Gisou's 5th Birthday!
Today, on our 5th birthday, we’re celebrating Gisou and the now iconic hero that started it all: our Honey Infused Hair Oil. Based on a homemade family recipe, the launch of the Honey Infused Hair Oil marked the start of our whirlwind journey!
On this special day, we’re throwing it back to some highlights of our most memorable moments, launches and major milestones from Gisou’s first five years.
A favorite from the start
2015 - It’s been five incredible years since our founder Negin Mirsalehi launched Gisou’s iconic first product, the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Oil. When we originally launched with the hair oil in November 2015, we sold out in less than three months. To this day, it’s our number-one bestseller worldwide.
2016-2017 - After the overwhelming success of our Hair Oil, we launched our first Propolis Infused hair styling product in July 2016, the Gisou Propolis Infused Heat Protecting Spray. One year later, we added some texture to the mix with the Propolis Infused Texturizing Wave Spray.
After honey, Propolis became our second key ingredient thanks to its strengthening and protecting properties. Like our Honey, our Propolis is sustainably sourced from the Mirsalehi Bee Garden, where Negin and her father continue the 6-generation tradition of beekeeping.
Parisian pop-ups & perfume
2018 - At the start of 2018, we added two products to our Honey Infused range: the Honey Infused Hair Mask and the Honey Infused Hair Oil Travel Size. These two products combined make up Negin’s go-to nourishing hair treatment!
Later that year, we opened our first ever Pop-up store in Paris at the legendary tea house, Angelina, during Paris Fashion Week. Our Mirsalehi Honey inspired Christophe Appert, Angelina's pastry Chef, to create a unique Gisou at Angelina éclair. A little taste of Gisou in Paris!
Since we received countless comments about the scent of our Honey Infused products, we decided to develop and launch a Hair Perfume that refreshes and scents hair with Gisou’s signature Honey Infused fragrance.
Creating a buzz
2019 - The following year was a very busy year at Gisou HQ. We expanded our Honey Infused line with two new, highly requested products: the Honey Infused Hair Wash & Conditioner. Our community was the first to buy and try this duo, as part of the mysterious ‘Blind Date’ on Valentine’s Day.
Every May, we celebrate a key moment in our calendar; World Bee Day and the start of bee season. In 2019, we celebrated BIG with our Gisou Honey Jackpot prize pool. One lucky winner won the chance to meet Negin in the Mirsalehi Bee Garden in the summer of 2019.
Gisou in Paris, part two
During that summer we also launched the Propolis Infused Polishing Primer, the third product in our styling range. Gisou came to Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées to celebrate the urban beekeeping culture in Paris through a co-branded pop-up experience. As part of the collaboration, we brought a piece of the Mirsalehi Bee Garden to Paris and partnered with Sous Les Fraises by installing beehives on top of the urban rooftop garden of BHV, which are still being cared for by our beekeeper in Paris.
Take out & refill
In August we introduced our Honey Infused Hair Perfume in Pocket Size and brought our beehives to NYC, in preparation for our first ever U.S. pop-up. In September we opened our Take Out & Refill pop-up store in New York. We transformed a typical NYC Papaya Dog into a completely Gisou-branded pop-up store in New York City fast food-style. In line with our Sustainability Promise, we encouraged New Yorkers to reuse and refill their Gisou products from our refill tanks.
Home for the holidays
To end the year, we hosted the Gisou Gift Shop, a holiday pop-up store in Amsterdam. Our team created a special selection of limited edition content, exclusively for the Gisou Gift Shop. With the Gift Shop being in Amsterdam, we were home for the holidays!
Major milestones in 2020
2020 - Although 2020 has been unique in many ways, it has also been an opportunity for us to engage with you, our community, and your self-care routines at home. In April, we launched The Mini Series, which includes mini versions of four Gisou bestsellers, perfect for first-time Gisou users and for a self-care moment.
In August we announced one of our most exciting projects so far: our launch at Sephora in the United States and Canada. When we first launched Gisou five years ago, offering our products at Sephora was something we could only dream of... We’re so excited and proud to have achieved this major milestone in such a short space of time!
In September we revealed our most requested item ever: The Gisou Curling Tool. An item we're extremely proud of, we built it entirely from scratch based on Negin’s expertise, technical and design wishes. It’s the ultimate tool to create the perfect bouncy curls behind Negin’s signature look!
And last but not least, last month we introduced a new limited edition Gisou Honey Infused Haircare Set - a set including all of our Honey Infused favorites - the perfect gift for the holidays and a one-stop shop for deeply conditioned, strong, and healthy hair with luminous shine.
Thank you
The past five years have been an unforgettable journey and we couldn’t have made it this far without your support. As a special thanks, we’re treating everyone that places an order on November 11th 2020 to a free Honey Infused Hair Oil Mini (20 ml - 0.7 fl.oz.), our iconic first product.
All of this wouldn’t have all been possible without you. You, our community, are at the core of our brand - literally in our DNA. You help us decide what to launch, create beautiful content with our products, educate yourselves and others on the importance of honey bees based on what you learn from us, greet us at our pop-ups around the world, and support us with everything in between. We can’t thank you enough for your ongoing excitement and support and can’t wait to share what we have in store for you for the next 5 years!
Stay tuned.
Negin & the Gisou team