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Everything started in the 1970s when Dominique and Rosine Dauge, farmers who settled in their family owned estate at the entrance of the village of Fontevraud L’Abbaye, were looking at that time for an additional business in another sector than agriculture and got to meet André Chapuis, a chemist specialised in soap making from the Cher region.
To become herself an expert in soap making and to continue the unique know-how work of this soap making « master », it took Rosine years of learned and applied practise, ingenuity, patience and strength. Today, it’s her daughter Hélène who is in charge of the company.
To conserve accurately this unique know-how of soap production, they both shaped this small family run business and gave it a modern future. The business developped and flourished by integrating the requirements of the cosmetic industry in order to continually propose high quality products derived from 100% vegetal origin.
Everything is « traditional » and « hand-made » here, from weighing the vegetal oils to the packaging, and of course the famous « hand gestures » which needs to have been practised for a long time before knowing one’s specific own « way of working the product » or « chemist trick », why not call this « magic trick!» because the oils are transformed into « soap » due to a caustic-base. Busy hands are filling in the forms, mix, press into shape, scrape, cut, stamp, whipe, shape, tidy up, arrange,
seperate, reserve, fold, hold in place, applying every detailed step of the process which is followed by a long sitting time in our soap drying work shop. Finally, you hold in « your » hands a product of outstanding and incomparable quality !
Martin de Candre is the story of a family adventure of traditional soap making which started in 1974, keeping and preserving a know-how that is almost vanished nowadays in France.
A rare and exceptional know-how – Specialized in soap production type Marseille since 1974, the soap factory Martin de Candre is reputated for its know-how in traditional saponification. Nowadays, it is part of some rare french soap factories who do the saponification themselves. In november 2000, the soap factory received the labelling LOIRE VALLEY WORLD HERITAGE (UNESCO), a remarkable acknowledgement and guarantee of quality.
