Drunk Elephant

**Drunk Elephant** is a clean skincare brand that was launched in 2013 by Tiffany Masterson, a stay-at-home mom in Houston after doing extensive research searching for solutions to her own skincare concerns. The brand, which just landed in Malaysia early this year through Sephora’s physical stores and online at Sephora. My, is relatively new to the Malaysian market but is already enjoying popularity among local beauty enthusiasts.

We have to admit that it was by their quirky name – ***“Drunk Elephant”*** that this brand first caught our attention. To satisfy our curiosity about the meaning behind the brand, as well as the brand’s overall offerings, we had a chat over email with **Tiffany Masterson, the founder of Drunk Elephant**.

## How the idea for Drunk Elephant began

Masterson was a stay-at-home mom before she developed Drunk Elephant and she had all sorts of skin issues.  She searched for solutions to my “combination, sensitive skin”, but nothing ever seemed to solve the problem for long.  Masterson began to research the ingredients in the products she was using and noted what role each played and more importantly, how her skin reacted to them.  She realized that it was the “marketing” ingredients that had to go. By that she mean ingredients that were there to make the formulas look or smell or feel better but had no benefit for the skin itself. She suspected 6 ingredients of being at the root of my skin issues and today she call them the **“Suspicious 6”** *(essential oils, fragrance/dyes, silicones, sodium lauryl sulfate, drying alcohols and chemical screens)*.  Her skin was completely transformed after eliminating them…it went from confused and moody to clean, balanced and healthy.   Trying to find products free of the “Suspicious 6” wasn’t easy, so she created Drunk Elephant.

Her philosophy is that **“skin is skin”**, all skin functions the same, no need to label it with a type. Your skin has a barrier or acid mantle that protects it, when we strip that or disturb it, chaos ensues.  The many products we use each day can contain disruptors, sensitizers, allergens and other irritants that can build up and leave skin in a congested, reactive state. Acne, dryness, oiliness and sensitivity are often quite simply the skin’s way of reacting to these trigger ingredients, as it cannot handle them.

Drunk Elephant was her way of resetting reactive skin by not using the very ingredients that created it in the first place. She have isolated both safe naturals and safe synthetics and her formulas contain the right percentages of actives at the ideal pH levels, making the ingredients easy for your skin to recognize, absorb and use. Drunk Elephant is in a category of its own that is call Biocompatible.

## Why is the name the brand “Drunk Elephant”?

Materson fell in love with Marula Oil, so she googled it and found videos of elephants appearing to get tipsy off of marula fruit. She thought about the name “Drunk Elephant” and she ran it by a few people. Their reactions were all over the map. Some said no way, some said why not?  I felt it was memorable and that people would want to know the story behind it, they would ask, and it would create enough curiosity that it might just work to her benefit. It was a risk, but she thought it ended up paying off. She's not a totally serious person, or a doctor or chemist, She thought the line needed a little bit of light-heartedness because the formulations are so serious.

## How and where are the products formulated and produced

She’s spent a good deal of time teaching herself about ingredients and the roles they each play in a formulation. When she started Drunk Elephant she didn’t consult with anyone while she was developing the first ingredient decks… She was very clear about what she wanted and what she didn’t. At the time, and even today, not many people in the industry necessarily agree with my theory.  Once she have my ingredient decks ready, she turned them in to my chemist, who makes the necessary tweaks and brings the formulations to life. The final formulations are a true representation of what she wanted from the beginning…. clinically effective, non-toxic formulations that contain high percentages of actives and are totally non-irritating. Safe skincare that works and is compatible with the skin organ itself.

## What sets Drunk Elephant apart from other clean beauty brands?

There were no other “clean” brands out there when she launched Drunk Elephant. Drunk Elephant is clean, as all brands should be, but in my opinion, “clean” is not nearly enough when it comes to caring for skin and hair. We are committed to using only ingredients that either directly benefit the health of the skin or support the integrity of our formulations. We never take into account whether something is synthetic or natural, instead choosing ingredients based on biocompatibility. That’s why we focus on healthy pH levels, formulations the skin recognizes, small molecular structure that’s easily absorbed, and effective active ingredients that also support and maintain the skin’s acid mantle.

But what they leave out of our products is just as important as what we put into them, so you will never find the Suspicious 6 in our line. We believe that these six ubiquitous ingredients are at the root of almost every skin issue, and when they’re removed entirely from your routine — that is, when you take a “Drunk break” — skin can reset and return to its healthiest, most balanced state. This ingredient-elimination diet benefits all skin types and inspired the **#barewithus**
Instagram movement, a collection of bare-faced selfies that chronicles the Drunk Elephant journeys of people who have found not only healthier skin but more importantly, healthier self-confidence.