Tucked away in South West England, bordered by the Bristol Channel and the cathedral city of Gloucestershire, sits the small and idyllic rural county of Somerset—the headquarters of Commune, and the home of its founders, husband and wife duo Rémi Paringaux and Kate Neal. Commune is a premium personal care brand that offers an array of luxury goods including hand and body washes, creams, bath salts, solid perfume, and shampoo and conditioner. 

On each of its bottles is the tagline “Nature is our reprieve.” More than that, the couple sees nature as a responsibility and a constant source of inspiration. It is this reverence for the natural world that sets Commune apart from other luxury self-care and wellness brands. Paringaux and Neal, who each had illustrious careers in fashion, left the industry in hopes of creating a truly sustainable brand.

“I think fundamentally fashion and the fashion calendar cannot be sustainable,” says Paringaux. “This idea of reinvention—first it was every six months, now it’s every three months—makes it honestly quite impossible to be truly sustainable.”

Prior to Commune’s launch in 2022, Paringaux, who was born in Tokyo and raised in Paris, served as brand creative director for the premium athletic apparel company Lululemon. Before that, he was the brand image director at Gucci.

Neal spent nine years as the global sales and merchandising director for Edun Apparel, the now-shuttered, LVMH-owned luxury brand co-founded by Bono, before switching to fashion consulting. After a few years in Vancouver, which Neal describes as a “planet-positive place that is very mindful of the environment,” the pair moved to the U.K. and began the work of creating a business together.

The name Commune, just like its products and design, is heavily inspired by Somerset and its surrounding landscape. “It’s kind of on a hill. [There’s] probably 30 houses,” Neal explains. “[During Covid], people were going on walks together and cooking for the village. There’s a real sense of community. That brought on the name,” she says. The brand’s signature scent, Seymour, was similarly named after the nearby village of Bratton Seymour.

The fragrance is layered and hearty. It has top notes of grapefruit and lemongrass, heart notes of sage, geranium, and lavender, and base notes of wood and cypress. Neal had previously trained in San Francisco with Mandy Aftel, who the New York Times once described as “the world’s most dedicated all-natural perfumer,” and used the knowledge she gained to craft Seymour using plant-based formulations.

“We [wanted it to smell like] walking through a damp field after an April shower where you’ve got that kind of earthy smell coming through,” Neal says. “With the sun kind of shining and, you know, just feeling that freshness. When you feel really grounded. That’s what we wanted to convey.” When she’s finished explaining, Neal apologizes for digressing. But that “digression” is Commune’s X factor. Everything Paringaux and Neal do is meticulously crafted and considered. 

Take the bottles as another example. They are created with aluminum, rather than glass or plastic, because it is lightweight (which lowers emissions during transportation) and can be fully recycled. The pumps were custom designed using steel and are infinitely reusable. The top of the pump is a Gothic letter O shape (the duo calls it an Eclipse), which is also used in the logo, in the carrying case for the solid perfume, as a pin that they gift with purchases, and as the design on the newly released collection of candles.

“For me, that’s good design,” Paringaux says. “Going back to the basics and actually birthing something new. Something more interesting that we would not have thought about before.” Yet for all the care and attention Paringaux and Neal place on small details, it’s all in service of a greater mission. “You know, we live in the countryside, we live in Somerset,” Paringaux says. “Every day we wake up and we’re in the countryside. We take the kids to school and cross the countryside. We’re surrounded in nature. We really notice it a lot. [We want to] safeguard the environment as best we can.”