M. Paullet: We took over the company in 2014, which was a very small soap factory. We had a shop in Loix, next to our production facility, and then we opened a second shop in Saint-Martin, and then, five years ago, in the Phare des Baleines. This morning, we’re both here with my daughter Marie-Julie, who worked in the company for 10 years and is now in charge of the networks. I’m the manager, so I’m in charge of administration, finance and product sourcing, i.e. everything that goes into the product formulations. After that, it’s Marie-Paule, the chemist and perfumer, who takes care of all the creation of the formulations.

Mr Paullet: In terms of our raw materials, we try to use environmentally-friendly materials, particularly in terms of the oils used for saponification, so we use a lot of coconut colza. Our ingredients are 100% natural. For the deodorant, for example, we use really natural products and there are no aluminium residues at all in the deodorant. We use products that are sourced locally. We source a lot of our products from France, from the Ile de Ré. The milk comes from the south of France.

A visit to the workshop, with the sound of the soap-making machine.

M. Paullet: When we make gift compositions, we use reusable containers, small baskets that can be reused to put household items inside, and we use solvent-free printed packaging. Marie-Julie: The soaps are sold plain, there’s no packaging. Afterwards, if people want to make gifts, we offer gift bags. For the liquid soap, we’ve made a refill that we didn’t have before because our customers asked us for it so many times. M. Paullet: They had been asking us for refills for at least 5 years, and now we have refills in flexible doypacks. And it’s working very, very well. This is our first year and we’ve got off to a very, very good start with this product.

Marie-Julie: We really started in November and we can see that people are asking for it because we have more and more subscribers, more and more people encouraging us through the posts we make. We’re not here to sell a brand, we’re here to really sell a skincare soap. We want people to want to try our products. We also wanted to show through our social media accounts that we’re a family business, that we also show what goes on behind the scenes, because that’s important and because I think people like to see a bit of what goes on inside a company. We’re lucky to have a team that gets on really well and I think people are happy to see that soaps and cosmetics are made here in a good, happy atmosphere. I think it’s important to say that and it’s important that people realise it.