Author's profile

Leanne & Sylvain met under the sun somewhere between Cuba and Jamaica in 1997. The years that followed led to the birth of 2 delightful children, a straw bale and earth home (self built), a successful soap making business and 2 books…… With, of course, a lot of fun and adventure along the way.

Leanne was born in Vancouver, Canada… Sylvain in Bayonne, France… They both come from very different professional backgrounds but had the love of travel and sense of adventure in common. Leanne with her background in incentive travel and her love of all things natural, paired with Sylvain's experience in business and management, together make a competent pair to set up business together….

aromaNature comes to life after having started out as a hobby around the year 2000 in their tiny apartment in Bayonne, France. Motivated by the wonderful quality of the soaps she was making and encouraged by Sylvain to make it their main activity, Leanne starts to think this hobby is spinning out of control ! After moving to a more adequate home in the countryside, aromaNature quickly becomes the couples main source of income, as modest as it may be. aromaNature becomes one of the very first cold process soap making businesses in France and gains popularity via the Internet and through local fairs and markets.
They begin teaching soap making in 2004, leading to a growing industry in the hobby which is today a thriving subject on the Internet. They are no longer alone, as the « handmade soap industry » in France boasts approximately 30 professional soap makers today (and many more hobbyists)…. aromaNature’s soap courses have become more and more popular over the years and are available in the south of France and in Paris.

Leanne and Sylvain believe the secret to their « success » is keeping things small and simple. They have always focused on the lifestyle they wanted for themselves and their children and not about becoming bigger and more successful financially …. They have fought to keep aromaNature as a small cottage industry, not much different than it was in its first years…..