Decleor

Decleor began in 1974 when its founder, Solange Dessimoulie, set out to challenge an industry then reliant on animal-derived actives by building skincare around the regenerative power of plant essential oils. Working alongside aromatherapist Caroline Colliard, she developed a method of precise essential-oil dosing that became the brand's signature, embodied in the cult Aromessence oil-serums and the Hydra Floral and Rose d'Orient ranges. For decades Decleor was a fixture of luxury spas worldwide, positioning itself as a professional aromatherapy-led brand more than a clinical or drugstore one. Its corporate history is unusually turbulent: the brand passed through several owners, was acquired by Shiseido, then sold to L'Oreal in 2014 alongside sister brand Carita for a reported sum around 230 million euros. L'Oreal wound down commercialization of Decleor in the early 2020s, pulling it from spas and halting production, before the newly created French beauty company Cospal acquired it in 2024 to relaunch the heritage label. While its essential-oil expertise is genuine and long-standing, Decleor's claims have historically leaned on brand testing and spa heritage rather than peer-reviewed validation.