October 19, 2021

Michèle Evrard | Founder and CEO of Cosmetics 27

1 hour 3 minutes

In episode seventy seven of the Glow Journal podcast, host Gemma Watts talks to the founder of Cosmetics 27, Michèle Evrard.

Michèle grew up with more of a love for the outdoors than a love for beauty- although, in a sense, it was the former that brought her to the latter.

Michèle’s love of the outdoors led to a desire to be an adventurer- an archeologist, specifically, as she tells me one of her earliest wishes was “to discover something.” She found herself naturally drawn to science, completing her studies at medicine and pharmacy schools before taking a job within the beauty industry and discovering a passion for product development.

What led to the development of Cosmetics 27, however, was something different entirely. That aforementioned love of the outdoors saw Michèle injure herself skiing, and amidst her search to find a product to heal the subsequent scar, she was introduced to a plant with regenerative properties that had, at the time, not been used to even a tenth of its potential.

That plant became the base of her first product, the now-cult Baume 27, fulfilling her desire for discovery and fascination with creation, and despite having no initial plans to bring the product to market, it now sits at the core of the Cosmetics 27 brand.

I have long used and loved the Cosmetics 27 brand, but what I found to be just as remarkable as the products was Michèle’s willingness to acknowledge and reflect on decisions that she deems to be failures, as well as the way in which she talks about independent brands and multinationals coexisting in the beauty space, with each brand (and, more importantly, each idea) pushing those around them to do better.

In this conversation, Michèle shares how social media trends might be affecting our skin’s balance, the ways in which the barrier to entry to the beauty industry has been lowered, and why remaining an independent brand is both freeing and a hurdle.