Grande Maison

PARIS, 1968 - The city of love is wide awake. Carnations explode from window-boxes, the cobbled streets dance sunlight into the spring air. Students and factory workers gather for another roaring protest. And somewhere deep in the city, two lovers - Leonor & Jean-Marie Greyl - and their newborn daughter Caroline, begin a journey of hair evolution and artisanal botany. The journey will last fifty years. And today, the natural treatments the Greyl’s have developed are world famous - true heritage, with an eco-friendly craft which is all too rare in 2018.

The story of the Leonor Greyl brand begins and ends with one word: family. The brand itself, was born just one year after Leonor’s and Jean-Marie’s daughter Caroline. Today - from her Parisian headquarters on Rue de Terrage - that same daughter steered the family legacy to international plains, and has guided the finest natural hair-care products into the hands of some of the most impressive artists and celebrities in the industry. Don’t take our word for it; ask the likes of Kim Kardashian, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Diane Kruger, Mila Kunis and Romain Duris. This is a love affair with hair, based on real product performance.

Leonor Greyl has always been woman-owned, from its birth as the Institut de Leonor Greyl, until today. Where Leonor grew the vision, Caroline developed it into the multi-national label we see today. It was she who set up their American subsidiary in 2005, leading the brand to take over the USA with its trademark French understatement. These little golden-white bottles don’t need loud packaging - this is tradition, distilled, al naturale. And it’s this which has led them to 45 countries, with over 500 stores in France alone. Their next step: Latin America.

While the leading ladies in this story are to die for, we must not forget the men behind the scenes. Jean-Marie - who co-founded Leonor Greyl with his wife in 1968 - is their famed botanist. The ladies tell him what they need, and off he goes into his workshop in Paris to make it happen. Is there a more romantic scene?

His expertise with natural extracts and oils is what makes their best-selling products - Regenerescence Naturelle or Masque Fleurs de Jasmine, for instance - so popular. He has supported the women in his life, as they grew one of the most stylish eco-friendly lines of hair-care products in the world today. In the early millennium, it was Caroline’s own husband - a biochemist from San Francisco - who moved from his home in the States, to take over R&D for the company. Today he works closely with Jean-Marie in their headquarters, finding new liberation for distressed hair. Like we said: at Leonor Greyl, it’s family first.

Paris’ 8th Arrondissement - between the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe - the Leonor Greyl Institut stands stronger than ever before. It offers boutique treatments tailored for each customer to suit their hair needs, and the high standards they hold have inspired spas all over the world to join the Leonor Greyl tradition. The treatment does not end when you leave the Institut, Leonor Greyl’s clients can receive their own custom consultancy lesson, explaining everything from which shampoo suits their hair best, to how to massage their scalp. You can think of Leonor Greyl’s hair care products as if they were skin care. Shampoo is Cleanser and Conditioner is Moisturiser, of course; then their Treatment can be best paired with a skin Serum, and Styler with Foundation. Even Kirsten Dunst was saved by their Creme de Fleurs treatment, when stylist Odile Gilbert had to repair the damage she received when bleaching repeatedly in order to play hair-heroine Marie Antoinette. Once you go Greyl, you never go back. And while other hair-care legends may have tasted the forbidden fruit of selling-out, Leonor’s is an institution which is rooted deep in the garden of eden.