Jabonería Marianella · est. 2007
Our Story
A mother and son, three generations of Venezuelan soap-making, and one workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here is how our brand began, how we make what we make, and why we make it this way.
01 · Mother and son
A mother and son brand, begun in a grandmother's kitchen
Marianella grew up making soap in her grandmother's kitchen in Venezuela. That craft grew into a passion for scents and ingredients. Every scent we make comes from her travels. Every ingredient is inspired by that same journey.
Years later, living in the United States, she was making soap again in her spare time and giving the bars to her son, David Foote. He passed them to friends, and the friends asked for more. In 2007 the two of them started Jabonería Marianella. Our first products were bars of soap, made in seven scents and sold three to a set. W magazine wrote about them that November, in our first year.
Marianella, a graphic designer and author before any of this, still makes every formula and every fragrance. David, a fine artist and designer and our Creative Director, gives them their look, from the bottle and the label to the box. If you smell it, it is Marianella's craft. If you see it, it is David's hand.
02 · Williamsburg workshop
Made by hand in Williamsburg, in batches of 50 to 100
Everything we sell is made by hand in our workshop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with one exception. Our two Ultra Peptide formulas, our most intensive, are made for us by a specialist cosmetic lab. We work in batches of 50 to 100, which is small enough to give each one our full attention.
Each batch is hand poured, hand labeled and hand packaged by the same people who made it. We make what is needed rather than filling a warehouse, so what reaches you was made recently.
Working this way is slower, and we think it shows. A small batch lets us check how a texture feels, how a scent opens and how a bottle looks before it leaves the bench. It is how Marianella worked at her kitchen table in 2007, with better equipment and more hands.
03 · How we formulate
Scents from her travels, ingredients chosen for a reason
Every scent begins with a place Marianella has been. The coast, the mountains, summer nights in the city. One of our first scents, Wisteria and Jasmine, was made to recall the dama de noche flower she kept beside her young son's bed in Venezuela. Moroccan Fig and Bergamot, still our best seller, carries the light of a warm Mediterranean coastline. We work each scent out with a fragrance house, using perfume-grade oils, and sort the finished scents into three families: citrus, floral and musky.
We choose each ingredient for how it feels on the skin, how it sits and what it leaves behind. Our hero is Kalahari melon seed oil, cold-pressed from the seeds of a wild melon that grows in the Kalahari of southern Africa and stores water through the dry season. The oil is clear and golden, light and dry to the touch. It absorbs quickly, leaves little residue and helps skin hold moisture.
You will find it in our Royal Kalahari Face Serum, in our Lava Body Caviar and in our Hydrating Hand Wash. Every ingredient we use is in our Ingredient Library, listed as it appears on the label, with where it comes from and how it feels.
04 · Recognized by People
Recognized by People's Star Beauty Awards
Our Royal Kalahari Face Serum won People's Star Beauty Award for Best Facial Care Product. It is a lightweight blend of botanical oils, led by Kalahari melon and joined by baobab, mongongo, passion fruit, camellia and tamanu. It has no added fragrance, and it is made to be pressed into the skin morning and night.
We are grateful for the award, and we have not changed how we work because of it. The serum is still made by hand in Williamsburg, in small batches, the way it was the day it was first poured.
Our products are sold at BEAUTYSPACE at Bloomingdale's, and our brand has been written about in Vogue, W, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Brooklyn Magazine and People.
05 · Sustainability in practice
The simplest thing we do for the planet is make less
Small batches mean less excess. We make what is needed, so nothing sits in a warehouse and little is thrown away.
We use recyclable glass bottles and jars wherever we can, and reusable vessels where they suit the product. When we use plastic, it is only for safety or stability.
We work with suppliers who share our standards for purity, performance and ethical responsibility. If an ingredient does not meet them, it does not go into our products.
We have never tested on animals, and we never will.
Made by hand, by a mother and her son, in Brooklyn. This is Marianella.
Creative Director
David Foote, the eye behind Marianella
David Foote is a fine artist, illustrator and director, and the Creative Director of our brand. He has designed every piece of our packaging since the first bars in 2007. Outside the brand his work has been shown in galleries and publications, and it includes a 65-foot mural for the Hanro shop in New York's Meatpacking District.
His eye is why a Marianella bottle is something to look at as well as to use, from the shelf in your bathroom to the box it arrives in.
Limited-edition gift sets, this season only
This season our gift sets come in limited-edition boxes with David's artwork. A portion of every set goes to social initiatives in Venezuela.
Shop the gift setsAs seen in
