Pushing the Boundaries of Eco-friendly Laundry Detergent with Pikoc Co-founder Marine Weill

Pushing the Boundaries of Eco-friendly Laundry Detergent with Pikoc Co-founder Marine Weill

Meet Pikoc, pronounced peacock. Pikoc is a French brand of everyday household products, including eco-friendly laundry detergent, natural room sprays, and more that were created with you and the environment in mind. High-end perfume formulas set this luxury household brand apart from the competition and blow commercial laundry detergents out of the water with a strategic combination of natural, biodegradable molecules and efficiency. Join us as we hear from Pikoc co-founder and École Supérieure du Parfum graduate Marine Weill.

Jump to:

Founding an eco-friendly laundry detergent brand

Pursuing a career in the perfume industry

How to become a perfume nose

Pikoc worldwide

Pikoc: made with you and the environment in mind

The negative impact of enzymes in commercial laundry detergents

How to determine if a product is "green washed"

Not 100% natural, but close and for a reason

Laundry room hacks

How the formulas behind the signature scents were made

The future of Pikoc

 

Founding an eco-friendly laundry detergent brand

I was at perfume school and for the last year we had a study group. We had to create one project from A to Z. The only rule was that we had to create something focused around perfume. We didn't want to create a new perfume brand, we wanted to go with more of a lifestyle brand that would be used everyday and by a lot of people. So we started to think about a product that, maybe, had a lack of innovation around the perfume and that was needed. So we thought about laundry detergent first.

 

Pikoc, green luxury household products

Pikoc Co-founders Marine Weill (right) and Cecile de Monteil

 

Pursuing a career in the perfume industry

Well, it's different between Cecile and I. For Cecile, she always wanted to go to perfume school. It was a goal for her. For me, it’s very different. I started something else after high school. I started dentistry school, in fact. I realized during my first year that it was not at all for me. Then, I wanted to be a sommelier. But the wine world, I don’t know, I couldn’t see myself in. Then, I found perfume and I thought ‘okay that’s perfect’. It had the creativity that I was looking for. It is a lot of chemistry, and I love chemistry. So, I said okay let’s go and try and it was love at first sight. It was awesome.

 

How to become a perfume nose

We went to school to become a nose, but the school taught us to be anything that we want to be in the perfume world. In fact, we could be a nose, we could be a project manager for a brand (we could work at Chanel and create the next perfume). We learned about a lot of marketing and also sales.

 

Pikoc green household products worldwide

We are in France, of course. In Europe, we are in Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Holland too. In Asia, we are in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. We some regional fairs. We did Maison&Objet in Paris. It’s like a big fair and there are a lot of buyers from all around the world that go every year. That is how we made the connection and how we met the people. If you look online, you can see all the brands that attend. It’s an amazing fair. It’s the biggest in Europe, I think.

 

Dispatch NYC eco-friendly, natural laundry detergent

Pikoc's Bois Mythique, mystic wood, laundry detergent incorporates the freshness of pine, the strength of cedarwood and the softness of sandalwood.

 

Pikoc laundry detergent, made with you and the environment in mind

We really wanted to create a different perfume that will last for a long time on your clothes and that cannot be found everywhere. For the eco-friendly part, we make the products in France, that limits carbon. We try to find molecules that are biodegradable, so they dissolve in less than 48 hours. Also, all of our packaging is recyclable, but we wanted to have less plastic. That is why we created refillable bags and everyone loves it.

We also don’t use any ingredients that are bad for your skin or bad for the environment. We do not use any dyes, preservatives, or enzymes. I don’t know if you know the enzyme in commercial detergent, but normally you add enzymes to have better efficiency on stains, but it can cause sensitivity that your skin can react to.

 

The negative impact of enzymes in commercial laundry detergents

In fact, there are enzymes in 70% of laundry detergent out there. We wanted to create a formula that will be efficient on all kinds of stains and without the addition of those enzymes. When you have enzymes in your laundry detergent, you can’t use the detergent for certain fabrics like cashmere. We wanted a universal detergent for everyone, babies and people with sensitive skin, and for every kind of fabric.

 

How to determine if a product is “green washed”

You need to look at the ingredients. You can say anything you want on the label. If you want your product to look eco-friendly, you can do it. For example, and in fact I did not know before starting Pikoc, when a label says that the product was “dermatologist tested” it does not mean that it is good on the skin. It just means that it has been tested. In France, it is a law that you have the right to write that on a label, because it is correct, it was tested. When a customer needs to find a good product they should look at the ingredients. Try to find something without preservatives. That’s a huge fight, because 95% of preservatives can damage your skin. So try to avoid that. After that, it depends on the sensitivity of your skin.

 

Dispatch NYC Pikoc eco-friendly household room spray

Explore Pikoc's signature scents with the French Mist Set

 

Not 100% natural, but close and for a reason

We are not 100% natural, we could be, but we wanted to also be effective. We interviewed a panel of women before launching Pikoc, because it’s still women who do the laundry. These women told us that they switched to 100% natural laundry detergent when they had kids or experience sensitive skin, but they always saw a difference in the efficiency. So that’s why we tried to combine both the efficiency and also the eco-friendly part.

 

Laundry room hacks

White vinegar will soften your clothes and it will make whites whiter. It also cleans your washing machine. I recommend to take the laundry out of the washing machine quickly, because when it stays in the machine a small odor can be created from the condensation of the water. If you want your laundry to be extra perfumed and fresh, you need to take it out quickly from the washing machine.

Dispatch NYC Pikoc French luxury, natural and eco-friendly laundry detergent

The three signature scents Bois Mythique, Eclat D'Iris, and Oranger en Fleurs

 

How the formulas behind the signature scents were made

With Cecile, we knew what we wanted for the smells. We went to a perfume laboratory like the one in Emily in Paris and we co-created the scents. It took one year to create them. We wanted to be efficient on linen and clothes, so we made a lot of trials. I think we maybe went through 20 different scents. It’s not that bad. Sometimes when you work with a perfume brand, like Chanel or Dior, they can work for three years on one perfume with so many trials.

 

The future of Pikoc, eco-friendly household products

We hope to create more products for the home. We have lots of ideas, we just have to make them. Hopefully, we will be all around the world. We love to work for Pikoc, we really enjoy it. We are two possessed women, so we will do it.

To learn more about Pikoc, check out their website or drop us a line. We would be more than happy to answer any questions you have about the product (you can trust us, we've tried them). Want to see more Pikoc household products? Let us know. We are always trying to add new eco-friendly products to our store!


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published