Casanova & me

Restaurant in the center of London

Cedric Casanova was an acrobat in Cirque Du Soleil, Francois Clerc a product designer – they now collaborate with small local producers in Sicily and supply some of the best restaurants in Paris and London with the finest Sicilian products. The line “Casanova & me” is a new range of haircare products made of olive oil, designed to be as eco-friendly as possible. The shampoo bars are made in London by Francois.

 

Casanova & Me offers two types of olive oil shampoo bars. The first combines orange peel powder, honey and chamomile essential oil. The second, nettle powder and rosemary essential oil. How to choose and what are their characteristics?

The orange peel shampoo bar is designed for blond hair, the chamomile essential oil, the honey, the sea salt and the lemon juice are perfect to highlight lighter colours. I would recommend the nettle shampoo bar to people with a sensitive scalp, nettle helps regulate sebum, and it reduces dandruff.

… These ingredients made us hungry. Are you a follower of the principle that most of the substances we put on our skin should be edible?

Plastic and chemicals are unacceptable in our plates, why would we use products from the petrochemical industry on our body? The list of petrochemical-derived products in “classic” shampoos is just shocking, our skin deserves better than that. The products we use in shampoo have an impact on our skin but also on our wastewater and our environment.

Yellow shampoo bars with a rope

Shampoo bar with an orange

Orange peel & honey shampoo bar for blond hair is handmade in London by Casanova & me. These shampoo bars not only keep your hair clean, but also help you to reduce single use plastic in your household.

We know that you started developing the shampoo bars 3 years ago. What was the main reason you wanted to make your own shampoo?

My goal with this shampoo bar project is to reduce our impact on the environment. We don’t need plastic bottles; using a plastic bottle with 450 years lifespan for a few shampoos just doesn’t make sense. So let’s go back to basics, no packaging and good ingredients - simple! And my hair has never been nicer!

As a designer I also wanted to improve the design of the shampoo bar. Classic shampoo bars look like soap and they end-up in a soggy soap dish! I wanted something with its own identity and I wanted to improve the functionality. This shampoo bar will dry properly without a soap dish.


Do you have any other products you are working on currently?

Yes, our conditioner bar will be ready soon. Next project will be shaving cream, I can’t stand aerosol cream cans, it’s an outrageous single use object!

Shampoo bars hanging on a wooden rack

Cédric, as a circus artist must have travelled all around the world, today is he living in Sicily, where you are producing or in London or Paris where you have restaurants and shops?

Cédric spends half of the year in Sicily where he is in charge of production and the other half in Paris where he has a grocery and supplies lots of restaurants.


Francois, you are actually a product designer and a passionate city gardener. What can be found in your garden?

I have a little garden in London with 3 hens, lots of rhubarb to make jam and a fig tree to remind me of the South of France :)

A man standing on the field under trees

A lot of people have started growing their own vegetables and herbs during the COVID19 outbreak. Sometimes it can be a bit challenging - do you have any tips for beginners (e.g the plants you can’t go wrong with)?

Herbs are great for a small garden and they make such a difference in your everyday cooking. Super easy and always useful: rosemary, bay leaf, sage, thyme, oregano, chives, sorrel, mint and I have lemon verbena which I use a lot. And try the hens, it’s something you appreciate during lockdown, fresh eggs every morning! 

 

Do you have any advice to share for being more sustainable in our everyday life?

Tricky one… we all want to live in a better environment but we all have different views on the way to do it. I really wish we could stop using single use plastic bottles, it’s an easy one.

Interior of a restaurant shop

Casanova & Daughters is most of all a wine bar and source for great ingredients from Sicily. It’s a hidden gem in Paris, London and Tokyo. Once the restaurants are open again, do stop by and discover yourself. We definitely have found our new favourite.

Find them:
London -  Casanova & Daughters, 6 Neal's Yard, WC2H 9DP
Paris -  La Tête Dans les Olives, 2 rue Sainte-Marthe 75010 or La Tête dans les Olives 54 rue du Couédic 75014
Tokyo - Cedric Casanova Japan, 1F 3-1-14 Jingumae Shibuya 

Photos by Casanova & Daughters