What inspired you to start your business/brand?

Pepin is primarily a family story. We have always felt a strong desire to surround ourselves with plants at home, bringing life into our interiors and caring for them. Through conversations with others, we realized we were not alone in naming, attaching, and daily caring for our plants. We believed that indoor plants are more than just decorative objects. Dissatisfied with existing accessories and products for plant care (often complicated, impractical, unattractive, and with questionable compositions) we decided to create Pepin.

Our vision was and still is to design accessories and care products for indoor plants that are not only functional but also beautiful, showcasing fine materials and craftsmanship, and utilizing natural formulations. We want plant care routines to be as simple, practical, and enjoyable as skincare routines, enabling us to care for our plants as effortlessly as we care for ourselves. 

What are your brand’s values?

Our brand’s values are : 

• Simple, For Everyone: Making plant care easy for everyone without requiring botanical or gardening expertise. 

• Natural and low-tech: Creating high-quality products rooted in ancestral techniques, artisanal craftsmanship, and natural ingredients. 

• Passionate: Expressing genuine passion for plants and design with beautiful objects. 

• Caring: Caring for our plants, for our highly engaged community, and for our network of retailers with high-quality service, useful products, limited editions, and fun goodies. 

• Sustainable: Crafting products in Europe using recyclable and renewable materials.

 

What is your biggest motivation?

Our biggest motivation is to make Plantcare simple, playful and enjoyable, creating a routine that can easily be integrated into our urban daily lives, much like a skincare routine. Whether caring for your own plants or as a thoughtful gift for the plant lovers around us.

 

Where did the inspiration for your product(s) come from?

Our inspiration comes from our beloved plants, for which we want the best, as well as from our passion for beautiful objects, design, materials, and colors. 

It is also the phenomenon of "Plant Parents" and "Plantfluencers" exploding on social media, combined with the trend of indoor plants in urban environments, that has further motivated us to develop Plantcare Pepin: people are surrounding themselves with more indoor plants and allocating an increasingly larger budget to this. Pepin is the accessorization of this growing trend.

 

What has been a highlight whilst creating and building your brand?

We loved shining a new light on the Olla irrigation technique, an ancient and gentle method that uses the natural porosity of ceramic to hydrate plants: water is stored in the olla and slowly seeps out to hydrate the plant’s roots. It’s a method that respects the natural rhythms of plants, providing them with water as and when they need it.

We then adapted the olla irrigation technique to our self-watering pots by reversing the principle: water is stored between the two pots and gradually diffuses into the inner pot to hydrate the plant.

 

What advice would you give to business owners, creators, designers and brand owners just starting out?

A piece of advice would be to dedicate time to the development of a well-structured brand platform. The development of our brand platform has allowed us to deepen our ideology, refine our storytelling, and create a visual expression that is unique to Pepin. This has resulted in the creation of a distinct brand identity, setting us apart clearly from the competition. Consistently, this platform enables us to continue designing the right products, guiding our strategic decisions, and setting short and long-term goals. A solid foundation for the growth and sustainability of Pepin!

 

At the Spring edition of Top Drawer, will you be launching any new collections and if so, can you give us a sneak peek? 

We have expanded our range of ollas with two new olla colors (the reveal will take place at Top Drawer) as well as a set of three mini ollas released this summer. Thanks to this smaller format, small plants also benefit from a natural and gradual irrigation system, with a decorative touch as always. The mini ollas are designed to be planted in pots less than 15 cm in diameter.

Our Mini Ollas: 

We have also renovated our range of Plantcare products with a new colorful design (like our ollas), a new capacity of 60ml (instead of 50ml), while maintaining our same 100% natural and highly effective formulas. In addition to our reliable products, we have taken the opportunity to launch two new products: the cleansing mist and the protective toner.

Our Infallibles (The Nourishing Serums):

Our Houseplant, Cactus, and Orchid serums: formulated with seaweed from Brittany (France), our fertilizers nourish and stimulate the growth of your indoor plants.

Neem Oil and Willow Water:

Our Neem oil, a natural insecticide and fungicide, is effective against many insects and mites: thrips, aphids, caterpillars, red spider mites, scale insects...

Our Willow water, a natural preparation made from willow bark, stimulates the root development of cuttings and seedlings.

Our new Plantcare arrivals:

Clean your plants with our Pepin Cleaning Mist : formulated with probiotics and natural active ingredients, it enhances light absorption (photosynthesis) by removing dust from the leaves and strengthens plant vitality with its purifying formula.

Protect your plants with our Pepin Protective Toner : Made with trace elements and minerals, it improves plants' resistance to pests, boosting their vitality and strengthening their natural defenses.

 

What is your personal favourite from your new collection?

My personal favourite is the mini olla : it is not only super cute, but now my small plants finally have their own ollas.

 

If applicable, how do you operate your brand sustainably?

We collaborate with talented artisans across Europe who possess exceptional skills. Our self-watering pots and ollas are handmade in Portugal, near Leiria, in the workshops of Ana and Vitor, who have worked with clay for four generations. The cork stoppers for our ollas come from protected cork oak forests in Portugal. 

Our nourishing serums are manufactured in France, in Brittany. We use 100% natural formulas based on marine algae harvested in northern Finistère and locally processed.

All the materials we use are entirely recyclable and renewable, and our products are packaged and shipped by individuals with disabilities as part of their professional and social integration at STATE Malécot in Lille.