Glean is a woman-owned skincare start-up founded by a pair of cousins hailing from Somaliland, home of the ancient gob tree.

For generations, the tree’s leaf, qasil, has been harvested as a skin-soothing remedy that cleans, exfoliates and brightens, without lightening. As lifelong skin-havers, we know how poisonous (and costly) Big Western Beauty Culture can be, particularly for darker-skinned women. In a sea of shelves lined with literal skin bleach and pseudo-scientific formulations, Glean offers a radical alternative: one simple, organic ingredient to help the skincare girlies shine without breaking the bank, or their self-esteem. Glean’s founders came to us, name and product in hand, ready to get scrappy. Together, we embarked on a ridiculously efficient and joyfully collaborative process to design a brand that celebrates self-love and simplicity, with a rich, rooted sense of identity and place.