On The Wild Side

On The Wild Side is a French cosmetics company based in Bordeaux that makes organic skincare, haircare and body care from wild plants hand-harvested in French forests. It was founded in 2019 by Anne-Sophie Nardy [9], who had spent more than a decade working for large cosmetics groups before leaving Paris to build a brand around untreated, wild-grown plants. The company positions its products as 100% natural in origin and certified organic, formulated without essential oils or synthetic preservatives.

The founding year is recorded slightly differently across sources. Four independent business and trade sources, including Le Journal des Entreprises, give 2019, the year the e-commerce site launched [9]; the company data platform Tracxn lists 2018 [12]. 2019 is recorded as the founding year on the strength of the corroborating sources, with the earlier date noted as an outlier.

Anne-Sophie Nardy founded On The Wild Side after roughly twelve years inside major cosmetics groups. According to the company, she left Paris to reconnect with nature and develop her own approach to beauty. The brand traces its intellectual starting point to a published dialogue between the philosopher Edgar Morin and the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, Impliquons Nous, which the company says prompted Nardy to rethink how cosmetics are conceived and consumed.

A second, more practical influence was a meeting with a wild-plant forager named William, who introduced Nardy to plants that grow without cultivation or treatment. From that encounter came the brand's central premise: that wild, untended plants develop active ingredients of unusual potency. In an interview, Nardy described the idea in one line as going "back to basics" and reconnecting with the wild [8]. She has said she surveyed around 40 women before launch and found three recurring wishes — efficacy, a committed brand, and pleasure — which shaped the concept [8].

The brand began as an online-first business in March 2019. In 2020 it raised 500,000 euros from a group of business angels — among them Sophie Hersan, co-founder of Vestiaire Collective, alongside the investment firm Aquiti Gestion and Crédit Agricole [9]. At the time of that round the company employed four people and generated roughly half its revenue through its own website.

Over the following period the range widened from a small set of face-care products to include haircare and food supplements, with five new products introduced in 2021 [7]. The company also set out international ambitions early, consolidating its European presence and signalling plans to move into Asian markets.

On The Wild Side's range covers facial care, haircare, body care and food supplements, sold as individual products and as ritual kits. Signature items include a day fluid, a night balm, an eye contour balm, a cleansing jelly and a face serum. Ingredients the company highlights include plant-based hyaluronic acid, a plant-derived retinol, probiotics, caffeine, blueberry and vegan collagen.

At the centre of the formulation approach is a patented complex the company calls "Le Brevet On The Wild Side," built on two wild plants gathered by hand from French forests: birch sap, described as detoxifying, and beech bud, described as regenerating [3]. The brand attributes three effects to the pairing — supporting the skin's natural renewal, strengthening its protective barrier, and slowing oxidative stress. On The Wild Side says it carried out transcriptomic testing to examine how these wild-plant actives affect genes in keratinocytes, the cells that make up most of the skin's surface layer [3]. The company argues that wild plants carry higher concentrations of secondary metabolites because they grow slowly and face natural environmental stress.

The brand describes having written its own formulation charter, which it says goes beyond the usual requirements of "bio," "clean" or "natural" claims because it considers those terms often vague or incomplete.

The company's stated mission is to "harvest nature's power" and "respect the living chain" for a beauty it calls engaged, desirable and beneficial. Its positioning rests on reconciling two things the brand treats as usually opposed: naturalness and efficacy. On The Wild Side describes its products as a minimalist routine focused on essentials — cleanse, regenerate, hydrate — rather than a large catalogue, and frames simplicity and refinement as core values alongside biodiversity.

On The Wild Side is a patron of the French Association of Wild Plant Harvesters (AFC) and says it promotes responsible harvesting and the preservation of biodiversity. Its actives are described as coming from trees and plants in the Gironde forests and the Massif Central [9]. The company also frames simplified, essential product routines as a form of responsible consumption.

The brand carries several third-party certifications. Its own pages cite COSMOS Organic (certified through Ecocert), Vegan Society and B Corp; the B Corp mark is common to both of its engagement pages. On The Wild Side had stated it was targeting B Corp certification in 2022 [7] and now displays the certification, noting that it joined roughly 380 certified B Corp companies in France.

On The Wild Side is an active, growing French clean-beauty brand. From an online start it expanded to around 500 points of sale across about twelve European countries, including the department stores Le Printemps, Galeries Lafayette and La Samaritaine, the retailer Sephora and concept stores such as Merci [7]. Its most recent visible activity includes an autumn/winter 2025 collection listed at Printemps [11] and an active Instagram presence of roughly 104,000 followers, with a separate account aimed at the Japanese market indicating continued international expansion.