Male beauty heroes: We speak to Melvita’s Simon Ford

French cosmetics company Melvita has been causing a real stir with natural beauty product enthusiasts across the waters for years now. Former beekeeper Bernard Chevilliat founded the brand and brand manager Simon Ford  makes sure this natural cosmetics company keeps to its core values as it expands. Recently the company released products in the UK- so will British customers be just as enticed by the products as the French? All the signs point to yes. George Walker speaks to Simon Ford about this sweet-as-honey cosmetics company.

How he started

We spoke to Melvita Brand Manager Simon Ford about how his passion for natural living brought him to work with Melvita. He said: “I wanted to work promoting natural cosmetics for two reasons. Firstly I have always been fascinated by beauty products and treatments – I’m a bit of a sybarite and love the idea that beauty products can make you look and feel better all at the same time! And secondly I have always believed in the superiority of nature over man-made synthetics – to me humans are animals and therefore thrive best in the natural world and so it makes sense for us to protect the environment. I try to extend this ‘green’ philosophy into everything that I do and so it makes sense to me to use and promote natural beauty products.“

At the heart of the Melvita brand lies the natural imagery of bee pollination due to founder Bernard Chevilliat’s former life as a beekeeper. Chevilliat says on the Melvita website: “As a biologist and beekeeper I was fascinated by traditional wisdom and knowledge about nature and beauty. I founded Melvita in 1983, with reference to life and honey, that extraordinary product of flowers that sits at the confluence between the plant and the animal worlds.”

Natural honey is a great natural skin conditioner, and Melvita have a strong passion for using other such organic ingredients. The first product Melvita produced was their beehive-inspired hexagonal soap with honey. It was a truly natural product, with great benefits for the skin.

Where they are now

Under the guiding hand of Simon Ford the Melvita brand has come across not only to the UK, but also to Hong Kong, the US and Slovenia. For a company that started off with just four employees and a farm, they’ve done pretty well!

We asked Simon Ford what plans Melvita has for the future. He said: “In the UK I would like the brand to convert those people that have either tried organic products in the past and been disappointed or recruit new people into the organic sector that haven’t used natural or organic products before. I would also like to build the understanding of the general consumer on what organic means for cosmetics – I think we’ve come a long way in highlighting ingredients such as parabens and SLS but what about silicones and PEGs? There’s still a long way to go and I hope that the Melvita brand will continue to create innovative products, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in organic formulations.”

The hero products

-Melvita Hydrastim: For Dehydrated skin, this moisturiser is a must. It uses 30% organic ingredients and 98.89% naturally certified ingredients.
-Men’s Eau de Toilette: A fresh and yet deep smell coming from bergamot oil and cardamom makes this a distinctive and addictive smell.
-Melvita Lavender Honey: Okay, okay, so this is more for spreading on your toast than on your face, but beauty starts from within right? Sourced from the Melvita beehives, this is a great sweet treat for when you’ve got that face mask on.

Did you know?

The Melvita factory nestled in the south of France uses solar-voltaic panels for energy and it even has its own ‘living roof’ of grass to blend in with the countryside.