marais and walk back towards Place des Vosges and sit on a bench watching little kids play in the garden. I buy all my favourite French magazines at the newspaper kiosk next to Cafe de Flore before sitting at a table far from the front and asking for a “Cafe Creme” – that’s Paris for me. Strolling from there on Rue Bonaparte towards the Seine and later chatting with a bouquiniste about the weather, hoping it will rain as Paris is most wonderful when it rains.