1880-1906: Louis Gattefossé and Sons

The story of Gattefossé began in 1880 when a 26-year-old Louis Gattefossé (see picture) moved to Lyon with his wife Marie-Eugénie and their two children, Abel and Marie-Louise. Louis had been managing a beer warehouse further north in Vesoul (the Haute-Saône region of France) but had just been recruited as a salesman for Seghers & Maréchal, a Lyon-based oilcloth manufacturer. Louis’s sales portfolio steadily expanded beyond oilcloth to include photographic paper, petroleum jelly, mineral waxes and oils derived from petrol. And soon he was carrying a set of sample products, most of which were created through chemical processes, and would later be used as raw materials in Gattefossé products.

In 1894, Louis began forging relationships with perfume houses at the Exposition Universelle (international colonial exhibition) in Lyon that year. From that point on, he started selling citrus essential oils from Sicily, terpene-free essences from Germany and Switzerland, and cosmetic raw materials manufactured by German and Belgian companies. He also started preparing “aromatic compositions” for his perfumer clients: Eaux de Cologne, “crèmes divines” and cold creams, jotting down the formulations in a little notebook. Louis’s company may not have been established yet, but his preparations marked the start of Gattefossé’s manufacturing activity.

In 1895, Abel Gattefossé turned 18 and began working with his father. Louis’s second son, René-Maurice, joined them some fifteen years later after studying Chemistry at the University of Lyon. René-Maurice was responsible for research and production in the company “laboratory”, which at that point was a simple lean-to in the garden of the family home in Monchat, a district on the outskirts of Lyon. Abel and Louis were both in charge of sales, however in 1906, Louis retired, leaving the management of the business to his two eldest sons.

1907-1918: Perfume and Aromatics

In January 1907, Abel and René-Maurice created “Gattefossé & Fils” (Gattefossé & Sons), and the family business was legally recognized as a French company for the very first time. Both sons continued their father’s work, with Abel running the commercial side of the business and René-Maurice in charge of research. René-Maurice was keen to let his clients know about the use of synthetic fragrances (new to the market and often criticized), and he published several very successful books.

René-Maurice was also interested in “natural” raw materials, especially essential oils. In 1907, the President of the South-East Agricultural Trade Union wanted to raise the profile of French lavender and invited René-Maurice to Haute Provence to see the “baïassières”, the region’s vast wild lavender fields. There, René-Maurice discovered a piece of unclaimed land and also met lavender growers working in basic conditions. He soon put initiatives in place to improve product quality, increase yield, modernize equipment, educate producers and organize the profession to make it more effective. He made sure that the stills functioned more efficiently, filed for a patent, contributed to creating a trade union for lavender essence producers, purchased a steam distillation plant, set up a cooperative for lavender growers and lots more. These initiatives were helpful to the Gattefossé business as a major user of essential oils, but they also proved to be profitable: the price of lavender per kilo rose from 14 Francs in 1907 to 48 Francs in 1914, with production increasing at the same rate.

Inspired by the success of his investment in Provençal lavender, in 1908 René-Maurice (on the picture in the laboratory in 1904) launched La Parfumerie Moderne, a trade magazine targeted at perfumers, essence producers, engineers and agronomists. La Parfumerie Moderne may have promoted the interests of the whole sector, but it also functioned as an indirect communication tool for the Gattefossé business, giving it a higher status than a company of its size would ordinarily enjoy. In fact, at the outbreak of the First World War, the company had around ten employees.

The three Gattefossé brothers – Abel, René-Maurice and Robert, Louis’s third son – were all enlisted. Of the three, only René-Maurice would survive. In 1915, René-Maurice was wounded and returned to the business, throwing heart and soul into promoting essential oils, which he believed could save lives at a time so tainted by death.

It was in 1910 that René-Maurice personally experimented with the antiseptic properties and healing qualities of lavender essential oil. After an explosion in his laboratory, René-Maurice developed gas gangrene on both hands and decided to apply lavender essence to the infected wounds. They healed, so he started to study this new “therapy”. In 1916, he developed Salvol, an “aromatic disinfectant” that would go on to be trialed in hospitals, first with soldiers, then civilians during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918. Now he had the support of medics, René-Maurice was keen to prove the benefits of using terpene-free essences which, according to him, were more soluble in water than untreated oils. This marked a significant step forward in the history of aromatherapy.

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