Things To Know About Cult Skincare Brand Drunk Elephant

Instagram is a very good litmus test for what people are excited about in the beauty industry right now. And every time I post a picture of anything to do with US-based, super-skincare brand Drunk Elephant, I am inundated with requests as to when it’s going to be launching in the UK (I’d been stocking up each time I went to the US or I asked obliging friends to bring it back for me).

Well, the answer is that it’s coming. And soon. Whilst I was already sold on the efficacy of the products - I have been using them for long enough to know they
work for me - it wasn’t until a whistlestop, two-day trip to New York with founder Tiffany Masterson that I got to know the soul of the brand. Here, the five things you know need to know about Drunk Elephant. But in essence - believe in the hype.

Founder Tiffany is a Texan-born mother of four who started out in the beauty industry as a peer-to-peer saleswoman for a cleansing bar (think Avon ladies but for skincare). By proxy, she learnt about skin care and how to maximize ingredients and decided to launch her own range. “I was studying the ingredient decks and I could see common threads as to what worked [and what didn’t]. I’m basically a consumer who dreamt up my perfect products on the shelf”, she explains. Drunk Elephant launched in 2013.

So what’s with the name? “I just wanted it to be fun”, says Tiffany. She explains that it’s so-called because of a myth about the marula fruit, which is one of the star ingredients in the line (the Virgin Marula Oil is everything). The story goes that elephants would gorge on the fallen fruits of the marula tree which would ferment in their stomachs and make them drunk.

She describes the line as “clean clinical”. What this means is that her products are high-tech and bio-compatible: “Bio-compatibility to me means that an ingredient can be placed on or in a living tissue without any injury harm, disruption or rejection. Drunk Elephant supports the skin and its acid mantle by giving it bio-compatible ingredients. To feed it, nourish it, protect it, encourage it and correct it - that’s our only job.”

Her line is free of what she calls ‘The Suspicious Six’: essential oils, drying alcohols, silicones, chemical sunscreens, fragrance/dyes and SLS. “Once I removed them from my system, my skin just kept getting better, as well the skin of those who were trialling it with me. So I thought ‘this is my theory - this is what I am going to launch with’. And what does she make of people who don’t agree with this approach? “I am not trying to de-promote other brands [and their ingredients]. I just have conviction in what I am doing and what works. We never follow trends, we just stick to our philosophy and the results speak for themselves. Just look at the hashtag.” #barewithus