French sex toys go organic for eco-conscious consumers
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The French have long prided themselves on their sexual prowess, but a new breed of entrepeneur offering goods and services from ethically-sourced condoms to recycling services for worn out vibrators wants to take the eco-conscious to new heights of organic ecstasy.
When he launched the first 100 percent organic "erotic cosmetics" line two years ago, Frederic Donnat saw a gap in the market that was "more interesting than the usual organic beauty products".
The owner of French firm Divinextases has since seen sales triple to 450,000 euros (600,000 dollars) after refocusing his online business to "eco-erotic" products, earning him a quality label from France's national organic federation.
With eight products today, he hopes to introduce four new items next year and is seeking to start exporting to "mature markets" in Sweden and Norway, the 45-year-old told AFP.
From balms for buttocks left sore by a spanking session to intimate perfumes, all Donnat's products are made in France with sustainable materials from reputable sources. They use beeswax and shea butter rather than palm oil and all are wrapped in recyclable packaging.
"Take care in love" is the attitude at Laboratoires Claude, a manufacturer of organic pills to be used "as a one-off or as regular therapy, half-an-hour or an hour before" sex for heightened pleasure.
Still "the only player" on the domestic market -- whose pills are sold in pharmacies, organic stores and sex shops -- the brand wants to diversify into aphrodisiac-laced tea and sugar, and to develop its distribution network, company director Fleur Phelipeau told AFP.
For 2014, Phelipeau is projecting a 300 percent increase in sales thanks to customers who may be worried about the contents of offerings from more traditional competitors.
"Eighty percent of the products on the market contain Viagra, which can be dangerous for older men," she said, while reassuring potential buyers that only organic plants are used in Laboratoires Claude's capsules.
With supplies struggling to match this increase in demand, Phelipeau will have to use manufacturers outside France for the kind of plant extracts required, such as Peruvian maca, long used by men in the Andes to boost libido.
Other brands are drawing in eco-conscious consumers with initiatives to help forests.
British company French Letter sells carbon-neutral condoms made from natural latex produced in sustainably-run forests.
Meanwhile the promise of French website arbredesplaisirs.com (Forest of pleasure) to plant a tree in the Amazon rainforest for every sex toy purchased is the big attraction. That, and the recycling service for worn-out vibrators, of course.