Health

Même, the cosmetics brand for women with cancer

2 May May 2018 1914 02 May 2018

The cosmetics brand dedicated to women who have cancer was born in Paris in 2015. Two young French entrepreneurs, Judith Levy and Juliette Couturier, have created it

  • ...
Meme Sette
  • ...

The cosmetics brand dedicated to women who have cancer was born in Paris in 2015. Two young French entrepreneurs, Judith Levy and Juliette Couturier, have created it

Judith Et Juliette Meme

Juliette Couturier and Judith Levy

Judith and Juliette, two young French entrepreneurs aged 24, have created a line of cosmetics for women suffering from cancer. It is called Même and it wants to restore patients’ confidence and help them fight the illness.

Why Même? Because sick women need to feel beautiful, to reconquer their femininity which is being tested very severely by the illness, and feel beautiful makes them also feel psychologically stronger and helps them cope with the tumour.

Both Judith Levy and Juliette Couturier have lived cancer from close inside their own families: the first lost her mother in 2010, the latter saw the majority of the women of her family, among whom her mother since 2015, suffering from the same illness.

As explains Judith Levy, speaking about her mother, on Même’s website: «I understood that (looking after herself and being beautiful) was her way to fight against the illness. Don’t look sick, keep her own image and self-esteem was her strategy to fight as long as possible against this “bad taste joke”. This persuaded me about something: reconquer one’s own femininity so compromised by anticancer treatments can really help to be psychologically stronger to better fight against the illness».

Reconquer one’s own femininity so compromised by anticancer treatments can really help to be psychologically stronger to better fight against the illness

Judith Levy

Find adapted cosmetics for women with cancer is not easy: Judith experiences this, when her mother is ill. Anticancer treatments can have secondary effects (like dryness of the skin, weakened nails and scalp..) that products available on the market cannot cope with in an adequate way.

This way the idea to create a line of cosmetics dedicated to women suffering from cancer is born.
It is during an internship at l’Oréal that Judith meets another young stagiaire, Juliette, and from their friendship the project Même is born, which sees the light of day in January 2015.

Même’s products don’t contain undesirable ingredients (like irritating substances, endocrine disruptors, allergens…) and essential oils, that tend to cause allergies. They contain ingredients of natural origin, organic calendula-based, Camelia japonica, mango butter, organic aloe vera, silicon…

Même includes a range of 7 products: an oil for the scalp, a cream for the face, a washing oil and a cream for the body, a product to take care of nails and finally gloves and bandages for hands and feet.

The products created by the two young entrepreneurs are tested by the women who suffer from cancer, who reflect and exchange information with Judith and Juliette. Même cosmetics are sold in pharmacies, parapharmacies, specialised shops and online, on the e-shop of the French brand.

Judith and Juliette can count on a vast scientific committee, made of specialists coming from prestigious institutes for the fight against cancer, like the European Hospital George Pompidou-Paris and the Centre Léon Bérard of Lyon, as explains an article published on Marie Claire France. All products are developed thanks to the help of doctors and experts (oncologists, healthcare assistants specialised in bio-aesthetic medicine, onco-dermatologists).

Inside the website there is the blog section, with numerous beauty and care advices (like: “favoring hair’s growth after cancer”, “taking care of the face’s skin during the treatments….), advices on how to live well with cancer (for instance: “art, a therapy to express oneself during the illness”, and “nutrition, a balance to find in daily life”) and an area with explanatory videos to use Même products.

Pictures: Même Facebook page

Related news