La Crique

La Crique is a French make-up brand based in Marseille that sells what it calls make-up "infused with care": tinted serums, lip and cheek balms, powders, eyeshadows and mascara whose formulas carry skincare ingredients such as hyaluronic acid. It was launched in June 2023 inside Panier des Sens, a Provençal cosmetics company, and was created by the make-up professional Lucas Pelardy, who had previously worked at Givenchy, LVMH and L'Oréal.

The brand stands out less for any single product than for its identity. Where many natural-leaning brands opt for white, minimal packaging, La Crique uses glass containers in bright pop colours and builds its image around Marseille, its coastline and what its founder calls the city's joie de vivre. It is active, and in 2026 the trade press described it as a growing name in the hybrid, clean make-up segment.

La Crique did not start as an independent founder's project. It grew out of Panier des Sens, which, according to the regional newspaper mesinfos.fr, brought in Lucas Pelardy to design a make-up brand "from A to Z" [10]. Pelardy has described the brief as "carte blanche" with a few fixed constraints: the brand had to be as natural as possible and draw on actives from Provence. "But more than Provence, it is really Marseille that inspired me," he told the paper.

Sources describe his role in slightly different terms. The beauty trade publication Premium Beauty News and the online magazine Timodelle both call Pelardy the founder of La Crique, with the former saying he launched it "with the support" of Panier des Sens [9]. Mesinfos.fr refers to him as the brand manager of La Crique. The two descriptions are compatible: Pelardy created the brand as its lead within Panier des Sens rather than as an outside owner.

Pelardy's own path to Marseille is part of the brand's story. According to Timodelle, he left Paris and his job within the LVMH group to settle in Marseille, and wanted to create a brand that reflected the city's warmth, colour and inclusive spirit. Looking back in 2026, he explained the timing: in 2022, he said, natural formulas and a skincare angle were what made a make-up brand original, and after a career in luxury, including at Givenchy, he wanted to open up that kind of offer, which was still fairly rare at the time.

### The name

According to mesinfos.fr, the name evokes the calanques, the steep limestone inlets along the Marseille coast, along with the sun and the sea. Pelardy has said he wanted a name that was out of the ordinary and that "rings, resonates and grabs attention". He also pointed to a play on words: "La Crique" sounds close to "la clique", French for a gang or crew. The brand's German-language website glosses the name as "Die Bucht" (the bay).

### Launch, 2023

All sources agree that La Crique reached the market in 2023, but they tell the run-up differently. Timodelle states that the brand launched in June 2023 as a new arrival in the Panier des Sens group and was the result of two years of research and development within the group [11]. Mesinfos.fr, writing in December 2024, gives a later starting point, saying it was in summer 2023 that Panier des Sens had the idea of creating a make-up brand [10]. A Provence beauty blog reviewing the brand in July 2023 already described it as newly launched, which fits the June 2023 date.

The opening range, as described by mesinfos.fr, consisted of fifteen products across four types: radiance serum bases, a tinted serum, a combined lip and cheek balm, and an eyeshadow. Pelardy said he wanted make-up that was "minimalist but complete", covering what he saw as the four essential steps: preparing the skin, evening out the complexion, adding colour and adding light.

### Paris department stores, 2024

The brand's first major step into selective retail came in Paris. From April 2024, La Crique was sold at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, where it had been selected for "Tous fadas sur la rive gauche", an exhibition dedicated to Marseille [11]. According to mesinfos.fr, dozens of Marseille brands were chosen to fill the store's Marseille stands, but only a few were offered a contract afterwards; La Crique was one of them.

By December 2024, mesinfos.fr reported that the brand was present in 250 points of sale and had entered Galeries Lafayette [10]. At that point a mattifying powder was announced for the following January and a mascara was still in testing. For Christmas that year the brand released a gift set built around three of its main products.

### Growth, 2025–2026

Both of the products in development in late 2024 later appeared in the range: the brand's website now lists mattifying powders and a natural care mascara. It has also added lip waters, a pH-reactive lip balm pencil and a BB cream with a mattifying effect, which the site presents as a new line.

In a profile dated May 2026, Premium Beauty News reported that the range had grown to 32 references, all made in France, and that a new Sérum Blush Soleil had been launched that March. The same article stated that the brand had grown by about 100 percent a year since its launch and was aiming for one million euros in revenue by the end of 2026 [9]. As of that article, the company also planned further serum launches, including a mattifying tinted serum due in September 2026.

La Crique belongs to Panier des Sens. The brand's website is published by SAS Panier des Sens, whose legal notice gives an address in Marseille [6]. Timodelle, by contrast, describes Panier des Sens as a group from Aix-en-Provence [11]. Both places lie in Provence; the company's own legal notice places its registered address in Marseille.

The link to the parent shows in several ways. La Crique's products are sold in Panier des Sens boutiques, according to the brand's FAQ, and the brand draws on the parent's commercial network for distribution. No acquisitions or changes of ownership are documented; La Crique has been part of Panier des Sens since its creation.

La Crique presents itself as a blend of skincare and colour. The company describes its make-up as natural, vegan and clean, applied with simple, instinctive gestures borrowed from the world of skincare. It sums up its ethics in four words, "clean, natural, local and simple to use", and adds a motto: less is more, simple is better.

### Natural-origin content

How natural the formulas are depends on which page is read. The brand's ethics and formulation pages state that its formulas contain at least 98 percent ingredients of natural origin [4], a figure Timodelle repeats. The brand page on the same website gives a minimum of 97 percent [3]. Pelardy, recalling his original brief, has spoken of "a minimum of 95 percent natural ingredients" [9], while the Sérum Blush Soleil launched in 2026 is described as 99 percent natural origin.

### Marseille as identity

The southern French city is central to how the brand talks about itself. Its stated mission is to highlight "the facets and faces of the South" through sunny, inclusive communication and a pronounced pop universe, and the company says colour is at the heart of its identity. According to Timodelle, it worked with the photographer Blank City to show Marseille in a bright, pop version.

Pelardy has framed this as a deliberate contrast. "I wanted to take the opposite approach to Parisian brands, with a jovial, colourful twist in the image of Marseille," he told Premium Beauty News. "Anything but white or black." He described the city as modern, urban and alternative, but with nature always close by, "like our products".

Inclusivity is part of the same message. Timodelle reports that the brand aims to create products for all skin tones and skin types, and that this shapes both its formulas and its communication.

### Focus on the complexion

Although it launched across lips, eyes and complexion, La Crique has narrowed its focus over time. According to Pelardy, the tinted serum became the bestseller straight away, and by 2026 the brand's positioning was mainly on complexion and only partly on colour. "Our products speak of light," he said, adding that the company wants to be seen as an expert in a healthy, glowing look. He describes the core customer as a fairly busy woman aged 30 to 45 who wants instant radiance from simple products, with younger buyers drawn by the fun side and older ones by the skincare angle.

Timodelle places the brand within the "no-makeup" trend, in which light coverage and skin benefits take priority over a heavy finish, and identifies the tinted serums as the products that fit that trend most closely.

### Range

The range is built around serums that sit between skincare and make-up. The tinted moisturising serum is a light foundation alternative offered in several shades. A serum primer prepares the skin and adds hydration, while a liquid bronzing serum gives a tanned look and the Sérum Blush Soleil adds colour to the cheeks. A trio called Sun Kiss groups several of these products.

Beyond the serums, the line-up includes the tinted lip balm that doubles as a cheek colour, lip waters, a pH-reactive lip balm pencil, cream eyeshadows that can also be used as highlighter, a care mascara containing castor oil, mattifying powders and the newer BB cream. The website describes the powders as infused with care ingredients and SPF.

### Ingredients

According to Premium Beauty News, every product contains hyaluronic acid for hydration, combined with one targeted ingredient linked to the south of France. The brand names four key actives: hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, calendula flower extract and prickly pear, which it calls a regional icon of Marseille. Orange blossom water is also mentioned in trade coverage, and the Sérum Blush Soleil adds aloe vera. The formulation page lists several organic ingredients, including Damask rose water, castor oil, carnauba wax, shea butter and sunflower oil.

### Formulation charter

The company publishes a formulation charter that lists what it leaves out. Excluded ingredients include animal-derived materials, silicones, acrylates and polyacrylates, phenoxyethanol, EDTA, parabens, polyethylene, talc and mineral oils and waxes [5]. The charter also explains two exceptions: titanium dioxide is used as a pigment and UV filter, but not in nano form, and some synthetic pigments are used to widen the colour range.

According to the brand's FAQ, no product or ingredient is tested on animals, in line with the requirements of the EU cosmetics regulation [8]. No third-party certifications are documented.

The brand's environmental commitments focus on packaging and transport. According to La Crique, its packaging is mainly made of recyclable glass and it has done away with outer cardboard boxes to cut waste. Products are made in an unnamed French laboratory, which the company says it chose partly to keep transport distances short.

La Crique sells online through its own website and through the network of its parent. According to Premium Beauty News, that network gave it around 300 points of sale in France, Germany and the Benelux countries as of May 2026, about two-thirds of them concept stores or beauty shops. The same report noted the start of selective distribution, with Le Bon Marché, a pop-up at Printemps Haussmann and a planned entry into the organic beauty chain Mademoiselle Bio. Outside Europe, the brand had a small number of points of sale in the United States, South Africa, Australia and Chile, and was launching in Morocco.

Coverage of La Crique comes mainly from the French trade, regional and beauty press. Premium Beauty News wrote in 2026 that the brand had quickly gained recognition in the hybrid and clean make-up segment [9]. The brand's own website cites coverage in Elle, Cosmopolitan, BIBA and Stylist. No awards are documented.

La Crique is active. As of May 2026 it was expanding both its range and its distribution, and its website lists new products, including the BB cream line. Pelardy has said the brand's next goal is to strengthen its national profile in France as a complexion specialist, with more investment in social media, influencer partnerships and digital campaigns.