Why do we exist?

La Compagnie des Sens began its activity 8 years ago, following the discovery of the power of essential oils by its founder. This discovery of the effectiveness of natural products has since become an integral part of the DNA of our company. Above all, plants are good for you because they are incredibly effective!

This truth was in no doubt for our elders, but the advent of synthetic molecules and complex products based on multiple ingredients may have made us forget it: the plant world is full of plants with astonishing properties, whether therapeutic, nutritional or cosmetic.

The person writing these lines was a great skeptic for a long time, shocked one day by the rapid and obvious effect of Ravintsara essential oil in stopping an infection. Since then, he has gone from surprise to surprise, realizing that his skepticism was ultimately only ignorance.

Yes, it must be said: plants provide a wonderful complement to modern medicine and cosmetics. They can't do everything, but they do things that synthetic products will never be able to do, as the complexity of a natural product exceeds what humans can produce in the laboratory.

Here is the first “why” of the Compagnie des Sens: many health problems find wonderful solutions in plants, and these solutions need to be better known.

One of the fruits that the Compagnie des Sens wants to bear is to help you take care of your health.

Using plants on a daily basis means entering into a complexity that is beyond us. Everyone will be able to admit it, all we know about nature is that we know nothing. Entering this universe means confronting two limitless complexities: the exponential diversity of the plant world, and the intrinsic complexity of each natural extract.

It is possible that we feel a certain apprehension in tackling this complexity, and that is why we strive to make it accessible, while remaining precise. The challenge is that each of you can enter this exciting universe.

According to Aristotle and Plato, it is intelligence that establishes human dignity. Without debating this philosophical question, we are convinced that grow in understanding about the nature that surrounds us (on its properties, on how to integrate it into our daily lives) makes us better and happier.

One of the fruits that the Company of the Senses wants to bear is that we all grow in the intelligence of nature.

In addition to their effectiveness and the intellectual interest it provides, the daily use of plants promotes in everyone a sense of wonder at the nature that surrounds us.

It's an experience that everyone can do: isn't there more wonder in placing a drop of Peppermint on your temples than in swallowing a Doliprane? For what ? Because Mint grows at the bottom of the garden, because it is beautiful and good for many things other than its therapeutic properties. Because Mint, when you take a closer look, is truly an admirable plant, in the literal sense.

Using plants in your daily life is a point of contact with Nature, which allows you to enter into a continuous process of wonder. And the fruit of wonder is joy.

One of the fruits that the Compagnie des Sens wants to bear is your joy.

Anyone who meets farmers on a daily basis can testify: they make it a point of honor to do excellent quality work, and are proud of what they do. Unfortunately, the beauty of their work is very little seen: the intermediaries and transformations of the initial agricultural product make them completely disappear in the eyes of final consumers. It cannot be denied that this disrepute, both financial and moral, is one of the main factors in the suicide epidemic among Western farmers.

The Compagnie des Sens, by promoting the plant, wants to promote those who take care of them, who know them by heart, who make it their job. We want to work increasingly directly with producers, and offer you the raw plant, devoid of any marketing or formulation.

It is for you and us an approach that allows us to get closer to them, to admire the fruit of their talent and to give them the esteem they should never lack.

One of the fruits that Compagnie des Sens wants to bear is the promotion of the producer.

This truth is too little known: the use and enhancement of natural products, in the vast majority of cases, allows the protection and development of entire ecosystems. In developing countries in particular, the fact of giving a significant market value to the fruits of a plant induces a generalization of ecological behavior and preservation of the biotope: who would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?

In Madagascar for example, the valleys which cultivate Vanilla, Cloves, Cinnamon or Ravintsara are true paradises on earth, defended tooth and nail by their inhabitants! Elsewhere, the forest is burned to practice extensive, very unprofitable agriculture. By using Clove essential oil against your toothache, you are helping to preserve a plant and the entire ecosystem that surrounds it.

And this example is not an exception, especially when using raw natural products (with de facto a high quality requirement) and AB certified. In the vast majority of cases, giving value to the fruits of a plant has very positive ecological impacts.

One of the fruits that the Compagnie des Sens wants to bear is the protection of ecosystems by promoting the plants that grow there.

The ecological crisis that we are all going through has its roots in a way of life that has distanced us from nature. It's as simple as that: we don't love nature enough, because we no longer have enough contact with it. Loving presupposes proximity, meeting, the concrete experience of the relationship.

The Compagnie des Sens therefore wants to provoke this encounter, by helping you to discover all the good that plants can do for you, concretely. Man and nature are not sworn enemies, quite the contrary. We are convinced that wonder and attachment will be much more effective vectors of cultural change than fear, however legitimate it may be. Each of our products and each of our advice are activists for this peaceful and individual revolution that we so need.

One of the fruits that the Company of the Senses wants to bear is that Man loves and understands Nature better, so that he becomes its guardian.

We're not going to lie, we also do all this out of passion. I don't think I need to expand further: our profession is extraordinary, and we can practice it thanks to you. Thank you so much.

In addition to the intrinsic profession of the Compagnie des Sens, the fact of having numerous relationships with our readers and our customers gives us real joy. Although very present on the internet, our company is designed to be connected. Our customer service team has 5 full-time people! It is a very important investment for a small company like ours, but the joy of these exchanges permeates the entire Company and allows us to never forget the service we want to provide you on a daily basis.

La Compagnie des Sens now has 40 full-time employees in Lyon. In addition, whenever possible, we favor French or even regional suppliers. We are convinced that work is (among other things) constitutive of our dignity, and that therefore unemployment is a scandal to be fought. Our activity participates in it, very humbly of course, but on our scale.