Name: Pommade Divine
Based: London
Website: www.pommadedivine.com
Pommade Divine is breaking beauty industry tradition by not launching a product that has the newest innovation in skincare, but by relaunching a product that dates back to the Viking era.
Pommade Divine was first written about in 1720 by Marie Antoinette’s great-grandmother as “the best thing if you have burned yourself with sealing wax”. Pommade Divine was a staple in Victorian and Edwardian British households for any skin-related concerns. It was said every nursery and every nanny had a bottle of the cure-all balm.
Despite its wonderful natural healing benefits, the product was discontinued in 1987. Now, 30 years later, Pommade Divine Ltd has relaunched the product on the shelves of [department stores] Liberty and Fenwick shops nationwide to re-establish it as a skincare must-have.
For the last 18 months, the company has focused on unearthing its long and rich history, restoring the formula (which is based on the original recipe of the Royal Household’s chemist from 1800) and designing the packaging so that it is fit for the 21st century consumer.
An injection of capital in December 2014 has been used to invest in strong marketing plans, expand distribution and build a team in order to make Pommade Divine a household name once again.
As British novelist and poet Susanna Rowson wrote in 1804: “It smarts, dear, don’t it? How can you endure it? Here’s some Pommade Divine, to heal and cure it.” Our first month’s sales figures appear to agree.
Ania Macadam is chief executive of Pommade Divine
