Interview with Claude Marchal – The Story Behind MDCI Beauté
Interview with Claude Marchal – The Story Behind MDCI Beauté
We asked Claude Marchal a few questions about the creation of MDCI Beauté. Here’s what he shared with us:
What inspired you to extend MDCI from perfumes into skincare?
There was no real “defining moment”, but it became clear that we had everything on hand to develop the idea: suppliers of boxes and packaging, a contact in Limoges, a whole factory specialized in skincare production, with a friendly team that supported the project in many ways, including connecting us to an excellent specialist of skincare products formulations.
However, all this took a lot of time: it started before the Covid pandemic, which stopped our suppliers in their tracks, and durably so. Especially in Limoges.
For someone discovering the line through our perfume audience, what can they expect in terms of results and daily feel compared to a regular cream?
What is a regular cream? Ours have been composed with a great deal of talent, because a good cream is like a good fragrance, it requires a real expertise and technicity, but also the right sensitivity. The fact that the person who formulated them is a woman certainly helped.
Why did you choose Cio Cio San to lightly scent the Day Cream?
It is a very lovely perfume that we all love here, a happy fragrance . And it has been carefully dosed so as not to be overpowering.
The containers and their luxury boxes are truly extraordinary porcelain by Limoges artisans, limited and numbered, decorated with fine motifs. Walk us through the decision to work with Limoges and why porcelain was the only material that felt right for MDCI Beauté.?
Well, for the same reasons we avoid cheap materials in our fragrances. The emblematic figurines were first made of lead crystal, then of unglazed porcelain or “hard China”, and nowadays of a specific high-end material that also took me year to find , that you can call “designer resin”, or why not “Marchalite”
Glass or crystal wouldn’t have been right for the boxes, (nor God forbid, plastic !), for technical and aesthetic reasons, and the obvious solution was porcelain. Clean, pure…But not just any porcelain, only the best France could produce.
And I ( painstakingly!) created the decors, which took me years. Years to find the right style, and to make them myself. With minimal resources. After screening literally thousands of paintings and other images in books or on the Net.
A bold move, and a real gamble. But at least, we do not go unnoticed!
Can you share a little about the artisans and the process? How long does it take to create one of these boxes?
It literally took… years! As anything that is baked, all kinds of mishaps can happen. There is a saying among potters and porcelain makers that goes : “the clay remembers” . any defect, any attempt to correct it, will resurface during the firing stage ( 24 hours at 1200° and some), and porcelain shrinks during the process, between 15 to 17 %, depending on all source of factors. It can shrink.. unevenly, and this is exactly what happened with the lids of the boxes. Some didn’t fit the boxes perfectly, although they were fired by the rule at the same time, each lid matching its box.
The factory had to destroy hundreds of lids and produce another mold, and another batch, ( and to let go their Production Manager…): an ugly and costly mess that made us waste almost a year.
That I put to good use to search for the right décor and style, which evolved radically until I focused on 18th Century French style and Rococo.
The creation of the boxes started with a simple drawing, that took account of shrinkage, that I sent to the factory in Limoges. The first boxes weren’t satisfactory, too high, too narrow, not well proportioned .
So I went back to the drawing board ( a ruler, a pencil and a sheet of paper) and came up with another , better design, adapted to new, better glass jars we had found in the meantime for the creams.
The boxes evoke 18th-century “Toilet Cabinets” of the French court. How does that historical inspiration shape the modern beauty ritual for someone using the cream today?
Beauty is timeless! And French Art, at its peak in the 18th century remains unparalleled, mixing extreme virtuosity with exquisite prettiness and taste.
It took me years to finally decide that this very unusual choice was just perfect, perhaps even shocking in today’s world where minimalism is the norm to allow for industrial production and the crass ignorance and lack of taste of most marketing types in this industry.
How does it feel to see the same level of craftsmanship that goes into your perfume stoppers now applied to daily skincare?
Great, the feeling that we didn’t cut corners and did the very best we could, for a very lovely and unique result.
You include a mother-of-pearl spatula with the luxury boxes. Such a beautiful detail. Was that always part of the vision, or did it come during development?
To this day I still don’t understand how a grumpy (straight) old male like me may have laid such a refined thing, to the smallest detail. Luxury also lies in the little details, that can make a world of a difference.
Some boxes are even completely gilded inside with 18 carat gold, the ultimate luxury for a limited edition in the limited edition.
For collectors and perfume lovers who already own MDCI flacons, how do these Limoges boxes feel like a natural extension of the house’s artistic DNA?
Perhaps can they simply be seen as my continuing efforts to bring back a dose of beauty and “quality” in domains dominated by the pursuit of profits and mass production ?
The range will soon include an Eye Contour duo. Any hints about what’s coming next for MDCI Beauté?
Well, first the eye contour duo, not yet finalized but hopefully available at Esxence in Milan next June. After which, we have other developments in mind, but it a little too early to disclose them
What has been the most rewarding part of launching this new chapter? Seeing people’s reactions to the packaging, the performance of the creams, or something else?
The gratifying feeling that I did exactly what I had in mind, and that some people understand and like the result. Many don’t ( Box? Why box? ) but I don’t care 🙂
If a listener/reader is new to MDCI and only knows the perfumes, what one thing would you want them to experience first with the Beauté line?
Joy, happiness, serenity
A quick “pro tip” from you on how to get the most out of the ritual (day cream in the morning, etc.)
I am an old man, ask Marusa, she will know better!
That wraps up our interview with Claude Marchal.
Thank you, Claude, for taking the time to share so much insight and passion about MDCI Beauté. It was fascinating to hear the story directly from you.