Eclo, the first 100% natural make-up brand, from formula to packaging

How was Eclo born?

Priscille Charton, co-founder of the Eclo brand: I spent twelve years in the cosmetics industry at one of the largest beauty companies in the world. It was exhilarating, but over the years the desire grew in me to do things differently to meet the many ecological issues of our time, as well as the needs of consumers. This desire was accentuated by a trip I took in 2014. I took a sabbatical year, and I went on a sailboat on the Atlantic, and what I saw floating every day in the middle of the ocean did not necessarily leave me indifferent. I promised myself to innovate differently in cosmetics when I returned, but no matter how much I evolved and offered new things, it was too complicated to do things differently. The pandemic has been there, and I wanted to get started, so I contacted Julien Callede, co-founder of made.com, for advice on entrepreneurship, and his answer was quite clear: ‘when we want, we can. That was enough to convince me, especially since he was interested in my ideas and became, a few months later, my partner.

What did you have in mind for this new adventure?

I had in mind the idea of ​​making a make-up brand with the same requirement for the skin and the planet. This has resulted in biodegradable formulas that can flow into water without degrading ecosystems, and products without any plastic because the issue of packaging is paramount in the cosmetics sector. Our products are fully biodegradable and compostable, and that’s something to be proud of. It was also, of course, about fulfilling the basic contract of a make-up product, namely making it fully satisfactory for the consumer. So the idea was to offer organic formulas, Cosmos Organic certified, but without compromising on texture, hold, or color.

How does Eclo differ from other more traditional make-up brands?

Eclo is the first 100% natural make-up brand, from formula to packaging, and we also define ourselves as the first regenerative make-up brand. There was no question of sacrificing sensoriality for the benefit of ‘clean’, quite the contrary. The formulas have been designed to be applied with the finger, which is also very innovative, and very pleasant because the textures are melting. Eclo products meet different expectations, whether in terms of efficiency, and respect for the skin and the planet, but it also had to remain a moment of pleasure. This is our goal.

What is a regenerative makeup brand?

It was a sustainability consulting agency that introduced me to the concept of regeneration. And the benefits of regenerative agriculture, which makes it possible in particular to restore the biodiversity of degraded soils, inevitably interested us. Today we collaborate with the association Pour une Agriculture du Vivant, with which we play the role of ‘transformer’. This means that we will teach all the players in the supply chain of the cosmetics industry. This goes from our laboratory, which is based in Brittany, to the supplier of raw materials and the producers. With regenerative agriculture, the objective is to restore full powers to the land, put the living being back at the heart of the ecosystem, and fight naturally against excess CO2 in the atmosphere since regenerated land is which has the ability to capture more carbon. But all this is a long-term project, and in the short term we have already chosen to focus on ingredients that have benefits for the skin as well as for the soil.

What are the main ingredients used for this makeup line?

We chose hemp for the eye shadow because it’s known for its hydrating and soothing benefits, and also has the ability to clean and decontaminate floors. For the blush, we use rye, which comes from Haute-Loire, whose particularity is to give a natural healthy-glow effect, and whose roots are immense; which promotes the restoration of biodiversity. And for the last product, lipstick, we opted for seaweed, found in Brittany, known for its smoothing and plumping properties, and which is none other than the essential link in the marine ecosystem. . These are really the ingredients that we put forward in the three families of our first range. We have the ingredients on one side, and the agricultural practices on the other, but we would also like to work with farmers who are already working the land with this material for our future developments.

Unlike skincare, clean and eco-responsible make-up is not yet the norm. Is it difficult today to formulate green products in make-up?

Yes, because it is a specification which is technical, demanding, and which necessarily limits us in what we can or cannot use in the formulations. There are countless back and forths to achieve an optimal result.

Can we really rhyme eco-responsibility and diversity, whether in terms of colors, textures, or references?

Yes, it is completely possible. Inclusiveness is a very important issue, because everyone has to benefit from it. We are currently working on a range of corrective foundation, and we inevitably ask ourselves these questions, but I am more in favor of developing a formula that can cover as many skin tones as possible. It’s all about the buildability and coverage of the formula. If it is very covering, it will indeed be necessary to decline it in fifty shades, but if it is flexible, and that we can dose the natural effect, second skin, or more covering, we can afford to have a palette more short but suitable for a wider panel. In the end, with ten shades, we can completely meet the needs of very light or very dark skin. If we push logic to the limit, releasing fifty shades of foundation is absolutely not ecological.

The crowdfunding campaign launched on Ulule ends on May 6th. Where are you ?

It’s going very well, since we are at more than 2,000% of presales on an initial objective of 100%. It was to launch the production, so we are very happy.

What are the next steps to develop Eclo?

There will be the opening of the e-shop during the month of May, then the delivery of all the participants in the Ulule campaign in June, as well as the distribution in retail almost at the same time. We are approached by many concept stores, so it’s great. And then we are obviously working on new families of products, but we will talk about them later…