Our Story as You’ve Never Read It Before
Our co-founder Nabila recently opened up in an intimate and moving interview for Le Petit Journal Dubai. She took the opportunity to share the meaningful and deeply personal story that led her to create L’ODAÏTÈS alongside her two sisters. We invite you to read the full interview below.
Nabila Chemillier: L’ODAÏTÈS, Cosmetics Born from Heritage
Born from a family legacy, L’ODAÏTÈS is a brand that goes far beyond skincare. It is a celebration of nature, transmission and sensorial pleasure. Its products, 100% natural, draw their strength from precious ingredients and ancestral know-how, respecting the integrity of the skin while delivering remarkable efficacy. Each treatment is designed to deeply nourish the skin, restore its natural radiance and provide lasting well-being. L’ODAÏTÈS embodies authentic beauty — rooted in history and in a love for exceptional raw materials.
L’ODAÏTÈS is not just another cosmetic brand. It is a story of transmission, heritage, care and indulgence — a story where beauty is not measured in wrinkles or pixels, but in softness, radiance and shared pleasure. While many brands seek a "storytelling" crafted to give meaning and roots, L’ODAÏTÈS is quite the opposite: it is a beautiful skincare brand born organically from a deeply touching and meaningful story. A story of roots and uniqueness shared by three sisters and a magical grandmother — one that no marketing expert could have invented.
Le Petit Journal (LPJ): Where does this beautiful and very distinctive name come from?
Nabila Chemillier (NC): At the very beginning of the adventure, we were advised to name the brand after me, but it didn’t resonate at all. While searching for ideas, I began flipping through a book listing ancient gods from Antiquity and the Mediterranean basin — Greek, Roman, Phoenician. I came across Daïtès, the god of feasts, and it immediately spoke to me.
I also didn’t want the brand to be labeled as "Tunisian" or "Mediterranean". I simply wanted it to reflect our connection to our grandmother and her savoir-faire. Our products are made from fruits and flowers from that region, we grew up in Tunisia, but I wanted something that transcended geography — something that conveyed a love for beautiful raw materials, sensorial pleasure, joy, abundance and the epicurean dimension of our skincare. Daïtès embodied all of that perfectly, with the added echo of the word date, one of our key ingredients. We simply added the Ô, like an invocation.
LPJ: Who passed on this love for fine ingredients and self-care?
NC: My grandmother. She became a widow relatively young and lived with us. Our parents both worked, so she raised my two sisters and me. On my mother’s side, there was a strong tradition of apothecary-style remedies. Everything was treated within the family, close to nature and the seasons. We harvested rose geranium, orange blossoms at dawn before they opened…
Every Saturday was hammam day — she would wash us, massage us, care for us. In the kitchen, she taught us how to make macerates, balms and essential oils. Passing on this knowledge and her passion for beautiful raw materials was deeply important to her — even if it meant pulling us out of bed at dawn to catch the orange blossom in bloom.
LPJ: When did you know you wanted to create a cosmetic line inspired by this tradition?
NC: When we decided to launch, it was thanks to the perfect convergence of our sisterhood, our three life paths and the right timing. My eldest sister is a pharmacist and founded her laboratory right away — it had always been her dream. My other sister is a chemist; it was her passion. So even long before this project, they had already "fallen into the cauldron".
As for me, I chose at that time to pursue an Executive MBA in marketing at Sup de Co Paris, and my thesis focused precisely on our brand’s identity and positioning.
Unlike my sisters, I had always leaned toward mathematics and finance. I should have gone to preparatory school, but being born with a heart condition held my parents back. I went on to study finance and statistics, then worked in actuarial modeling for a major insurance company. The pressure caught up with me: I had to undergo a second open-heart surgery while more than five months pregnant. We both survived — my child and I — and I understood the magnitude of this second chance. I left everything behind, exhausted, without a plan.
A few months later, our grandmother passed away. My sisters and I realized that she lived on through us — in textures, memories, scents, her touch, all that sensoriality. It was our emotional anchor. And we decided it was time to honor all of it.
LPJ: What are the core pillars of the brand today? How do you transmit this intangible heritage?
NC: It starts with a conviction — now supported by neurocosmetic studies: our skin listens, feels, perceives. There are deep connections between the skin and the brain, and by reconciling with our bodies — even when they challenge us — we rediscover calm and balance.
It is also about passing on respect for craftsmanship and love for exceptional ingredients. We use noble extraction processes because they preserve the full biological richness of active substances and allow the skin to assimilate them more effectively. The active remains, in a way, a "living material", delivering exceptional efficacy.
Heritage also means a love for desert plants, which have an incredible ability to capture and retain water, defend themselves and repair oxidative damage from the sun. We are pioneers in the full use of the date — a powerful yet under-recognized active. We use cold-pressed fruit pulp, virgin oil from the pit, and finely ground pit powder. Our facial cleansing powder even avoids transporting water — which represents nearly 80% of traditional cleansers.
Finally, orange blossom — more precisely bitter orange blossom — is our "madeleine de Proust". Our grandmother used to scent our baby bottles with it. It is an ephemeral flower we distilled together to extract precious Neroli oil. Did you know it takes one ton of bitter orange blossoms to produce one liter of essential oil, sold for €5,000 per liter?
LPJ: Now based in Dubai, what are your aspirations for the future?
NC: We want to expand the distribution of L’ODAÏTÈS while remaining faithful to its identity. I’m delighted to grow here — it’s an opportunity we had to seize. I’m supported by a close-knit, flexible team. I love meeting Emirati women, discovering their beauty rituals and being part of a country in constant evolution, especially in beauty and wellness.
With L’ODAÏTÈS, I bring a dual culture: Mediterranean roots combined with strong French sophistication. It’s the alliance of Cartesian rigor and the sensuality of our childhood — an alchemy that resonates with our identity as "apothecaries of the senses".
LPJ: What message do you want to share with women?
NC: To savor everyday moments of caring for oneself and one’s skin through treatments that combine deep sensoriality with high efficacy. A beautiful face is not measured by the number of wrinkles or perfection of features, but by the light it radiates. I will never forget our grandmother’s radiant face — wrinkled and magnificent.
Our motto is truly the best of the substance without sacrificing pleasure. The pleasure of the gesture, the scent, the texture — it is the pleasure of self-care that makes us beautiful.
Editor’s Picks
These products have become our essentials. We begin with "Pleine Lune", the 100% natural cleansing powder that transforms into a delicate milky foam upon contact with water. It cleanses, removes makeup and hydrates in a single step. We follow with the multi-action Aloe Vera lotion, soothing and purifying, delicately scented with orange blossom. For plumped, revitalized skin, "Élixir Bonheur", a replenishing serum with proven anti-aging efficacy, is a must. To seal the ritual, we love "Ange Sensationnel" Intense Cream, a blend of date sap, prickly pear seed oil and hyaluronic acid, delivering visible radiance and suppleness from the very first application. A beauty quartet we can no longer live without.
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