“This place is really us!” », enthused Mathilde Thomas, during the inauguration, in May, of the new Caudalie boutique-spa, in Aix-en-Provence. Frontenac stone counter, walls clad in French oak, natural coatings and plaster floors in the cabins, pots and tubes of creams discreetly stored on a few shelves… Like the urban spa opened a year earlier in Bordeaux, this boutique has was designed by the architectural firm Ciguë, which notably designed the layout of around ten Aesop and Isabel Marant sales spaces around the world.
“We had moved away from the spirit of our original spa in Bordeaux, we wanted to return to something more minimal, more tranquil, more luxurious too, while being modern and eco-responsible,” comments Mathilde Thomas, who founded the cosmetics brand with her husband in 1995 and manages the creation, research and development part of the company.
Its ambition today is to reduce the number of stores in France, but also in London, where Caudalie has four, the brand seeking to concentrate on a single, more emblematic location. In Paris, a major project is coming, with the development of a new head office in the Marais district associated with a spa boutique and two yoga rooms. Mathilde Thomas practices the discipline regularly and has already converted some of her employees to asanas thanks to daily classes taught by teachers in their current offices.
She decided to open this new studio to the public in order to offer a concept of global beauty and to attract a new clientele. The restructuring and decoration of the 5,000 square meters have also been entrusted to the architects of Ciguë, who are planning delivery for 2025. The brand, which has been looking for a large space for a long time, took advantage of the sale of a former school rabbinical. And, by a happy coincidence, it is the rabbi of the adjoining synagogue who certifies certain vintages of Château Smith Haut Lafitte as kosher, a Bordeaux Grand Cru Classé and owned by Florence and Daniel Cathiard, the parents of Mathilde Thomas.
The blessing of Charles III
It is in the heart of this vineyard that Caudalie was born, with the creation of the first products with grape seed polyphenols. An idea inspired by the meeting between Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas, then young graduates, and Professor Joseph Vercauteren, director of the laboratory at the Bordeaux University of Pharmacy and specialist in polyphenols – complex molecules present in certain plant species known to slow down the aging of cells.
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