The Story of Geek & Gorgeous

Even though Geek & Gorgeous is a young brand, if I want to go back to our beginnings, that would be more than 15 years ago. I was 17, when I developed horrible acne. For years, I tried out a bunch of things, including tons of cosmetic products, facials, and visits to the dermatologist.

 
What eventually helped was not some miracle cure, but me starting to learn about skincare and clinically proven active ingredients. After years of randomly trying things and failing, I started to obsessively read and learn. I read all the books by Paula Begoun and then went on to read the famous Cosmetic Dermatology book by Dr. Leslie Baumann. I read more and more science-based skincare blogs, forums, and eventually research studies. In 2019, I completed the SCS Diploma in Cosmetic Science issued by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists in the UK.

With my new found knowledge, I managed to figure out a skincare routine, which I used patiently and consistently, until my skin finally cleared up. It’s like Kung-Fu-Panda’s story, “there is no secret ingredient”.

After success with my skin, I realized that there is nothing in my native Hungarian language on the internet to help women learn about skincare and choose products wisely. As an MSc in Computer Science, I decided to launch a “skincare blog - Hungarian makeupalley.com - CosDNA all rolled into one” website called kremmania.hu.

I launched kremmania.hu in 2010 and today it’s the biggest beauty website in Hungary with more than half a million unique visitors and 6 million page views per month.

Thanks to kremmania.hu, I got to know Peter Budahazy, the CEO of the biggest Hungarian mass-market brand called Helia-D. We had a casual professional relationship for years, until one day in 2015, the idea came to us to create a new brand together.

I come up with the concept of the brand, the products, and the active ingredients we should use. Helia-D helps me to bring the products to life, and the result of this collaboration is Geek & Gorgeous, a brand created with lots of love and passion for beauty geeks like me.

Click here to read about the G&G philosophy and why it’s different >>

 

Wishing you gorgeous skin.                                                                       


Founder Geek & Gorgeous 

 

geek formulas 🤓

We create products with clinically proven actives in cosmetically elegant formulas that are fragrance (artificial or natural), colorant and drying alcohol-free. We also avoid using common allergens and plant extracts, which sound good but are scientifically questionable for the skin such as most essential oils, lavender or citrus extracts. We do not use controversial ingredients (you know, like parabens, sulphates or mineral oil) to give you total peace of mind, although we also have to honestly tell you we do not think that these are toxic ingredients and we do not believe in fearmongering. Our philosophy is based more on maximizing what is good for the skin and minimizing everything else. Most of our products are Malassezia-safe and with only one exception, they are also vegan. We are 100% cruelty-free.

🧮known amount of actives

We like science, we like numbers and we like actives that have a decent amount of research proving that they are good for the skin. We also like transparency and believe in smart beauty geeks who read ingredient lists and want to know the exact amount of the main actives. More is not always better but knowing the amount in the right context definitely helps to make smart, informed product decisions, and we are happy to help you with that whenever possible for gorgeous results.

efficiency without the price tag🏷️

We create efficient, high quality products at awesome value for money. Two things help us with this: we are a mostly direct to consumer brand, and while we have local partners in several countries, we currently do not work with big retailers needing huge margins. We also have our own development & manufacturing that enables us not only to have full control over our formulations, but to create products more cost-efficiently than having to go to third party contract manufacturers, which is the usual way for most indie brands. Effective skincare doesn’t always have to break the bank, but don’t just take our word for it, we all know that the proof is in the pudding.

💛 kindness is gorgeous - If you are still reading, thank you! Here is a bonus info only for the special beauty geeks who got this far. Since the beginning of our brand, we have been committed to play our small part in contributing to a better world & better health by supporting GiveWell.org with 1€ per full-size G&G exfoliant sold. We are super happy having donated €31 367 in the last year alone.💛