In our 10 Minutes With … Mathilde Thomas, the co-founder of Caudalie shares her skincare tips that includes drinking wine—and how the brand grew out of a Bordeaux vineyard
Mathilde Thomas grew up surrounded by the beauty of the Alps—a raw and wild environment that she learned to admire and protect from a young age. She brought this same respect for nature to the skincare game, focusing only on natural products—something that was rather rare in the 1990s.
In 1995, she and her husband, Bertrand Thomas, founded their skincare brand Caudalie in Bordeaux, in the heart of her parents’ vineyard. Their secret weapon was using grape seeds, which is said to be one of the most powerful natural antioxidants in the world.
Almost three decades later, Caudalie is widely considered as a pioneer of clean beauty and sustainability. For the brand’s 10-year anniversary in Hong Kong, Mathilde Thomas flew in to the city and sat down with Tatler to share her skincare tips, the brand’s most underrated product and why she thinks the Asian market is unique.
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Caudalie has been an advocate for clean beauty long before the concept became mainstream. What was the skincare industry like when Caudalie was founded?
Everything was loaded with animal ingredients, petrochemicals, paraben, phenoxyethanol and more. Everything was also about collagen. But it was collagen from animals, so the molecule was too big and couldn’t penetrate the skin—meaning it was completely useless. The mad cow disease in the ’90s changed everything [because it spread from cows to humans], and people started to realise it was important to be cautious about what they [put in their bodies].
Why was it important that natural ingredients should be at the heart of your brand right from the start?
It was in my blood. I was born and raised in the Alps. My grandfather would teach me [to identify] the plants in the mountains and my grandmother would show me how to cook the berries that we had harvested. My parents—who were two mountain and nature lovers—bought this organic vineyard called Château Smith Haut Lafitte.
So, clearly, there was no way I would do something that was not vegan and clean. And as we developed [the brand], we realised that we were going in the right direction. We found the right partners, the right formulas … the French press was extremely enthusiastic from the very beginning, but our competition was obviously not so pleased.