UPDATE February 2024: Biologi founder Ross Macdougald had a court ruling placed against his brand’s claims in October 2023. Read more on that here.
“Ross and I met while I was working as a Senior Laser Technician for Laser Clinics Australia in 2017,” says Lucy Macdougald, Dermal Specialist and one half of the duo behind cult Australian skincare company, Biologi. “Ross came into the clinic and was looking at
the ingredients list on the back of one of the skincare bottles. We decided to have coffee, and it was pretty clear quite quickly that we both had a mutual love for understanding skincare and ingredients (although our opinions differed a little at the time). Fast forward to today and we are happily married with two dogs!”
That same year, Cosmetic Chemist Ross Macdougald founded Biologi, “hitting the market with the world’s first ever 100% active, single ingredient, pure plant serum.” Ross reveals. “Biologi taps into our revolutionary extraction system (CLECSTM) 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! I have always had an interest in and knowledge that plant-based materials can create more efficient products (without needing the use of synthetic additives),” Ross explains.
From developing over 300 products and having formulated active ingredients throughout his career, Ross says he was becoming frustrated at 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. Unfortunately, however, brands just didn’t see this as commercially viable. I wanted to change this but realised that I had to do it myself.”
For Lucy, it is all about balance “and ensuring that what I’m recommending is truly the thing that is going to be good for the skin. We’ve proven that plant phytonutrients can change the skin cells on a cellular level, and I’m passionate about educating consumers onaholisticapproachtoskincare. I do think sometimes there can be a place for synthetic additives, but it should only be administered through a skin specialist and only sporadically. I’m committed to helping others make informed choices about what they are putting on their skin, whilst also changing the skincare landscape as a whole and calling for industry- wide transparency about product ingredients and existing extraction techniques.”
For the pair, the reasons behind Biologi’s success are countless; so much so that the brand is looking at further expansion in the US and UK for 2021 (to coincide with the markets they have already developed in New Zealand, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and so on). “We’re also launching into a range of new salons, with many clients wanting clean products that are active and provide real skin benefits,” Lucy says.
“We are extremely busy most days running several businesses, but being able to value each other and keep things fun is definitely the key to our success.”
This article first appeared in the November/December issue of Professional Beauty magazine. Download the issue here.
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