Flamingo Estate Has Fully Embraced California's Wellness Obsession

From $130 fresh farm boxes to the iconic spicy jarred strawberries to tomato vine-scented dish soap, Flamingo Estate does it all. In 2024, the brand has a cult following and things only seem to be looking up, if the most recent endeavor—a pop-up shop in partnership with Mytheresa and Porsche housed in an old East Hampton auto body shop—is any evidence.

The tale of the beginnings of Flamingo Estate is one that all good Angelenos know all too well. Established in 2020 by former Chandelier Creative—a revered advertising agency based in New York—founder, Richard Christiansen, Flamingo Estate began as nothing more than Christiansen's home, shared with his two dogs and partner, Aaron Harvey. In the middle of Los Angeles, the sprawling Spanish-style house, which dates back to the '40s, sits on a seven-acre lot that has become home to numerous botanical and agricultural passion projects over the years. This number has increased exponentially ever since.

First and foremost, Flamingo Estate is the name of Christiansen's home—a move that has caused plenty of confusion among the brand's celebrity clients—rather than just the name of his brand. In an interview with the New York Times, Chrissy Teigen, a friend of the label, shared the first time she visited Flamingo Estate. “I thought it was a public space that people could maybe purchase a ticket to, like a garden," she explained. "We pulled up and I knocked on the gate and Richard popped out, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, wait, this is not a public entity of any kind.’” What began as an awkward encounter turned into an evidently blossoming friendship, as Christiansen ended up inviting Teigen for a tour of his home, and the two wound up making jars of jam in the frequently Instagrammed Flamingo Estate kitchen.

As the founder and visionary leader behind the brand, Christiansen is very much at the core of Flamingo Estate. Through personally written Instagram captions, often signed "x Richard" and two Flamingo Estate books, Christiansen helps the identity of the brand shine with his authenticity and raw passion for the vision behind Flamingo Estate and its products. 

Aside from the sumptuous, all-natural bar soaps, the cold-pressed olive oil, and the candles that are just as pleasing to the eyes as they are to the nose, Flamingo Estate has skyrocketed to cult classic status among Los Angeles residents—and by now, interested parties across the United States—for both the support it has garnered from its most high-profile shoppers and the fascinating celebrity cameos that pop up within the brand's online shop. In recent years, Flamingo Estate has set out on a journey both experimental and utterly entertaining in its mission. 

Across several busy Los Angeles mornings, the Flamingo Estate team loaded up their Range Rovers with beehives, several protective suits, and plenty of camera equipment. The result? Organic honey harvested from the backyards of famous LA residents ranging from LeBron James to Kelly Wearstler to Tiffany Haddish. Much like the nuances of different coffee roasts or different varieties of wine, the taste of honey differs greatly depending on the flowers bees pollinate and the climate surrounding the hive. “How wild is it that LeBron’s honey on the Westside tastes completely different from Tiffany Haddish’s in South Central,” Christiansen remarked of the experiment in the same New York Times article.