Mircea’s body washes are a sacred antidote to TikTok’s ‘everything shower’

Mircea is a new personal care brand that launched just last month (April 2025) by Stéphane Chambran, a former L’Oreal Luxe director of twenty years. ‘I’ve spent decades in this industry,’ Chambran tells Wallpaper*, ‘and the big focus is always on makeup, skincare, and fragrance. But we bathe every day, and it’s the most essential ritual we have, and the oldest. Those other things are a lot more recent. So the ritual of washing really deserves some attention.’

Mircea is a new personal care brand putting the ritual back into bathing

Named for Mircea Eliade, author of The Sacred and The Profane (1957), the brand’s goal is to reconnect us with the traditions and ceremony of bathing, which until relatively recently in human history was an entirely outdoor affair, but since the advent of the sleek modern bathroom has become perfunctory and habitual. Mircea has hit the market with three body washes developed with the same attention to detail as the finest luxury fragrances. Inspired by different archetypal landscapes, each product brings a sacred connection to nature back into the everyday activity of washing.

Certainly, Chambran’s attitude towards the natural world is one of reciprocity, informed by his love of the ocean. ‘I swim every day, and surf anytime I have the opportunity. I think people who are very connected to the ocean have a sensitivity to plastic pollution that is more concrete than for most people. Being in the ocean puts you in a position of humility, too,’ he says.

Inevitably, this means Mircea has a no single-use plastic policy. But the real innovation is in the formula itself, which reaches customers in the form of soluble crystals which have to be activated by adding water. Not only is the production of the crystals lower-impact than it would be to pre-mix a liquid product, but by not transporting the water, which makes up about 85% of a typical body wash formula, Mircea is significantly reducing the environmental damage done by international shipping.

‘Bathing has always been, and always should be, about the body and the mind. Cleansing is about renewal. That’s why it’s important to me to use the best quality ingredients and to be thoughtful about it. It’s setting people up to have the best quality of day.’

Naturally, after two decades of growing the brands in L’Oreal’s extensive luxury portfolio, few people are better placed than Chambran to bring together the best of the best. These include frosted glass bottles inspired by Libyan glass, and 100% natural essential oils from Grasse, blended by prestigious perfume house Robertet. To launch, Mircea has started with an edit of just three signature perfumes: cyprus and eucalyptus, fig tree and peppermint, and cedar and rosemary, each one deeply rooted in a specific archetype of the natural world, of which Chambran speaks passionately.

‘I want every perfume to be a catalyst for imagining bathing in a specific place. The ideas we have of mountains or orchards or forests are universal, the atmospheres we associate with them transcend geographies, histories, and culture – the profound mysteries of the forest are the same in the English stories of the knights of the round table as they are in ancient Indian texts. Mountains are about purity, or being close to the Gods, whether it’s in Chinese philosophy or Greek mythology.’

To create the visual identity for Mircea, Chambran’s starting point was the phrase ‘bathed in light’. Subsequently, the imagery is infused with an evocative warmth that conjures up memories of golden hours spent rinsing the beach out of your hair. ‘It was important to me to work with a community with the same values and appreciation for the environment that I have,’ says Chambran, whose early-career was spent in graphic design and who, upon resigning his position at L’Oreal, returned to design school in Paris, in part to connect with a new generation of creatives.

With himself as creative director, Chambran tapped filmmaker Yentl Touboul, whose background is working with indie surf brands, and photographer Corentin Bertau to produce the brand imagery. ‘We shot everything on film, no digital, so that everything feels very intentional,’ says Chambran. Indeed, ‘intention’ is at the very heart of Mircea, a brand whose invitation to reverie is the antidote to the plasticised production line of the TikTok ‘everything shower’.

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