About us

By granting tax exemption to the port of Marseille in 1669, the Edict of Colbert displaced the soap monopoly which had been held by the city of Toulon.

In 1688, ruling that Marseille soap was to be made "without any mixture of fats, under penalty of confiscation of the goods", his son, Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Seignelay, ensured the quality and reputation of Marseille soap factories.

But soap existed long before that date: probably 5000 years BC. Made of animal fats and ashes at that time, the populations of the Mediterranean basin like the Vikings and the Celts made soap in the 10th century.

Then the recipes evolved: hair ointment (gallic sapo) was transformed into a real soap with washing and foaming powers.

At the end of the 17th century, the formulation was more or less the same: sodium carbonates harvested on the shores of salt lakes (and later, soda made from plants, especially glasswort), alkalis or potash in northern Europe, are mixed with animal fats and then vegetable oils.

In 1791, Nicolas Leblanc, a French chemist, invented caustic soda from seawater salt. In his factory in Marseille, a revolution had just taken place!

The Master Soap Makers of Marseille – who have acquired a particular know-how by producing olive oil-based soap, as in Aleppo (Syria) or Gallipoli (Italy) – gradually improved their processes: thus, began modern “Marseille” saponification.

Unlike cold production, it is based essentially on the use of noble oils mixed with soda and cooked in a soap factory. This original 4-step process was codified by decree as early as 1812...and more recently in 2003. To meet consumer expectations, Provendi has developed liquid Marseille soap.