Thionville. Handmade products, made in Thionville or in France: this is the bet of the Entre olive et lin store, which has been located in the heart of this northern Moselle town for a year. Owner Anne-Karine Sauvage has set up her sewing workshop and even her soap-making lab at the back of her shop.
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Today at 06:00
Soaps, scarves, scrunchies, bracelets, toilet bags, antique furniture… All arranged in a room that looks like a boudoir. Anne-Karine Sauvage uses her nimble fingers to make almost everything she sells in the boutique in downtown Thionville, in northern Moselle. “I attach great importance to the material. I like to touch and feel beautiful materials. »
It’s been a year since this mother of three daughters, who graduated with a master’s degree in organic chemistry, started. “I always dreamed of having a store. For me, it’s important to get feedback from customers. They are the ones who inspire his creative ideas. Anne-Karine is betting on made-to-measure. His workshop has several sewing, embroidery and knitting machines. Its stock of wool, linen, silk, lace impresses. It favors French, artisanal suppliers. She also refurbishes old furniture that she likes to hunt for.
A pot made in Vosges
Soap is its flagship product. You shouldn’t trust the little window of his store, Entre olive et lin. At the back of the shop, a corridor leads to her sewing studio and then to a room transformed into a laboratory. Here, Anne-Karine Sauvage set up her soap factory.
The former chemist has a good foundation. She also trained at the European University of Flavors and Scents in Provence. Its soaps are organic. Here again, she tries to push her local and artisanal commitment to the maximum. “My pot comes from Val d’Ajol in the Vosges,” she smiles. The hemp, evening primrose and borage oils she uses are made in France. She uses indigo leaves grown in the South for coloring.
Her work is closely monitored: “There are a lot of protocols and health rules to respect”, specifies the trader. Each formula, each technical sheet is evaluated before being validated.
Anne-Karine Sauvage has set up a laboratory at the back of her store where she makes her soaps. Photo RL /Armand FLOHR
She mixes the ingredients in this pot, made in the Vosges. And she uses a blender, “like for a homemade soup”. Photo RL /Armand FLOHR
Economic choices
His commitment necessarily has a cost. But on the financial side, this 46-year-old jack-of-all-trades is confident after a first year of activity. “I’m doing fine. I sell well in the summer thanks to tourism and it exploded at Christmas. »
His office is located in the center of Thionville, but in a quiet street. “I chose this place because I pay less. If I had put myself on a busier street, I would not have been able to break even. »
Inflation does not scare him either. “I’m not going to raise my prices. Only the oil to make the soaps is likely to become more expensive. »
Tailor-made packaging
Anne-Karine Sauvage is curious by nature. “I like to learn what I don’t know, I like to push things further,” she slips mischievously. Especially as his manual skills allow him to. Beyond beautiful materials, delicate combinations, she also shows a particular interest in machines.
Her personal collection includes an industrial sewing machine mounted on an oil bath, knitting or embroidery machines, a 3D printer and even a machine to manufacture the cardboard boxes in which she sells her organic and perfumed soaps of 100 grams per unit. . “You just have to calibrate it, the machine cuts, marks the folding lines”, explains the entrepreneur, with a demonstration in support. It then remains to flank these custom-made boxes with its logo and to register the details of their content. 100% made in Thionville.
