Q&a / Caudalie’s co-founder on everything beauty and skincare: the French brand’s Mathilde Thomas talks TikTok ‘dermfluencers’, natural products and why its collagen serum is ‘more effective’ than retinol
- As French skincare pioneer Caudalie marks its 10th year in Hong Kong, co-founder Mathilde Thomas chats to Style about the science behind its latest collections like the Resveratrol-Lift and Premier Cru
- She founded the company with her now-husband Bertrand in the 90s before natural beauty was cool, starting out in Bordeaux – and learned more about Hong Kong’s beauty needs, from SPF to lighter creams
This year marks 10 years of business in Hong Kong for French skincare brand Caudalie, which did clean beauty “before it was cool”, according to co-founder Mathilde Thomas, who launched the brand with her husband Bertrand.
Caudalie has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the vineyards of Bordeaux, with a global presence in over 50 boutiques worldwide, including retailers like Sephora.
Most of us familiar with your brand know that it’s inspired by grapes. What about the fruit inspires you?
The grape [vine flower] only blossoms three days per year. It’s usually in May or June, and you know that the harvest will be 110 days after, so this flower is very much respected. There’s a big celebration in the vineyard, of the flower blossoming of the grapevine. And this flower smells exactly like our instant foaming cleanser.
What made you think you could launch a whole beauty line using the grape as a starting point? What made you believe in that vision?
At the time, my husband – then boyfriend – wanted to create his own company. I wanted to work in beauty. And we met with this professor [Joseph Vercauteren] from the university [Pharmacy University of Bordeaux], who was fascinating. He told us, “I’m going to put on the market a medication made with grape seed, polyphenol. It’s so strong as an antioxidant.”