For five years, our whole team has been working to grow Oh My Cream, a rather bold idea that became a reality. At the heart of the concept is the desire to bring together a selection of different, clean and effective brands with personalised, expert and thoughtful advice, all through an innovative website and welcoming, intimate shops.
From the outset, Oh My Cream has been built around values close to the heart of our founder, Juliette: authenticity, kindness, the freedom to make mistakes, humility and team spirit are all central to everyday life at the company. They’ve never actually been written down anywhere; they’ve been passed on as new people have joined. We hope you can feel them too when you read our social media posts, browse our Journal and talk to our teams in the shops:-)
Even so, we now realise that we want to go further and share our everyday commitments with you. First, by giving you a closer look behind the scenes at Oh My Cream and showing you how our values shape each of our decisions and the way we work every day. And also by sharing our plans for the future…
Oh My Cream: a company that puts people first…
and really means it!
We place enormous importance on our teams’ overall wellbeing, particularly by always taking a supportive approach to management. “No one can be expected to do the impossible” is Juliette’s motto: yes, we all believe that the freedom to make mistakes is essential to learning and that, although we’re an ambitious and passionate team, we also know how to recognise our limits and accept the unexpected.
Good humour, smiles and mutual respect are among our core values: at Oh My Cream, consultants aren’t expected to work themselves to the bone, our partner agencies aren’t left to find solutions on their own, and any colleague facing difficulties knows her managers (and colleagues!) are there for her.
When recruiting, we place enormous value on people skills (which can’t be taught, even at the best schools:-), experience and personality. To us, these matter far more than qualifications. And, where needed, we support our shop teams in gaining their vocational qualification in beauty and cosmetics.
We believe training is the key to providing quality service and exceptional advice. That’s why we have a full-time Training Manager dedicated to it (hello, Lisa!). Our shop teams and online advice team complete four weeks of initial training before they begin advising you. After that, we provide ongoing training, setting aside time each month so they can stay fully up to date with new products and developments in the market. Our other teams, from Purchasing to Finance and Communications, receive training too. At Oh My Cream, everyone talks about beauty with passion! And when we need new skills to move forward, we call on specialists in the field. We prefer to build on our strengths and, from time to time, get help from the best so we can go further… and faster!
Finally, when it comes to team spirit, whether in our shops or at head office, helping one another remains a core value. Johanna, our wonderful adviser in Levallois, is expecting a baby and can’t manage a whole day alone in the shop? Her colleagues organise a rota to give her extra support. Fanny (our Communications Director) is organising a fabulous (and ambitious!) press day at a Paris hotel? The Retail, Purchasing and Innovation teams come to the rescue to help run the day! An inventory count at our logistics partner’s warehouse? The head office team meets at 7 am and heads off at dawn… ready to pull on fluorescent tabards and safety shoes!
Oh My Cream: a company made up entirely of women (not by design… but we rather like breaking the mould!)
We certainly don’t intend to reject applications from men (we make up for the lack of gender balance in part by working with male consultants, including people at the agencies that support us every day—they’ll know who they are ;-), but the fact is that our world attracts fewer men! And, after all, how many companies today can say they’re 100% women?
Oh My Cream is committed to supporting every team member through life’s milestones as best we can: maternity leave is handled flexibly (Marion, our Retail Director, was able to stay with little Edgar until he was four months old), and adapting working hours is a priority for us (Laurie, who runs our Lyon shop, will move to a 32-hour week after the summer to devote one day to her daughter; Anouk, Sophie and Charlotte, who work in our shops, have also adjusted their schedules to fit better with family life). We’re flexible about working from home, too.
In short, our approach is to respond thoughtfully to each situation so that our teams, who give so much every day, can balance their personal and professional lives as well as possible.
Partners who are increasingly committed
Our partners are on the same journey and share our outlook (birds of a feather flock together!). Our resolution? This year, we’ll try to tell you more about their initiatives (thank you, Fanny and Ellie, for your social media posts!), but here are a few already:
The brands
Ren Skincare has set itself a zero-waste goal for 2021, with fully recyclable packaging, refillable bottles and packaging made from plastic collected from the sea and beaches. Patyka packages its products in recycled cardboard packs made without glue, uses plant-based ink and does without instruction leaflets to save paper. Oskia has opted for bio-based plastic packaging made from sugar cane. Finally, many of our brands favour shorter supply chains by sourcing directly from small producers, including Huilettes and Joëlle Ciocco…
Our logistics facility
To pack your orders with care and get products to our shops in record time, we work with a logistics facility based in the Paris region. It also takes a number of steps to limit its environmental impact:
The teams on site sort waste and place it in recycling skips. Depending on the material, it is then processed so it can be put to further use. Paper is sent to several paper mills, and leftover cardboard is reused by cardboard manufacturers. The same goes for other types of waste: wood from pallets is turned into firewood, and plastic film is collected by plastics manufacturers. We reuse boxes from our partner brands to ship products to our shops. Similarly, the small plastic bags that protect our testers on their way to the shops are processed so they can be reused several times.
Our logistics partner has introduced a computer system to manage our products’ expiry dates reliably and prevent waste. What’s more, we restock our shops only once or twice a week (in Paris only) to limit the carbon impact of deliveries.
Finally, the entire logistics facility uses LED lighting, with motion sensors installed so electricity is only used when needed. The teams on site also receive regular training and guidance on their use of supplies.
And what about Oh My Cream Skincare?
To be honest, these initiatives take time and require substantial budgets. But with Oh My Cream Skincare, we want to make quality skincare accessible at a reasonable price. It’s a difficult balance to maintain, but while we work towards doing even more (hello to Flore, who’s working tirelessly on this project!), here’s what we’re already doing. All our products are made in France: the formulas are manufactured in France, and the packaging is also handled by French partners. What’s more, we favour glass packaging wherever possible (and practical!), and we’re working to make our plastic packaging recyclable.
A more eco-friendly everyday
We do what we can every day to make more small changes:
In our shops, we minimise disposable items and prefer soft, cosy towelling. Our next step is to replace our cotton towels with bamboo, which uses less water and lasts longer. We’re also fitting our shops with dimmer switches, LED bulbs where possible and water-saving devices. At head office, we’re cutting down on unnecessary printing. Our Finance and Administration Manager has set a goal of going paperless by 2022, with all our invoices digitised.
We also minimise waste wherever we can. Many cosmetics brands approach us about the possibility of stocking their products. Since we each only have one skin, we’d rather let other, less fortunate women benefit from the products. So we regularly send cosmetics to the charity Un Petit Bagage d’Amour, which helps mothers raising their babies alone. The items bought for our photo shoots that we won’t use again (crockery, lamps, blankets…) are also donated to charities helping people who are isolated or refugees. Likewise, all the furniture from our former offices was donated to Ensemble pour Tous and to a young start-up just getting off the ground that needed a hand furnishing its new warehouse (we’re sending lots of good wishes to the By Charlot team!). At our events, there’s always a little food left over (even though we try to order just the right amount), and we’ve made a habit of throwing nothing away. For example, the charity A manger pour tous distributed the dishes left over from our last company seminar.
That’s a summary of the practical steps we take every day. We know that all these things are "only" small actions. Although this commitment really matters to us, we also know that we’re a five-year-old start-up still seeking stability, and that we’re learning to walk before we run. That said, these small actions are a first step and reflect our desire to go further. We’re currently exploring an idea for a bigger, broader project that would give even more meaning to a company that already means so much to us:-)
Please write to us at contact@ohmycream.com with your comments or suggestions, or to tell us about something you do every day that might inspire us.
See you soon,
The Oh My Cream Team
