Independent luxury personal care brand Commune, which launched in 2022, draws inspiration from the English countryside. Specifically, Bratton Seymour, a Somerset hamlet and wildlife haven with a population of around 200 people – including co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux.
Now, Commune is expanding, and opened a bricks-and-mortar store in nearby Bruton at the end of 2023. (Known for a culture of art and craft, the market town is also home to Hauser + Wirth Somerset, Philo & Philo, a vintage homeware shop owned by Phoebe Philo’s mother Celia and sister Frankie, and counts Stella McCartney as a resident.)
Commune was born when, after three years in Vancouver, Canada – where the French-born Paringaux worked as head of brand at Lululemon, and Neal, who is British, undertook training with the legendary natural perfumer Mandy Aftel – the husband and wife duo returned to the UK harbouring a desire to work together on their own project. ‘When we were thinking about what to do in the countryside, we wanted to express our journey together,’ recalls Neal. ‘It was a combination of my interest in scent and living in a community that brought the name Commune to our brand.’
The couple’s previous professional experiences covered all the required bases to successfully launch and market Commune, which brings together an elevated and innovative aesthetic with a message of integrity. Paringaux, who had also worked for publications such as Vogue and Dazed had a background in branding and design; while Neal’s career (which included a stint heading up global sales and merchandising for sustainable fashion label Edun) had equipped her with the necessary tools to understand how a brand can tell a compelling story.
Commune and its sustainable ethos
At the beating heart of Commune is an all-encompassing sustainable ethos: so much so that the founders innovated unique packaging made from aluminium to facilitate recycling. The bespoke metal pump, custom-engineered by Paringaux for ease of use and optimal functionality, is to be reused with each refill of the product. The chamber of Commune bottles is intentionally larger than that of standard sizes to facilitate the flow of the products, while branding on the outside (buttercream yellow with Art Nouveau-esque typography and illustrations) is refreshingly unique. It looks quite unlike anything else on the market, taking a starring role on any bathroom shelf.
‘Our bottles may look unusual when compared to other personal care brands,’ says a statement on Commune’s website. ‘But that’s a result of us having started from scratch on tackling the sustainability challenge the best way we can. By designing our bottles to hold a generous 550ml and 750ml of product we have also ensured that packaging and shipping is kept to a minimum.’
With products developed from natural ingredients, and without the use of single-use plastics or harsh chemicals, Commune’s core offering is body and hair products, spanning bath salts, body wash, body and hand cream, shampoo, and conditioner. All are scented with its signature fragrance ‘Seymour’, named after the village where the founders live.
Designed to ‘evoke spring and the feelings of awakening and invigoration that are the essence of the season’, the intelligent gender-neutral scent includes notes of lemongrass, grapefruit sage, and Japanese Hiba wood oil. It can also be worn alone via a solid perfume, which comes in a black metal case in the shape of the Commune logo.
Paringaux and Neal’s meticulous approach to testing and development also ensures that the ingredients provide multiple benefits to the skin. ‘Even in small quantities, we’ve found that our cream, for instance, acts a mosquito repellent because it contains lemongrass,’ says Neal of the clean, functional formulations, that are first tried and tested in their local studio.
The duo have also designed a range of sleek accessories: marble trays to display Commune’s beautiful bottles and custom brackets for hospitality partners. ‘Our main hospitality partner is Estelle Manor, Oxfordshire,’ says Paringaux. ‘We are featured in all of their rooms, and increasingly, they are using our brackets to display the products in other areas like the gym.’
Aside from expanding the product range and developing new scent profiles (the next to be released is named ‘Montague’ and evokes the end of summer), the founders are continuing to build out their Bruton shopfront, focusing on fostering Commune’s central message of ‘togetherness’. This includes the construction of an adjacent space for collaborative workshops, complete with a custom, locally made perfume organ.
‘The overarching reason for what we’re doing with the brand is to bring like-minded people with shared thoughts, values, and beliefs together. The expression of this is through our range of self-care products,’ explains Neal. ‘But with a name like Commune, we must involve community [in real time],’ says Neal. ‘So we are very excited about the new avenue of expressing our brand.’
Commune is located at 61 High Street, Bruton, BA10 0FF.
