A laboratory that answers its own post

Aurélie began in 2016 on a rented bench in the 11th arrondissement. Our founder, Aurélie Marchand, had spent eleven years as a contract cosmetic chemist watching clients ask for the smell of an active rather than a working dose of it. The first formula she made under her own name was a 10% niacinamide toner, buffered to pH 5.8 so it could be used nightly, and she sold it to 300 people from a market stall on Rue Saint-Maur.

The formulation rules have not moved since. We state the concentration of every active on the outer carton - 2% bakuchiol, 10% niacinamide, 0.3% encapsulated retinal, hyaluronic acid at 50, 800 and 1,500 kDa. We do not include an ingredient below the dose at which it has been shown to do something, and we do not claim a result the trial did not produce.

Every formula is put through a supervised twelve-week user trial before release, on panels of 80 to 200 volunteers across four Fitzpatrick groups and three climates. We publish the panel size beside every figure we quote. Three formulas have been withdrawn after trial and two more were never released; the notes on all five are on the ingredient index.

We fill, label and pack in Paris, and we take our packaging back. Porcelain jars and amber glass bottles are designed to be refilled rather than replaced, and a refill costs 30% less than the original. Around a third of our orders each month are refills, which is the number we are proudest of.