New skincare brand Glean is looking to make qasil, an East African botanical, as prominent as other African beauty ingredients like shea butter, marula oil, argan oil and baobab oil.
Qasil powder is a beauty product stable in Somalia, where Slough, England-based Glean founder and CEO Hibo Elmi’s parents are from. It’s derived from dried leaves of the gob tree or ziziphus jujube, a tropical tree species native to regions of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Incorporated in wedding preparations as a beauty treatment for the bride and bridesmaids, qasil is used for acne, dark spots, redness and brightening.
“It’s something that my mum’s used, my grandmother, my great-grandmother. It’s been passed down through generations,” says Elmi. “It was skincare before skincare was even a thing.”
Glean features qasil in four products priced from $16 to $25: Magic Dust Qasil Powder, Hoyo Purifying Mask, Qasil-Blackseed Hydrating Bar and Turmeric-Qasil And Kojic Acid Brightening Bar. Magic Dust Qasil Powder has become a clear frontrunner in the assortment since the brand launched in direct-to-consumer distribution in January last year.
Qasil isn’t unheard of in the beauty industry. Skincare brands such as Topicals, Kora Organics and Eadem have it in their products, and S’able Labs even sells a product called Qasil Cleanser. Still, it’s challenging to pin a business on an ingredient that consumers generally don’t know about. The brand is producing educational content for social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram and blog posts to familiarize them with it. In particular, before-and-afters showcase its benefits for the skin.
“Once people understand, they get more curious, and they want to try it for themselves,” says Elmi. “I feel like the results really speak for themselves.”
Early on, Glean’s customers are primarily women of color searching for antidotes to hyperpigmentation. Elmi suggests the brand is aimed at consumers tired of products with harsh ingredients who are interested in simple, effective skincare. Glean, a portmanteau of “green” and “clean,” describes itself as vegan, cruelty-free and with no bleaching agents. It houses its products in paper and plastic.
Elmi says, “It’s for anyone who wants to switch to clean skincare that actually works.”
In Glean’s packaging, its heritage meets modern design. The brand worked with Chicago firm Field of Practice on its identity, which Elmi explains is intended to combine the trendy with the timeless. Patterns on secondary packaging are pulled from vintage stamps and African fabrics. Glean’s logo draws inspiration from the angular structure of the gob tree, with the shape of the bottom of its lowercase “g” nodding at the Horn of Africa, where Somalia is located.
Lilac and bright green are integral to Glean’s color scheme. The green hints at its sustainable approach, and lilac is a favorite color of Elmi’s. She also believes the colors will stand out on retail shelves, where Glean plans to be in the future. Sephora and Boots are dream retailers for the brand.
Elmi, 34, kicked off her entrepreneurial journey at 21 years old, and it’s wound through film, the restaurant business and wedding decorations. She says she poured thousands of dollars into starting Glean—and her entrepreneurial pursuits aren’t stopping with it. Elmi’s next venture is portable bidet Bum Bum which launched DTC and on Amazon last week.
Along with honoring her roots, Elmi views Glean as vehicle to amplify A-Beauty in a way that she thinks is overdue. She’s not alone in the A-Beauty space. Hanahana Beauty, 54 Thrones, R&R Skincare, Yendy Skin and Ayeya are among other brands with African ingredients and founders paying homage to Africa’s connection to beauty rituals.
“I want A-Beauty to be as well-known and as big as K-Beauty brands [and] all of these French pharmaceutical brands because Africa is the source of so much when it comes to beauty and wellness,” says Elmi. “We really have some of the, I believe, best beauty traditions in the world.”
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