Contrary to first impressions, ‘clean’ beauty is a muddied world, rife with contradiction. But, sitting in front of Odacité founder Valerie Grandury as she talks through her exclusive partnership with Domaine des Etangs Auberge, the movement becomes a lot clearer.
After recovering from breast cancer, Grandury found that in her adopted home of California, there was little skincare that suited her needs post-treatment, and she longed for the premium products that came as standard in French pharmacies. The solution? To build the products herself.
Following years of development in her own kitchen and making custom-blend skincare for a few select clients, Grandury launched Odacité in 2009. The brand’s take on clean beauty isn’t about naysaying so-called chemicals – instead, it’s about calling on powerful natural ingredients and pairing them with research-backed actives to create a 360-degree wellness brand that is gentle to skin and planet.
With a cult global following, Grandury is now on a mission to spread the word, placing her premium products at the heart of world-leading hotel spas. The partnership with Domaine des Etangs Auberge is a natural one, on all fronts. On a surface level, Odacité was launched in California by a French founder; Domaine des Etangs is the only French hotel by the California-based hotel group Auberge. But deeper than that, they share an ethos that, first and foremost,t looking to nature is the ideal way to build holistic health.
“It’s important to me to work with only a few partners and create something really exceptional,” says Grandury. While other collaborations of this kind might be born of sales-led negotiations, Grandury herself was at the heart of putting Odacité in the Domaine des Etangs spa. “I got in touch with the Domaine and said, ‘The specific thing about Odacité is that we try to create something that belongs to your hotel.’ So, I came and stayed at the Domaine and I had the chance to spend half a day with [the hotel’s groundsman] Francois, to go through the grounds and look at the plants – I’m an ingredient nerd.”
The main fruit of Grandury’s search through Domaine des Etangs’s 2,500-acre grounds (which surrounds an epic 12th-century chateau) was lemon balm. The fragrant herb hails from the mint family and is native to the Middle East and the Mediterranean but grows in abundance in the hotel’s sprawling grounds. This discovery guided the custom essential oil made specifically for the hotel. Bolstered by calming lavender and sweet, floral rose, the oil is heady and powerful. “When you’re at home, add a couple of drops in your hands to warm up the essential oil, [cup your hands] around your nose, take five really deep breaths, and it’s going to take you right back to the Domaine,” Grandury says.
It follows then that lemon balm is also the core ingredient in the signature Odacité x Domaine des Etangs treatment, where handpicked local herbs are used to concoct a soothing bath and an invigorating scrub, followed by an expert massage.
The real star of this new collaboration, however, is the facials. Utilizing almost the full breadth of Odacité products (including the bright blue Aqua micellar water, the Hydra-repair mist and the signature lemon balm oil) and personally conceived by Grandury, the two new facials are performed by Domaine des Etangs’s remarkably skilled therapists. It’s clear from the get-go that they understand not just the products they’re using, but also the structure of the skin and the face itself. As a result, the facials are tailored and intuitive, rather than one-size-fits-all all.
Acting as an embodiment of Odacité’s science-meets-nature ethos, the two facials cater to either end of the wellness spectrum. The Nano Infusion offering utilizes the high-tech nano pen to create tiny non-invasive punctures in the skin to better allow products to penetrate. The Temple of Beauty facial, on the other hand, calls on more nurturing methods. Structured gua sha techniques are used to promote lymphatic drainage and gentle massage movements create lift and glow, without more invasive tools.
For a full immersion into the Odacité x Domaine des Etangs collaboration, the hotel has launched a three-day wellness stay. As well as taking in the very best of Domaine des Etang’s amenities, including dinner at the Michelin-starred Dyades, guided walks through the art-filled grounds and lakeside picnics, the package showcases the hotel’s vast wellness offering, including the indoor Roman bathing circuit, guided meditation and a choice of bespoke Odacité treatment.
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