Reve Maxeville Handmade Cosmetics

Posted On November 20, 2013

Stephanie Kelley

Reve Maxeville is a small local company that was recently founded to produce small batches of hand crafted lotions, soaps, shampoo, bath & body products and cosmetics.
Catherine Trudel began to create natural products for herself that would help nurture her sensitive skin, and that would treat the persistent dermatitis that had affected her hands for years.
 
From that modest beginning, Catherine then began making a few more products for herself such as foundation, hand salve, and face & body lotion. She then expanded her repertoire to include all of the skin and hair care products she used in daily life.
She enjoyed the process of crafting these products so much that she decided to begin selling her wares at craft markets and local boutiques.
 

I visited Catherine at the Perth-Andover Christmas Bazaar to find out more. She had a beautiful table set up, with tester bottles of products, and she had a steady stream of visitors stopping at her table, curious about her products. Nearly everyone who stopped purchased something, either for themselves or as a gift.
 

Her objective is to create high quality products for both women and men that nurture your skin and hair and that smell and feel good. She is self taught, and learned most of her techniques through trial and error, but the end products are lovely….they are professionally packaged and they do smell wonderful and feel absolutely fabulous on the skin. As I sit here typing the pleasant aroma of bay rum is still wafting up from my hands. And, my hands are still silky smooth from the lotion even after washing a couple of batches of dishes!
 

Catherine uses nearly all natural ingredients in her products, including shea butter, cocoa butter, olive oil and sunflower oil. Her products are normally about 97.5 percent natural, but she does include a few cosmetic grade ingredients in order to preserve the products. Preservatives are used because her lotions are just like food….even if you kept them refrigerated they would go bad.
Because preservatives are used and the products are prepared in a professional manner, all Reve Maxeville products will last for a minimum of 6 months and up to a year. Catherine puts a “best by” date on all of her products.
 

Catherine lists all ingredients on her labels in both English and French, along with the batch number, expiry date, weight or volume of product, whether the product is vegan and any warnings such as to avoid the eye area. She also includes her website, email and contact number.
 

Winter is approaching fast, which means chapped lips so I was thrilled to find that Catherine’s lip balms are all natural and only $3 per tube. I purchased the lime flavoured lip balm, which is made from apricot kernel oil, beeswax, mango butter, castor oil, flavour, glycerine and vitamin E.
As a comparison, a tube of commercial lip balm I have contains the following scary ingredients:
dimethicone, oxybenzone, padimate, beeswax, camphor, cetyl alcohol, cetyl palmitate, euphorbia ceriphera wax, ( Good grief I’m gonna run out of room here! I can’t believe I ever voluntarily put all this crap on my lips!) flavours, isopropyl myristate, isopropyl palmitate, isopropyl stearate, lanolin, methylparabin, mineral oil, ozokerite, paraffin, petrolatum, polybutene, propylparaben, cocoa seed butter and titanium dioxide.
 

I also purchased a bar of shampoo. I was very excited to find a local source for a natural bar shampoo as I normally have to purchase it online.
I love and endorse natural bar shampoo because A: It’s not packaged in a petroleum based plastic bottle that is going to end up in a landfill or an ocean garbage patch for the next 1,000 years or so, and, B: It is not full of dangerous chemicals that our bodies absorb and that end up polluting the planet as they get washed down the drain.
This shampoo bar has a delightful yet subtle citrus basil fragrance, and is made with avocado butter to help moisturize your hair. One bath bar, which is priced at $6 will last for about 50 shampoos. Catherine also makes hair conditioner to accompany the shampoo.
 

The Bath Bomb Cupcakes were a revelation… they are beautiful and, as Catherine describes, a real bath treat. They look just like real cupcakes, and the top creates bubbles and the bottom of the “cupcake” is effervescent…it contains citric acid and baking soda so it makes your bath water froth like Alka Seltzer!
 

To further help combat seasonal dry skin blues try the Reve Maxeville lotion bar. This solid emollient bar contains beeswax, cocoa butter, sunflower oil, olive oil, mango butter and vitamin E. It melts as it comes into contact with your body’s heat, and is great for chapped, cracked skin.
 

Reve Maxeville men’s products come in several wonderful and subtle fragrances including Bay Rum, Aqua di Gio and Dakkar Nuit.
 

Fragrances for ladies products come in 3 categories: Cake & Candy fragrances, Savoury Aromas, like sweet grass, lavender and citrus basil, and sophisticated fragrances such as pomegranate.
Catherine will be at the Christmas Bazaar market at SVHS in Perth-Andover on December 14th 9 am– 2-pm. Polish Me Up Esthetics in Perth-Andover carries Reve Maxeville products, or check out the website at www.revemaxeville.com.