French luxury label Hermès has announced refillable glass bottles for its Le Bain Hermès personal-care collection and Canada’s Sans Savon tackles the challenges with soap.
Renowned for blending elegance with environmental responsibility, Hermès has revitalized its beauty line with responsible packaging. The brand has redesigned its Le Bain Hermès personal-care collection by introducing vibrant, refillable glass bottles. This update reflects Hermès’ commitment to sustainability, using glass and offering refill options. The Le Bain Hermès range, featuring eight distinct scents, includes hair and body shower gels, hand and body cleansing gels, moisturizing body lotions, and body oils.
The refillable collection incorporates three scents from Hermès’ Colognes series — Eau de Citron Noir, Eau de Rhubarbe Ecarlate, and Eau d’Orange Verte — as well as five fragrances from the Les Jardins line: Un Jardin sur le Toit, Un Jardin sur le Nil, Un Jardin sur la Lagune, Un Jardin à Cythère, and Le Jardin de Monsieur Li. This extensive selection provides a luxurious variety of personal-care options.
The glass bottles come in eight colors, which are also reflected in the secondary packaging, with the iconic Hermès orange boxes showcasing a band of color that matches the bottle inside. They’re designed to be decorative objects while also being endlessly refillable, combining Hermès’ modern perspective with its traditional values. Le Bain Hermès is set to debut in selected Hermès stores worldwide in June 2024.
On the other end of the spectrum, Canada’s Sans Savon is challenging traditional notions of cleanliness by eliminating soap from its new formula while also emphasizing sustainability. Founded by Eli and Erica Halliwell, Sans Savon offers a healthier alternative to conventional soaps that they say can harm the skin. The company’s name, translating to “without soap” in French, encapsulates the company’s mission to clean effectively without compromising skin health.
There’s research to support their claim. The pH balance of some soaps can disrupt the skin’s natural pH, killing both beneficial and harmful bacteria, weakening the skin’s barrier, and increasing sensitivity to infections. Soaps also damage skin proteins and lipids, potentially leading to dryness, irritation, and itching. Conventional soaps further undermine the skin’s protective role against pollutants and microorganisms.
“Research shows that the soap we use on our hands and body is at least as damaging to our skin as shampoo is to the scalp,” Eli Halliwell told WWD. “While soap has been a wonderful invention, our bodies were not designed for it, so it’s super damaging to our skin,” he said. Halliwell said this led the founders to team up with a formulator from Quebec to develop non-soap cleansers for hand and body that also meet their sustainability and ingredient values. Sans Savon says its products clean the skin without stripping the protective lipid barrier. The formulas include naturally derived humectants that attract water to hydrate skin, hair, and nails. The brand’s antimicrobial system is designed to eliminate 99.9 percent of germs while preserving beneficial bacteria essential for a healthy microbiome. Probiotics are also incorporated to replenish good bacteria, supported by prebiotics to keep them thriving.
“Our antimicrobial system targets dangerous bacteria, fungi, and other germs, but it doesn’t overclean and strip away the symbiotic bacteria that are beneficial for you. In fact, we include prebiotics to nourish those good bacteria,” Halliwell explained. “Sans Savon products are also made from plant-based esters and fatty alcohols, which are more acidic and aligned with your skin’s natural pH of 4.5 to 5.5, so they do not undermine the structural integrity of your skin.”
Sans Savon’s commitment to sustainability is also evident in its packaging and ingredient sourcing. Like Hermès, the body and hand washes are sold in “forever bottles” made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic, designed to be refilled for years. “They look and feel like glass, but consume much less energy to produce, are much lighter to ship, and won’t break if they drop on the floor of your shower,” Halliwell said.
The new hand soap, priced at $41, is a micellar cleanser, free of soap, and includes sustainably sourced essential oils from balsam fir, white spruce, and black spruce, with labrador tea and citrus notes. The body wash ($49) and bar soap ($25) offer similar benefits with different scent options. The Boreal Blend scents used in the products are 100 percent from essential oils, with no added fragrance. “This results in a more subtle scent compared to many other hand and body products, aligning with our naturally derived philosophy,” said Halliwell.
Most of Sans Savon’s ingredients are naturally derived, with the body and hand washes being over 99 percent natural, and the bar soap 88 percent. The brand also utilizes upcycled ingredients whenever possible, such as non-salable avocados for avocado oil and discarded seeds for grapeseed oil.
“There is no foam or suds whatsoever. The products leave a soft, slick feeling on the skin that remains without any residue, and the user feels clean and moisturized when exiting the shower,” Halliwell said. “The difference in the user experience reinforces the unique value props of the products and reminds the user that they are cleansing with something completely different from anything they’ve experienced before.”
The brand also minimizes packaging waste by using paper bags for its bottles, reducing the need for cardboard. These bags are Forest Stewardship Council-certified and use environmentally safe dyes.
“We believe non-foaming cleansers are the future for healthy skin, and we envision a future where non-soap products are as prevalent in the beauty category as non-cow products are today in the milk category,” Halliwell said.
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