With a 200-year beekeeping heritage, proprietary ingredients, scientifically proven formulas and a creative entrepreneurial founder, we have built a beauty brand rooted in nature, innovation and family tradition. The Mirsalehi Bee Gardens are the heart of Gisou and the source of our proprietary Mirsalehi Honey used in every product.
The Garden Where It All Begins
The Mirsalehi Bee Garden is where our story begins, built on six generations of beekeeping and a family tradition rooted in nature, care and respect for bees. When Negin Mirsalehi’s father moved from Iran to the Netherlands in the 1980s, he established his own bee garden in Almere and carried the family’s expertise and passion for beekeeping with him.
Growing up, Negin and her sister Negar spent their summers in the garden alongside their father, learning the craft of beekeeping and developing a deep respect for bees and the natural ecosystem they support. Those early years shaped the way they understood honey, not as something distant or decorative, but as something living, seasonal and deeply connected to the land.
Honey was part of everyday life in the Mirsalehi family. It was used across family rituals and home life, and it became a natural part of the beauty routine too. Their mother, a hairdresser by trade, discovered honey’s potential in haircare and created the original honey-infused hair oil recipe that inspired our first product
That homemade formula became the starting point for Gisou, created by Negin to share her family’s passion for honey and her much sought-after beauty routine with the world. What began in the garden as a family tradition has grown into a globally loved beauty brand that still honors its 200-year beekeeping heritage, whilst bringing it into a modern beauty context
What Makes Mirsalehi Honey Different
Our proprietary Mirsalehi Honey is sourced from the Mirsalehi Bee Garden in the Netherlands. It is shaped by the season, made from nectar gathered by our bees from the wildflowers in the garden and supported by a diverse range of pollen and nectar sources.
This is what makes Mirsalehi Honey unique. It is not just harvested; it is carefully tended to within a living ecosystem that reflects our family’s bee-first approach. For us, honey is more than an ingredient. It is a living part of our story, still produced by the family, still harvested in our own gardens and still powering every product we create today.
From Garden to Formula: How Gisou Sources Its Honey
Every drop of Mirsalehi Honey used in our formulas is hand-harvested in the Mirsalehi Bee Garden. Today, Mirsalehi Honey is cultivated and sustainably harvested by Negar Mirsalehi, Gisou’s Beekeeper-in-Chief, alongside Negin and their father. Negar personally tends to the bees, ensuring that their welfare is always prioritized.
This bee-centered approach actively shapes our sourcing process. We only ever harvest surplus honey, and additional flowers are regularly planted to continue supporting diverse pollen and nectar sources across the gardens. In 2023, we opened a second garden to ensure that even at scale, every product still contains Mirsalehi Honey cultivated and sustainably sourced from our family bee gardens.
Negin Mirsalehi: The Bridge Between Heritage and Modern Luxury Haircare
Negin Mirsalehi created Gisou in 2015 to turn a family legacy into a modern beauty brand. As a sixth-generation beekeeper and visionary founder, she brings a rare point of view to haircare, one that blends heritage, product innovation and a clear understanding of what beauty can feel like today.
A key part of that vision is her belief in honey as a powerful haircare ingredient. Negin has long championed honey for its ability to help attract and retain moisture, which is why it has always sat at the heart of our formulas. She understood early on that honey could become the starting point for modern, high-performing haircare. That thinking shaped our first product, the Honey Infused Hair Oil, and still guides the way we formulate today. It is the bridge Negin built: taking something deeply personal, rooted in family tradition, and translating it into a modern brand with a luxury sensibility and a clear point of view.
Alongside Negar’s role as Beekeeper-in-Chief, Negin keeps our heritage alive while moving it forward in a way that feels personal, modern and unmistakably Gisou. It’s this balance of past and present that gives us our sense of authenticity and purpose.
The Recognition That Validates the Heritage
Our Honey Infused Hair Oil quickly became a globally adored beauty icon. Best-selling, award-winning and scientifically proven, it remains the product that introduced our story to the world. Since then, several of our products, including our Honey Gloss Ceramide Therapy Hair Mask, have also gone on to win industry awards. That recognition reflects more than performance. It validates the power of Mirsalehi Honey and the importance of our six-generation heritage.
FAQ — 5 Questions About the Gisou Story
- Where does Gisou honey come from? Our proprietary Mirsalehi Honey is sourced from our family bee garden in the Netherlands.
- Who founded Gisou? Gisou was founded by Negin Mirsalehi in 2015 as a way to share her family’s passion for honey and her much sought-after beauty routine.
- What is the Mirsalehi Bee Garden? The Mirsalehi Bee Garden is the source of our proprietary Mirsalehi Honey and the heart of our brand story.
- How do you harvest the honey? Our honey is hand-harvested by Negar Mirsalehi, Giosu’s Beekeeper-in-Chief. We only ever harvest the surplus honey, always ensuring the bees come first.
- Why is the Honey Infused Hair Oil important? Our Honey Infused Hair Oil was the first product we launched and is based on a family recipe that Negin’s mother created in the 1990s.