How a homegrown natural skincare brand uses Gemini to push for global growth

An interview with Danilly Carvalho, founder of IPERA, a natural skincare company based in County Clare, Ireland.

Growing up in a rural community in Brazil, my family didn’t have very much materially, but we were surrounded by an abundance of nature. I remember the beautiful mango trees, sugar cane, and aloe vera growing all around us. When I first moved to Ireland, I used to work as a legal administrator, but I always felt a pull towards creating something more meaningful that connected nature with wellbeing. So when the pandemic hit, I decided to study botanicals and natural cosmetics.

It was my mum who inspired me to start my own skincare range. She was struggling with menopause symptoms, including changes to her skin. I came up with a special product to support her — a wild yam cream, which she loved. Knowing I could help her in such a practical way was so rewarding that I started making batches for friends and family, and quickly realized I was on to something. I decided to start my own brand, Talamh Natural, and was stocked in over 40 stores across Ireland within the first six months.

As a small business owner, there’s never enough time to get everything done. I was lucky to win a competition through Google that gave me access to experts who advised on how AI could help me save time and grow my business.

When I first started using AI, I shared details about my brand with Gemini to help me craft newsletters, social content, and customer emails that matched my brand’s tone of voice, moving from a detailed prompt to final output, quickly. As the company grew, I had increasing interest from international customers, but people had difficulty connecting with the name and visual identity. Talamh means ‘land’ in Irish, but outside of the country the translation didn’t resonate, so I decided to rebrand.

“Gemini Canvas was invaluable in the rebranding process. It helped generate website prototypes, mock up product labels, and chose a colour palette. It even helped develop the name IPERA and our logo, which reference the Brazilian Ipê tree and is a symbol of resilience.”

The website and product labels look so elegant and help me compete with much larger brands in-store. I noticed the impact right away when a retailer who had previously passed on my products because they looked ‘homemade’ got in touch after the rebrand to stock them.

“Although it’s been less than a year since we relaunched, we're stocked in more than 100 stores in Ireland and have expanded to many new countries, including the US, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, and Serbia.”

My focus now is to expand distribution to even more countries. Gemini Notebook is an amazing resource. I use it to research regions that could be receptive to the brand. It tracks trends, highlights competitor products and shares insights about customer behaviour, so I can prepare for each new market. To get ready for an event in Switzerland, I used Gemini Notebook to understand Swiss customers and found they really value the science behind the ingredients. I made sure to walk people through exactly what each ingredient does, and also updated our labels to be much more detailed and informative. I’m now in talks with a Swiss distributor to stock our products.

I even used Gemini to design my physical workspace. In fact, given all the ways I use it, I’d say it’s been integral to my journey and business. I’ve done all the work, but it’s helped refine and optimise, giving me more hours with my children.

It’s great to see the product’s success, especially as I’m the first in my family to launch a business. Coming from humble beginnings, it’s a big deal. It’s my dream to be the brand that women think of when they need self-care during menopause. I used to be an AI-skeptic, but now I’d go so far as to call Gemini my co-founder.