August Hair Care & Skincare Grant Awarded to La Marcotterie

Our eighth $10,000 grant winner for 2023 and the August Business-Specific Category (Hair Care & Skincare) goes to Elodie Marcotte, founder of La Marcotterie.

Elodie’s efforts to develop a natural skin care product to address her eczema led to an entirely new business and an exciting new entrepreneurial career. Here is part of her story:

What began as a late-night hobby in 2015 for Elodie Marcotte is now a French-inspired line of all natural luxury skincare products – La Marcotterie. Civil engineer by day and skincare researcher by night, what originally drove Elodie to dabble in cosmetics was a desire to find a solution for her eczema. That led her to study the science of natural cosmetology and botanical ingredients and to develop a small line of skincare items, which she put up for sale on Etsy.

She sold one or two orders a week on Etsy for a few years, until Covid struck in 2020 and customers were stuck inside. When Mother’s Day rolled around that year, everyone became online shoppers, and many turned to Etsy for a special gift to give their mom. When La Marcotterie’s self-care gift sets were featured on Etsy’s homepage, that same day she got 160 orders. “The days that followed were almost as wild,” she says. Her family pitched in to keep up with demand, working day and night in the basement to produce and ship orders while she spent her days in her full-time job.

Since then, Elodie quit her engineering job to devote herself to her business. She also hired two employees and moved into new production space. She is now developing new personal care products and investing in brand visibility to ensure more people learn about her eco-friendly skincare products.