Bazar Bio, Hercules Studio and Ujo are wellness brands born in Nice. A look back at three international successes made in Riviera!
Héléna Marino, 43, but looking ten younger, is the pioneer in France of green and clean beauty. In 2010, she was still an educational manager at a business school and a professor of human resources at the university when she became pregnant with her first daughter. She then decided to remove all cosmetics, varnishes and colors from her non-natural beauty routines, and tried to get beautiful and organic products. She finally finds happiness, but only abroad! This was the trigger for the creation of her online window, created in collaboration with her webmaster husband, and the end of her former functions. The aim: to select the best in holistic beauty from around the world and make it available to French women. Since she had a young daughter, she also offers items for children, and names her site Bazar Bio. The buzz is immediate and she is the first to offer on the French market the now famous American brand Tata Harper, imagined by a former construction engineer who became a farmer in Vermont, who dreamed of creating high-end, 100% natural treatments on the French market. ”The difference with a non-natural product is that with most Tata Harper creams, there is a maximum of active ingredients inside, 72 to be precise. So it's much more efficient. In non-natural products, they are shrunk to the bone, with the budget often spent on packaging and marketing.”, explains Héléna. Over time, the entrepreneur has replaced the bottles in her sales lines with an ultra-precise selection of facial, body, hair treatments, and other massage and “superfood” tools from Australia, the United States, or even England, and has developed an ultra-comprehensive blog devoted to well-being. In total, around forty brands and more than 1,000 references are offered today, including his own creations: face and body brushes, Gua Sha, massage cups, pillowcases and silk night masks, as well as an LED mask, the promise of natural and eternal beauty.
In the heart of Nice, in the port district, she recently opened her concept store which brings together all her discoveries. ”It was important for me to be available for Riviera women and tourists visiting the Riviera, in order to provide them with my advice, my favorite activity! To be as beautiful and young as possible naturally, you have to take care of yourself in a comprehensive and holistic way. In lifestyle, in food and micronutrition, as well as in the daily intake of marine collagen, one of the beauty revolutions of recent years that I was the first to talk about in France!”. To share her experiences, Héléna organizes wellness workshops once a month, to be followed closely on her website: www.bazar-bio.fr
A few streets away, in the musicians' district, Joy Lucas, 32, works with her team of three people in the premises of Hercule Studio, her luxury sports goods brand. A former gymnast who converted to luxury marketing after a business school, the Parisian woman joined forces two years ago with her partner, Jérémy Arbibe, a 33-year-old from Nice, a former top tennis player who became an investment banker. ”In 2020, in full lockdown, we did our sports sessions at home. And as we are real aesthetes, I wanted to order beautiful sports objects to motivate us even more! I discovered that there was absolutely no offer that we liked, that there was no effort made to design these objects and that most of them were made on the other side of the world. I was surprised that the luxury world had not yet taken hold of this field! So we did a market study and we realized that there was a commercial niche that could combine our passion with our needs.”, explains Joy.
For two years, the couple sought - and found - the French manufacturer who could make their objects, developed prototypes, identified materials resistant to abrasion and perspiration, fulfilled technical constraints, prototyping, and extended feasibility studies, then developed a first series of objects, then developed a first series of objects, including an exercise mat and a comfort “pad”, a reduced model carpet called Galet. ”The pebble beach in Nice, where we now live together, inspired us! The terracotta color of the exercise mat evokes the Palais Bulles designed by the architect Antti Lovag in Théoule-sur-Mer and the pistachio color, the exotic garden of Èze. The yoga mat is called Mar and the leather carrying strap is Socca. We want to honor the region, be inspired by what is in front of us, while giving global symbolism to the brand. The one who achieved this feat the most was the fashion designer Jacquemus, a real model! The Archy rug has the shape of an arch that allows us to pass the stage of starting sports, it accompanies us towards well-being. As for the yoga mat, its design is wavy on the sides, like the flow of the waves of the Mediterranean.”
In January 2022, for its launch, the start-up successfully organized a pre-sale on the crowdfunding site Ulule, then raised its first capital. Since then, the couple has always designed in France, has invested in their own manufacturing molds, and even produces their scented spray sanitizing objects with thyme, lemon and lavender on the Côte d'Azur, in Vallauris. After an initial turnover of 100,000 euros, the brand soon reached 400,000 euros, and is already in its second round of fundraising. Hercules Studio is on sale at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris, at the design brand Conran Shop in London, and in various concept stores in 20 countries including Taiwan, Seoul and Venezuela. The brand will also enter the American market before Christmas by integrating the iconic Californian sales site Goop of actress and healthy beauty guru Gwyneth Paltrow. A Holy Grail for the couple who also sell their rugs in luxury hotels on the Côte d'Azur (Hôtel du Couvent and Negresco in Nice, Royal-Riviera in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Lou Pinet in Saint-Tropez), at the ultra-chic Geko Pilates studio in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and on their website: www.hercule-studio.com
The 36-year-old young woman from Cannes, Amandine Fraboulet, a production manager in event fashion, lived for ten years in Paris, working for Dior, Couturíssimo or the Lebanese designer Georges Chakras. A fan of music festivals such as Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert in the United States or the German Fusion festival, combining music and theatrical performances, she was constantly looking, and in vain, for original and ecological outfits that she and her friends could wear. ”I used to buy costumes, but most of the time they were made in China and that bothered me a lot. So I decided to create my own label of festival clothing, ecological and colorful, light and easy to wear. Some friends had a sewing workshop in Paris and they explained to me how to use a sewing machine. I devoured model books and released my first collection... which was a great success with my friends!” But Covid stopped its rise sharply. Amandine escapes in a van with her husband. They travel around Portugal, Greece and Ibiza, with beautiful kitesurfing escapades. The couple finally returned to France and stopped in Nice. Amandine relaunches her concept, but is expanding her clientele. She will create sportswear, practicing yoga, roller skating and running herself. In 2022, she founded her brand Ujo, meaning “sentient beings” in Japanese, in tribute to humans, animals and plants. Ujo is eco-responsible. ”First, I draw by hand, then rework the photograph I take of the same drawing on the computer. These are patterns inspired by the 1980s and 1990s, always very pop, colorful and sunny, which provide positive energy and represent me well. I then have them printed on recycled Italian lycra and I create jumpsuits, leggings, bras...".
Initially, Amandine did everything herself in her sewing workshop in Nice, and now has her collections made by a workshop specializing in high-end lycra figure skating outfits, in the Troyes region. All unused fabric scraps are sent to a waste disposal center in the Lyon region, which reuses them to make insulation. For tee-shirts and sweatshirts, she buys organic cotton and recycled polyester from “dead stocks” from luxury houses. Even if today Amandine reinvests all the money earned by her company, its evolution is exponential. ”My buyers are in Paris, Bordeaux, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium... and I am happy to seduce everyone by sizing from 36 to 46.” In a few weeks, she will present her brand new collection of colorful velvet leggings, to practice sports or... dance all night long! To discover in the Evrlst store in Nice or on its website: www.ujo.studio
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