Caudalie

A French wine industry heir and her husband founded a skincare brand around a waste product from her family's vineyard. That waste product now funds a €200 million skincare empire. Matilda Thomas grew up at Chateau Smith-Otlevite, a zidey, a bordeaux grand crew winery owned by her parents. A professor of pharmacy visiting the estate in 1993 told her that grape seeds and vine leaves contained among the most potent antioxidants in nature, a class of molecules called polyphenols. And that the winery was throwing this material away by the tongue, every vintage. Matilda and her husband Bertrand launched Cordalee in 1995, formulating skincare around grape-derived polyphenols and sourcing the raw material directly from the family vineyard. The vineyard to jar supply chain is a genuine commercial moat.