Welcome back to Beauty Babble.
Today we're talking about going to France.
Yes.
It was an exciting experience.
I actually got to go because of work.
Yeah.
So you went to one of the skincare lines that Beauty called carries.
You went to their, what do you call it, the head office or?
All of it.
We got to experience everything about the company.
So their head office to the staff that's all involved from marketing to distribution
to exporting, development, research lab to a production site to the gardens, to the
gardens of where they actually get most of their ingredients from to put into their product
lines.
So it was really, really very cool experience.
So Needs, I have a lot of questions about this.
The first one being, why was an I invited?
I don't know.
You'll have to talk to Tara.
Oh, I will.
When I think of what you're saying, I see that you had a sneak peek.
Like a behind the scenes of skincare line, how it's made, how it's researched, taught,
all of it, everything.
What was your favorite part?
We'll start with the favorite.
Food was really good too.
Did I mention that?
We were in my favorite part of the project.
And why was it really coming out of the static?
We've got to get all the perspective here.
It was a lot more than I thought I knew, which was really surprising because I understood
like working with the product line that they did their own research, their own lab, their
scientists.
I understand it took two years to take the thought or the idea of a product and to make
it launch.
That process is two years.
So I understood that.
But to see it and how they do it, it's just absolutely endless.
I could just catch it loud.
And until you see it, you don't really realize.
And then the production, when they take that and they launch it, okay, now how are they
going to market it and get it out there?
And then when they take it to the laboratory to make the product, the factory, their production
site was huge.
Like my phone, I think I don't have storage left of all the videos, everything that I
took.
And what they did, and they actually explained the director of the production site was amazing
because he took us on our personal tour.
That's what happened.
We had our own personal tour.
So a group of us went.
So from here in Edmonton, there was four or five of us.
And then in Calgary, there's a school that also has a product line.
So the last time they were there, I think it was the owners that went, but this time
they brought out the head instructors so they could see what that was like.
And she too was amazed by it all.
And then we had another gentleman join us at a Toronto because he's also helping to distribute
product lines so that he could understand the whole thing.
You know, when they make the products, they don't just make them and say they tested on
25 people.
Then they took us to the research area.
And what the scientists did, they have over 30 of their own scientists doing this and
researching and developing the product.
And when they take it to the person, when they want to take it actual to people to see
what's going to do its job, when they think it's all stable and ready.
And I mean, there's all these stages to it.
It's just amazing.
Then they use these machines and electronic level, like this you could say, or technologically,
so advanced that they're monitoring the skin at a cellular level of how it's actually working.
So it's not just a person's point of view.
And one of the, I could probably get the name, we could put it at the bottom of this,
is one of the ones they do is a 3D and they actually video the whole thing and then they
can see it before and during an after of what they do.
That's interesting because when I've gone through the technical manuals and I used to
do the product knowledge classes for the skincare line, they would have, you know, this product
after testing results are 98% retention of hydration or whatever.
And I always thought that was, well, it's interesting.
Okay, good.
They obviously know what they're doing.
But then I didn't realize they did.
I just was like, I don't know.
I didn't realize it was a machine.
And there's a few of them.
But this one in particular that they have, if I'm not mistaken, and we could find out
the quote on this.
I think there's only three other companies in the entire world that have this machine.
And then when they have the people involved, they have over 500 people that they work with
within their communities.
And I should tell you a little story about how that was really quite amazing, what they
can do with this.
But the people that they use is from their community, from their area.
And they bring in people and then they're in a private cubicle to go through the questions
and everything.
They cannot talk about it.
They have to just give their honest thoughts about whether maybe they sent them the product,
try for this trial run.
Maybe they were the model coming in and they had the product.
So they really, really do involve people in it.
It's not just some scientists saying, yes, listen to us because we're not intelligent
and we should just follow what we're saying.
I think the other unique thing is that, maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of skincare brands get
developed or manufactured in laboratories that manufacture multiple brands versus this
is dedicated to this brand.
It's their own.
This company has their own laboratory.
They do not have any outside skincare cosmetics at all in that facility.
So they have full control of what's going on.
One thing that I like to put to product line is they focus on putting their money back
into the company itself to better develop.
Maybe they're not sure of product lies or research.
Right now they're very big on what we're looking for, what they're environmentally friendly.
So their packaging is recycled.
Their products in a jar that now you can keep your jar and then take that little part out
and put in just the products.
You can have something to put it in and get raised there.
Very much about the environment, community.
I've been with this company, I guess you could say since the early 90s when I first was introduced
to this company and they manufacture a couple of skincare products out of that.
So it's their own.
Yes, well, it's a SOTIS group and you can look online when they break in.
I'm the educator for Bernard Cassier, which is one of the lines.
So I was invited along with Beauty Vault to the Bernard Cassier side of things.
Did they talk about SOTIS?
Well, yes, because I had it and I got to see things.
So they explained how it worked that when they developed it, what's the differences in that.
The company SOTIS group owns all of it, so their manufacturers, where it separates is
of course into the office side of things.
And then in the research, they actually separate as well so that they stay focused on what
that brand represents, what's going to be behind it.
So they don't just oversee all of it.
They're not saying, yeah, the manufacturer inside of it will last because then they'll
run through it.
They were actually ironically the bucket funders over at Artassier being done.
So it's really neat to see the huge massive tugs of where they were doing the cream.
And then how it was being produced down the line.
It was awesome.
They're explaining the details of the cleansing of SOTIS.
I mean, we have to be completely covered.
We're walking around the room and they're like, it's like a movie set.
Did you go into a room, get your stuff on, go in?
Yes.
Yes, we had to go into one room.
Yes, put it all on and then once we were checked over, we were allowed to go in.
So cool.
I think another neat thing about Bernard Cassier, and I guess we can have a little, we're obviously
biased.
Yes, but that's okay.
Because they have a garden where they actually grow some of the ingredients and harvest them.
You went to the gardens?
Yes, we got to go to the gardens.
They had what we understood they stopped doing the tours, but because we were, well,
you mean you're not going to show us.
I was like, oh my God, I want to see this garden.
So they actually, it's an organic garden.
And they started this, I can't remember the year.
This is going back a long time ago.
I remember when this was happening, I had my other, what had my spa.
So that was like a 10-year process.
So they had already began this a long time ago.
And now they're utilizing the cornflower in our eye pair is actually from that garden.
So to know this, that's what they do.
And it's actually from the area.
So this is the neat part of Sotis Prudigal, say.
Bernard Cassie itself, speak on that, because that's what I was looking for, what we went
through.
So Breathe is where it all started, if you wish.
So Bernard Mass met his wife there.
And that's where their office is, basically.
From there, the production company where they make the product is actually for where Mums
side of the family grew up, where Mums was born in that area.
And then the garden side is actually where Bernard Mass, he's founder of Sotis Group,
basically.
He grew up there and he raised his kids, his children there.
A farmer locally nearby is the honey producer for the whistling line for us.
Yes.
So, and then the garden side, what they call the Sotis Gardens is actually a garden that
he loves gardens.
So he had an architectural gardener make this garden, a Hasabotique, a beautiful restaurant.
But the garden itself is not the gardening of where the product ingredients are from.
So I didn't know that.
I thought it was all together.
No, it's separate.
So you learn something new every day.
This garden where anyone can go visit is like a park and that area is not that far.
So it's like this almost like this rave and then it's around the whole area.
So that's when you buy very community.
And they could have very well-stated hearse and done the head office and everything like
that, but they wanted to stay local.
It was in the community.
So they really do focus on the community.
People that were working in their boutique were from the community.
The people from the restaurant were from the community.
Like this is very interesting how they are.
They're very, very proud of the family and the sons, Mr. Massive.
He's older now.
He's not involved.
It is a family.
Like it's a family business.
Yeah.
The two sons basically run the company.
One focuses on the one line, one focuses on the other line, that take one.
Do they just have the two lines?
Like so two sons?
And they also have beauty gardens as well.
And this is small, organic.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So that's all the things that kind of surprise me.
Then where their garden is, of where they actually roam for their ingredients of everything
that they can try to do locally, either from there or in France.
This is their first priority.
Then they source outward.
And they usually do like non-packaging or when teaching it, it was free trade certified.
Yes.
Or like they're always very conscious of where the ingredients are.
Yes.
And if you're not sure what that means, it's basically when they order in an ingredient,
where is the thing sourced from?
How are they treating their workers there?
It's not children and it's, yeah, there.
And I think it's also where there's a guarantee that people who are working to harvest the
ingredients are being paid a fair price for their labor and there's an extra education
on the humble.
And the standards in Europe are actually very high in order to have product and when they
distribute that way.
So having the company understand because they are across 50 some countries, that they understand
every country is different and the protocols for every country is different.
So I just applaud them for the amount of work that they do in order to help get it into
Canada.
And if something comes up, they're on it right away to ensure.
So before they even make an ingredient or a make-and-grain for and make a cream, they
really do look at how will this affect everybody?
And that's how you keep up with the regulations of every country.
And then you look at climate, well, this work in this climate.
So it's just amazing that like probably our country will be for hydration testing, whereas
maybe not so much in some other countries.
But yeah, no, it was neat.
And if you go to their website, Bernard Kessier, you will see the little house, their story.
Well, we got to go see that house.
Oh, you did?
Yes.
And the director of the gardens and boutique restaurant is a very close friend, a childhood
friendship member.
So he runs it for him.
So that's why I mean another community thing.
So what is that house?
Is it inhabited by people who live there?
Or is it still the family?
They still live there.
It's difficult in the house, nobody uses a summer now retreat that they go to.
Oh, nice.
And sometimes they actually even run, because it looks a little bit different on the site
there, because they've expanded, recreated the barn and they'll actually do training
there and whether it's meetings or things like that.
So like a retreat idea too that they do like that.
So I was trying to find out more information about that.
Thank you.
If you do that retreat, you probably need somebody to come with you to film.
And we can chat about that.
Yes.
I'm trying to get myself a trip.
I think the biggest thing that surprised me, is that everyone was so friendly.
I mean they asked me, well, why didn't you bring a husband?
It's been a long, like, well, that's okay.
Come.
You know, whether you wanted to hang out or not, but please, like next time.
And I said, you know, my son would, my sons would probably come first.
They want to adopt me.
I want to go.
And they said, anytime, please let us know when they get arrived.
What?
Yes.
But they first thought it was to the son.
So you, I mean, respect the fact of, you know, they are the, the VPs of the two breves,
if you wish, the mainly, and they came to greet us and they worked around their schedule
to be a part of us.
And they made sure the last night that we were there, they took us for dinner.
We hung out and it was just, it was very laid back, easy.
And I don't know how many, there's a few people I know of.
And I think that's one thing I like about and admire about the relationships that Tara
and Fadi have created.
And it's a sound, there's a beauty called, a beauty called, yeah, that these are the
people that they attract to each other.
And that's the type of people that are really family based things.
And I think when you have down to earth people like that, it was like, you'll see that they
locked them in this back, think of a company.
That's it.
It's a huge company.
It's huge.
But it's still family owned and it has that small, that small business feel to it.
But it's an international brand.
Yes.
What they do for one Firefly is the same beliefs for like the company, Rett & Sens.
That and because Mr. Moss was very much about family and community, his sons are caring
that traditional art.
Like they're really making sure that that is the one center of it all, no matter how
large they were.
And I think the interesting part is so many people like the head of marketing, the director
of the production company, I think that's like a $55 million a year cost just to make
that happen.
And he's worked for Nutrigina, Johnson & Johnson.
And he was humble enough to take us on tour.
And he was just so friendly to answer our questions and showed us everything.
So it just represents everybody right through the mold.
I mean the director of where we went for lunch first and then we went to the gardens, which
is passion is and it's like a park.
You can go hang out.
There's free to go for anybody that wants to just hang out.
He's got his own garden.
He's got Egyptian style.
He's got like it's everything was very thought out and every section represents something.
So you can just go and hang out and walk the gardens.
I've got to have an acre so let's know.
It's quite large.
It sounds lovely though.
And so that gentleman like he said, Oh, I can take you to go show because there was no
way to go show us the house where they grew up, the garden up where they actually produce
ingredients and the flowers and everything.
He took this person over because let me see if I can just get a week or a bit.
So we drove through the country.
I don't do everything's kind of like that.
Half an hour to an hour away from all the things is what we noticed.
Yeah.
Do you think this is typical of skin care brands and having these like bringing you
out to the facility doing these tours, giving them behind the scenes?
I mean, it's amazing that the SOTI group is.
I don't think I would imagine them.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Sure, there's others out there.
Yeah.
I would think there would be.
I don't know that I'm a little bit.
I think there are some.
But again, if they're mass producing for other products, they probably don't have the facility
to allow that either.
But I would imagine that they do.
It'd be a fair question to ask them.
I think that was something interesting.
When I started with Bernard Cassier, like doing the product knowledge education, I know that
there is such a thing where during manufacturing, it's a facility that manufactures multiple
product lines.
I just assumed every product line came from something.
Yeah.
But it doesn't.
And that's really interesting.
It's a small number in the world that have their own.
I mean, it's very costly, right?
Oh, for sure.
It's a matter of time.
You'd have to have like a big enough, like we said, the SOTI group is in 130 countries.
So they can, they have that demand.
And then we were looking at taking pictures and they're like, Oh, make sure you don't
take pictures of this part because it's really developing your product.
So it's really cool that we can see the single.
We'll take it from this.
There you go.
We promise.
You can't tell.
No.
I think we'll get in trouble if we don't know what was coming in the nearest stick up.
But it's going to give you an idea of whatever they're launching next year is being developed.
So they're not, it's not there yet.
Right?
This is just interesting because they, before they even talk about it.
So their, their scientists basically look at how to do it better, how to improve this.
So hydration is your, uh, product line and you want to make it better.
It just might mind blowing to make it even better.
And that comes with science and that's the research behind it.
So what they do together and there's a group of them, they come together and say, Hey,
I've got a great idea.
I've been researching this.
Right?
So, um, it's, it's just interesting.
And that's the thing about the aesthetic industry, like even just narrow down on skincare.
It's constant like new product is coming up.
Reformulation of a product.
It's like, but it was great.
I loved it.
But then it's even better.
So there's always, um, that progress because they're always researching, discovering new
things.
And it's not a stagnant, um, industry.
There's always change, but that makes it challenging too.
Cause you're constantly having to learn new things.
Yes.
So what can you recap for us?
Three things you learned that you didn't know before because of your trip and it can also
be foods related.
And maybe one to three things, um, you wish you'd seen more of or not disappointed, but
and improve a place of improvement because there's always.
Oh yeah.
Not all the flowers were there.
So when can you go the next time I'm already thinking Sam is planning another time?
Um, I think I'd pick a different time of the year, which I'm going to reach out to Alstom.
When is the garden available?
Cause that's the other thing is you can't just go any time of the year because it closes
the certain time of the month because there's no flowers.
Oh, okay.
Or they're too young.
You don't want anyone going.
Um, but anyways, so I would try to.
Try to figure out that time when I can actually see maybe more of it because we can see the
cornflower and we could see a few of the things there, but a lot of it was they called it
the end of their seasonal.
That was in June.
They have better climate than we do.
Well, it could just be the type of.
Oh, I guess.
I mean, I'm not a little less.
I actually really wanted to see the honey collection.
Oh, but you didn't get to do that.
We didn't get to do that.
This is again, another area.
Some would have to take this there.
What was I'm remembering.
What was the thing about the honey?
It was like, uh, well, they actually won an award when they first saw it.
They're auctioning.
Yeah.
One line.
Uh, anyways, they went and the ward, uh, through the production of their honey and they used
the same honey from that area and wherever the honey may be super is.
The one that produces that.
Um, and I just thought that it would be really interesting to me, someone local who's helping
the skin care company produce and I'm talking there in this, it's the end of them and you
can see the videos of what they're doing.
So I thought if you really need to actually see it in action, but I'm kind of corny that
way.
I like to go deep into understanding a little bit more of how things work.
Yeah.
So that would be interesting.
Okay.
Do you have a third one for our wish?
Wish I could have or?
Let's say I think we need more time so you could see all this.
More.
That's it.
Okay.
So how much time did you have actually?
We had five straight days, full days of everything from training.
We had hands on training for the international trainings.
And then we're assisting these places, the collection site, the place where they're actually
exporting all of their items, a separate factory for that.
Gardens.
Okay.
That's okay.
That's good.
Those are actually really good feedback and something that you would probably take into
consideration next time you go with me.
No, so she plugged that one in there.
All right, and then if we can recap your three highlights, what you learned, maybe something
you didn't know about.
I know we've talked about a lot of stuff, so we just kind of wrap up at the end.
Okay.
I think the part where you're doing the research, how it's separate from everything else, as
it's home building, that's where the scientists and researchers are.
And the level of what they do to go there.
So when I think of like the lab, I almost went like to university and think a laboratory
and that was my vision of it.
It's similar, that idea.
But the level of the technology behind it all, I think seeing that more so, and which led
to more questions.
Right?
And the person that was touring us around, she was the one overseeing Bernard Cassie completely.
And then who was underneath that and seeing the equipment that they used for their testing.
Which that was really interesting.
That was like, we asked how much it costs, but I'm sure that's what happened.
She didn't have the answer for it, but she put it this way.
I think there's only us and maybe two or three others in the world.
Okay, we can get the name of it.
We'll link it in the show notes, just for curiosity's sake.
I really want to know what it is.
And their training facility, so I wasn't there previously, so I don't know what it looked like before,
but their new location is a main-sink facility.
They took over a store building at the Bank of Brex.
It was really cool.
Yeah, it was really interesting.
And then they just had all laid out.
And just to see how the trainer did the training.
As an educator, I was really watching and learning and trying to take her tips
and seeing what she did, hands-on thing.
I think the big thing I learned, this online world, it's good, but it's not like yours.
Oh, especially with this.
You're touching people like during a facial.
The other thing, I think it's like, if you are going to be doing online training at all,
you have to be way more detailed in what you're saying and explaining.
Place your point finger with this thing.
You can't just do like it.
So that's the part where I started my brain starting going.
Because a lot of people want to do online.
They want training from us, but they're not in it.
They're too far away.
How do you afford to do all this, to come up with all these things?
Which we understand.
So I think that's changed my way of,
okay, how I'm going to do training from now on.
If there's online, live even through Zoom, we do those.
How I will deliver that.
Yeah, I get it now.
And I thought I understood it before, but I realized, no, we can do better.
We can even do way better.
Yeah, that was the one thing I knew.
The first thing you said is we did the demo treatment.
And it was, you wanted to be more detailed because you thought it was one way.
And then when you saw her doing it, it was like, oh, it didn't relate.
It didn't come through.
Well, and I think what it is is more so that we all learn different,
as people were different learners.
And if we're not touching on all of them all the time,
and I mean, that's all the time, it's actually a lot of work, which I get.
But the thing is that there's questions.
I can talk to anyone from the company and say, with marketing,
I have a question for you.
And they're like, yeah, reach out to me.
The trainer, she's absolutely ready to come online and talk to us.
She's looking at coming to Canada.
We're excited to see how she could talk back.
Yeah, so I think that was another one.
Great.
Well, thanks so much for giving us your feedback on your trip.
Or thanks so much for telling us about your trip and sharing your experience with us.
It makes me want to go more than I did before, which was a lot.
That's good.
You're welcome.
And if you have questions at all, like reach out.
If we don't have the answer, we'll find the answer, because I have connections now.
Nice.
I'll put some links in the show notes too, like to the SOTS group page,
where you can see the numbers and maybe we'll go into the garden.
All right, well, we'll see you next time.
Thanks for joining us again.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to Beauty Babble.