Ah, how time flies! This month will mark the 9th year of my entrepreneurial journey! It makes me nostalgic, especially when I think back to my beginnings and the young entrepreneur I was. At the age of 21, I navigated through the years by instinct, faced many obstacles and moments of doubt (like any entrepreneur!), and I am proud to realize that 9 years later, I am still here, offering you the finest natural products and showcasing the potential of Canadian ingredients!

For this occasion, I wanted to review 9 significant events from my last 9 years!

Just give me two seconds, I'm getting the tissue box and we'll get started! ;)

September 19, 2013, is a date I will never forget, as it marks the launch of my product line, which took place at L'Abreuvoir in Montreal! I had gathered several friends to help me organize the event, which was a resounding success all around.

My friend Christina had even specially created cupcakes with flavors inspired by my product fragrances of the time!

From the very beginning, I had the opportunity to develop several products for Rituels, a former popular online men's shaving products store based in Quebec. It's a fond memory from my early days, as the products I developed were very successful, and the product line was later acquired by La Maison Simons.

This experience also marked the start of several R&D projects for products and product lines that I developed for other Quebec brands over the years.

For the 2nd anniversary, on September 19, 2015, I launched the cleansing bars after 2 years of research and development! The cleansing bars quickly became the brand's signature. Unlike any other soaps on the market, I am truly proud to have developed this product, which has received only positive feedback from my customers for the past 7 years!

In the above photos, you can see the first bars. I can't believe that the first year, they were rolled out with a rolling pin! Let's just say there have been a lot of improvements since then! Haha

After a few years of dreaming of opening my own Les Pétards boutiques, I opened a small storefront in Sainte-Thérèse on the North Shore of Montreal on November 2, 2016. A beautiful adventure that lasted 2 years, as I made the decision at the end of 2018 to close the boutique and prepare to return to live in the Eastern Townships, my native region.

It was also at this time that I got involved in my business network thanks to GEST, the association of businesses in Sainte-Thérèse, where I actively worked to revitalize the village with other entrepreneurs in the area.

In 2017, I welcomed Camille, a young chemist from Bretagne, who had just graduated, for a 6-month internship. It's one of my fond creative memories, where we developed a variety of formulas together.

Working with someone who shares the same passion for cosmetic formulation is so exciting! And it was actually my first experience as a boss, so I hold a precious memory of it! =)

On October 12, 2018, we launched our first haircare line at the Sainte-Thérèse boutique, formerly featuring Brazilian guava! From its launch, my solid shampoo was unmatched.

This is one of my greatest successes of the past 9 years and one of the formulas I am most proud of!

Today, our hair care line is formulated with Gaspésie seaweed, which have even more interesting properties for hair!

April 27, 2019, another unforgettable date! The flooding of Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, where my home and production workshop were located, marked a turning point in my journey. A heartbreaking event, but one that allowed me to rethink the product line as I would never have had the chance to do otherwise.

Here we see a kind firefighter, a week after the evacuation, taking us by boat to see the damage to our home, which was still underwater.

When I relaunched my new product line on March 4, 2020, after 10 months of getting the company back on its feet, I never would have thought that two weeks later, a global pandemic would strike.

As an entrepreneur, we learn to be proactive. But sometimes, life reminds us that we don't always decide how things turn out. We have to adapt in order to move forward!

I'm so happy that I chose to rethink the entire line from A to Z! It was a major decision that was daunting, I remember asking myself many times if I was making the right choices! But taking the time to refocus the company on my values allowed me to give so much meaning to what I do, and I wouldn't go back!