Valérie GranduryOdacité
A native Parisienne who settled, as an adult, in sunny California, Valérie Grandury drew inspiration from both her birthplace and her current home when she created Odacité. Her goal? A line of skincare that delivers French pharmacy-style results, but is completely free of toxic ingredients.
What drove you to start your own brand? For me, it all started after I had breast cancer and had to work with my doctors to create a battle plan integrating different healing strategies. One element of this plan was reducing my exposure to toxic chemicals, which included changing all my personal care products.This was back in 2005, and there was almost no clean beauty then! The few natural products that I was able to find really didn’t offer serious skincare benefits, and they certainly didn’t have the beautiful textures and smells that had always made my daily skincare routine such an enjoyable “rendezvous” with myself. This is when the idea for Odacité was born.
Realizing that there was this need for high-performance natural skincare, I left my career in advertising to create Odacité (a French play on the word “audacity”). We launched in 2009, pioneering the clean beauty movement and starting a completely new conversation about beauty, one that says you don’t need to sacrifice results for purity.
Our formulas are born from the powerful, clean integration of different skincare modalities: At the root is my heritage of French skincare, which is dermatologist-tested and driven by proven results and research, fused with my phytotherapy knowledge and the use of natural ingredients. The result is truly unique active products that awaken the vitality of your skin in record time, all expertly handcrafted in our own eco-certified California lab.
What’s your favorite product in the line? Crème de la Nuit is my “can’t live without” product. It took us more than two years and 22 formulations to create it…and honestly, it’s perfection—if you’re serious about your antiaging strategy! Crème de la Nuit is powered by the most advanced form of stabilized vitamin C and supported by vitamin E, super antioxidant CoQ10 and hyaluronic acid. These clinical ingredients are blended into a high-performance botanical crème made from pomegranate extract (we never use water), blue-green algae, kelp and the adaptogen ashwagandha. The results can be seen after the first night, with 86 percent of testers agreeing their skin is more hydrated upon waking up, and after 28 days, 91 percent of testers agree their skin looks healthier. This is truly la crème de la crème!
What are your morning and evening routines?
I’m a super early riser because my dogs and I love to go watch the sun come up, so depending on the season, we head out into the beautiful Topanga mountains between 5 and 6 AM. The first thing I do when I wake up is a quick skincare routine to cleanse, hydrate and weatherproof my skin. First, I swipe a cotton pad with Blue Aura Cleansing Water over my face to remove any surface impurities and give me a fresh canvas for the next skincare steps. Blue Aura is a quick, effective, no-rinse cleanser that deeply refreshes my skin and keeps my pores healthy and clear. I follow up with a spritz of Aloe + Immortelle Hydra-Repair Treatment Mist that acts like a drink of water for my skin, and finish with the moisturizing protection of Sun Guardian Day Crème SPF 30. Then off I go with my dogs for an hour-long hike.
Before bed, to be completely honest, nothing relaxes me more than enjoying a long bath with our Soul Soothing Relaxing Bath Soak! I follow with my skincare routine and let the aromatherapy enhance the relaxation of the bath. I like to finish with a facial massage with our Gua Sha Crystal Contour Beauty Tool and All-Embracing Serum. Gua Sha helps to iron out fine lines and the facial tensions we accumulate during the day, while enhancing the benefits of the skincare that we apply before and after the massage. What would people be surprised to learn about you? I’m an adventurous skier and mountain lover. I’ve travelled the world to ski and climb some of the most beautiful mountains in the Himalayas, Canada, Alaska and the French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss Alps! What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business? I’m a firm believer that a solid foundation for any business is built on two blocks: passion and vision.
Every morning I wake up with this passion to give everyone their best skin ever, discovering powerful ingredients, reading cutting-edge research, listening to my clients, creating new products and working with my amazing team. This passion is my driver and what makes me happy. It’s also my life preserver when dealing with the many challenges that come with having your own business.
Be a visionary and surround yourself with a team to support that vision. Vision isn’t something you learn at school—it’s something you feel in your bones, something you crave to create. Vision usually excites and scares you at the same time because it means taking the plunge to do something different and innovative.
Before bed, to be completely honest, nothing relaxes me more than enjoying a long bath with our Soul Soothing Relaxing Bath Soak! I follow with my skincare routine and let the aromatherapy enhance the relaxation of the bath. I like to finish with a facial massage with our Gua Sha Crystal Contour Beauty Tool and All-Embracing Serum. Gua Sha helps to iron out fine lines and the facial tensions we accumulate during the day, while enhancing the benefits of the skincare that we apply before and after the massage. What would people be surprised to learn about you? I’m an adventurous skier and mountain lover. I’ve travelled the world to ski and climb some of the most beautiful mountains in the Himalayas, Canada, Alaska and the French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss Alps! What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business? I’m a firm believer that a solid foundation for any business is built on two blocks: passion and vision.
Every morning I wake up with this passion to give everyone their best skin ever, discovering powerful ingredients, reading cutting-edge research, listening to my clients, creating new products and working with my amazing team. This passion is my driver and what makes me happy. It’s also my life preserver when dealing with the many challenges that come with having your own business.
Be a visionary and surround yourself with a team to support that vision. Vision isn’t something you learn at school—it’s something you feel in your bones, something you crave to create. Vision usually excites and scares you at the same time because it means taking the plunge to do something different and innovative.
Learn how some of the beauty industry’s most dynamic entrepreneurs find inspiration and develop must-have products as they share their advice for aspiring business moguls and much more
