For over 20 years, Michel Design Works has been crafting high quality home fragrance, personal care, and kitchen textile products that bring joy, comfort, and beauty into everyday life. Our goal is to inspire happiness through our thoughtfully designed collections that celebrate the enduring beauty found in nature’s simple pleasures.
Our Story
It all started in 1995 when founder and designer Michel Smith began creating handmade soaps and candles as a hobby and selling them at local craft fairs near his home in California. As demand grew from those drawn to the clean, sophisticated scents and packaging, Michel expanded the product offerings to include hand soaps, lotions, and coordinating kitchen textiles.
In 2000, the company officially launched as Michel Design Works and started selling wholesale to gift shops and boutiques across the country. The product line continued to evolve over the years as Michel focused on building a family of beautiful coordinating home collections centered around different scent themes that capture the essence of the gardens, fruits, flowers, herbs, and trees thatspark joy and evoke cherished memories.
Today, Michel Design Works has grown into a leading lifestyle brand, but we’ve stayed true to our roots. All products are still made in Southern California using high quality ingredients. We work closely with our manufacturing partners to ensure responsible sourcing and production methods.
While Founder Michel Smith has retired, our dedicated team of designers carries on his legacy and commitment to creating collections that spread happiness through the thoughtful details that make a house feel like home.
Our Products
Michel Design Works offers a wide range of coordinating products for self care, home fragrance, and kitchen decor:
- Luxury soaps – Made with nourishing plant-based ingredients, our glycerin soap bars cleanse gently and leave skin soft. Available in a variety of signature scents inspired by nature.
- Foaming hand soaps – Gentle, sulfate-free blends of essential oils and botanical extracts that clean and refresh hands without drying. Coordinate with our bar soaps, candles, and linens.
- Body lotion – Rich, lightweight formulas that hydrate skin and envelop you in our signature scents. The perfect complement to our soaps and candles.
- Soy candles – Carefully crafted using natural soy wax and premium fragrances that fill your home with inviting ambience and transform any room into a personal oasis.
- Reed diffusers – Elegant hand-blown glass vessels filled with scent infused botanical oils to freshen indoor air and create a soothing environment.
- Linen sprays – Lightly scent and refresh bedding, clothing, and any fabric surface. Also makes a lovely room spray. Contains a clean blend of essential oils and plant essences.
- Kitchen towels & textiles – Charming prints and sophisticated solids to accessorize your kitchen. Available in 100% cotton and linen/cotton blends. Coordinates with our home fragrance collections.
Every Michel Design Works collection thoughtfully combines fragrance, color, and design to craft products that feel special and capture the essence of simple luxuries.
Our Design Philosophy
Our aim is to create collections that feel like an escape from the everyday. Michel Design Works designs are inspired by the nostalgic beauty of cottage gardens, lazy days at the beach, cozy country homes, and the simple joys found in nature’s abundance.
Some key elements of our design philosophy:
- Natural motifs – Featuring illustrations of flowers, fruits, butterflies, leaves, trees, and other elements from nature. We believe that incorporating organic shapes and patterns enhances wellbeing.
- Soothing color palettes – Light and airy colorways like soothing neutrals, pale blue and green, and feminine blush and lavender shades. Our palette elicits a sense of tranquility.
- Thoughtful coordination – Collections are designed to work seamlessly together through coordinating patterns, prints, textures, and color stories. Mixing and matching products creates a harmonious environment.
- High quality materials – We use indulgent fabrics like 100% cotton, linen, hemp, and soft microfiber. Our goal is for products to look and feel special.
- Elegant, minimalist design – Modern styling with timeless appeal. Products have a clean, uncluttered aesthetic that avoids feeling overly fussy.
- Delightful details – Charming accents like ruffles, pom poms, tassels, and beautiful packaging make our products feel like gifts.
Our hope is that when you look around your home and see our products – a scented candle, a set of soft towels, a bubbly hand soap – they bring you joy and make life’s everyday moments just a little bit sweeter.
Our Signature Scents
We take great pride in our signature scents developed specially for Michel Design Works. Our fragrances are crafted with care using premium essential oils, botanical extracts, and aroma qualities.
Some of our most popular fragrance collections include:
- Beach – Radiant marine notes of fresh sea spray and palm fronds whisk you away to sun-drenched shores.
- Bunny Toile – Whimsical springtime notes of honeysuckle blossoms, apple, and freesia.
- Cedar Rose – Natural aromas of cedarwood, musk, and Damask rose center and soothe the spirit.
- Eucalyptus & Mint – Exhilarating scent of eucalyptus and spearmint energizes and awakens the senses.
- Gardenia – An intoxicating floral featuring lush gardenia blended with green botanical accords.
- Honey & Clover – Naturally sweet aroma of spring honeycomb, bergamot, and plum blossom.
- Lavender Rosemary – Herbaceous blend of French lavender and rosemary essential oils promotes relaxation.
- Lemon Basil – Uplifting citrus scent mingling zesty lemon peel, verbena, and green basil.
- Magnolia – Delicate notes of dewy magnolia flowers with hints of peach, lychee and lily of the valley.
- Ocean Tide – Aquatic aromas of sea spray, marine kelp and water blossoms.
- Palm Breeze – Tropical blend of coconut water, starfruit, palm leaf, and vanilla orchid.
- Rosemary Margarita – Zesty lime and bergamot blended with fresh rosemary.
- Sweet Floral Melody – Vibrant rich floral featuring peony, magnolia and osmanthus.
We work closely with our fragrance development partners to ensure that all formulas meet our strict standards for freshness, quality, and sophistication.
Our Commitment to Quality
At Michel Design Works, exceptional creativity meets uncompromising quality. Our goal with every product is to pair inspired design with conscientious craftsmanship and ingredients.
Here is how we uphold our commitment to quality:
- Rigorous design process – Our talented designers brainstorm evocative concepts then refine and perfect each collection.
- Thoughtful materials selection – We source high quality natural fabrics, soy wax, botanical oils, plant-based soaps, and other premium base ingredients.
- Careful fragrance development – Our fragrances contain essential oils and are specially formulated for optimal freshness and performance.
- Trusted manufacturing partners – We work closely with our U.S. based manufacturers to ensure responsible production methods.
- Extensive product testing – From fragrances to packaging, all products go through a comprehensive evaluation process before launch.
- Commitment to sustainability – We aim to reduce waste, utilize eco-friendly materials, and partner with ethical suppliers.
- Supporting artisans – Some collections feature handcrafted elements made by skilled artisans.
- Delightful packaging – Part of the Michel Design Works luxury experience includes our giftable packaging.
- 100% satisfaction guarantee – We stand behind every product and guarantee your complete satisfaction.
By obsessing over every detail from design concept to product fulfillment, our goal is to create little luxuries that help spread joy, creativity, and beauty.
Our Values
Michel Design Works was founded on principles of quality, creativity, care, and community. These core values continue to drive our work and culture today:
- Originality – We celebrate imagination, innovation, and finding inspiration in life’s simple pleasures. Our products are thoughtfully designed to spark joy.
- Beauty – Beauty transforms and uplifts. We’re committed to making products that create an environment rich with beauty.
- Nurture – All our products are crafted to provide comfort, inspiration, and gentle care for yourself and your home.
- Harmony – Cohesive design creates harmony between scent, texture, and aesthetics. Our collections promote harmonious living.
- Positivity – We seek to spread positivity through our cheerful prints and uplifting fragrances.
- Mindfulness – Simple rituals like lighting a candle or using a favorite hand soap can be small mindful moments.
- Gratitude – Michel Design Works was built on gratitude for loyal customers who resonate with our purpose and vision. We are sincerely grateful for your support.
- Community – Fostering community enriches lives. We hope to build a sense of community with our retailers, partners, customers, and team.
Everything we do is to thoughtfully craft delightful products that add artistry, elegance, and positivity to your everyday life. We consider it a privilege to be invited into your home and hope our products provide beauty, comfort, and inspiration.
We invite you to browse our collections and find the scents, styles, and products that speak to you. Thank you for being part of our community. Please reach out anytime – we’d love to hear from you!