Of course, L'Occitane en Provence is not the only successful natural beauty products brand on the high street. Others include international success The Body Shop, Estée Lauder's Origins, and Bath & Body Works. But L'Occitane does manage to stand out. It's French and proud of it, which could be key to its lasting success.

Emphasizing its rustic French roots through its name (literally “the woman from Provence in Provence”), simple packaging and Mediterranean products, the brand projects an appealing image of sunny, bucolic French countryside. Selling pots of face treatment cream at US$ 58, that image is obviously a winner.

"There is that added layer of the French feel to it, which brings a distinct point of difference from other natural beauty companies," says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail, a New York consultancy. "The brand is clearly formulated around a natural ingredient store but it's a little more sophisticated. Even though the products are not sophisticated in the same way as Chanel or Dior, they have that essence of the French culture."

With its simple look and packaging (hand cream in plain paint tubes, products displayed loosely in wicker baskets, dried lavender scattered about), L'Occitane takes full advantage of its Provençal background. But that's not only a clever marketing technique; the company's history is almost as idyllic as the image it tries to sell.

The French business, which today has 480 shops worldwide and made €173 million (US$ 215M) in sales last year, started off as a one-man outfit, created by Olivier Baussan, a young literature student at the time. In 1976, he bought an old-fashioned steam distiller and started making his own rosemary oil, selling it at street markets around Provence.

It was a great success, and the company slowly grew from there. Nearly 30 years on, the privately-owned business (apart from a very small share owned by France's Clarins) still manufactures the bulk of its products in the south of France. The factory is based in Manosque, the home of two revered Provençal authors, Jean Giono and Marcel Pagnol. Baussan is still creative director and president.

The company reached worldwide success in 1996, when now-company chairman Reinold Geiger, an Austrian businessman with a background in packaging, took over the reins. A few years previously, Baussan—more of a creative type than a manager—had sold most of his shares to French company Suez, and was no longer included in the company's development. Sales dropped. When Geiger took over, he asked Baussan back, and started investing abroad for the first time, eventually opening subsidiaries in the US, Hong Kong and the UK.

At the time of joining L’Occitane, Geiger had the bright idea of capitalizing on the success of best-selling book A year in Provence by Peter Mayle. Adding “Provence” to the brand's name, L'Occitane became, as it is known today, “L'Occitane en Provence.”

"At first, I wasn't sure about associating our name with Provence," said Geiger in an interview with the French press. "But studies showed that the name was very positive, and evoked beautiful things and odors in people's minds" (Nouvel Observateur, 26 August 2004).

The company owes its success to several other factors as well, says WSL’s Liebmann. "They've done a couple of things very smartly. The brand appeals to men and women, so it's not just a feminine concept. The other thing is that they have been smart with their locations, such as putting shops in airports. People there are in travel mindsets, and when they see the shop, they say 'there is a piece of France!' It sets L'Occitane apart as something that is from somewhere else."

As fits a natural beauty brand, L'Occitane also promotes ecological and social interests. Some of the brand's most popular products are made with ingredients bought from fair trade in Africa. It launched a line of soap sculptured in the shape of endangered species. Most of the packaging now includes Braille lettering for the blind.

So far, so good. But like any ambitious company chairman, Geiger wants to take it further. "We are only at the beginning," he writes in an e-mail interview. "We want to continue to develop the company."

But too much development could well be hazardous.

Today, L'Occitane en Provence banks on its special “French touch” to stand out and give it a feel of luxury and legitimacy that perhaps other natural beauty brands don't have—in the words of Geiger, “authenticity, sensuality, respect” are the differentiating concepts of the brand. If L'Occitane expands too quickly is there a danger it may lose its appeal?

"One of the things that's appealing about L'Occitane's is this yellow stucco villa popping up in a mall or street corner," said Liebmann. "But if it's everywhere, the point of difference is lost very quickly…. You are viewed as being too utilitarian, too every day."

For the moment, L'Occitane's beauty still catches the eye. Time will tell if she will age gracefully and retain her unique flavor.

Emilie Boyer King is a Paris-based freelance journalist with a background in anthropology. Specializing in French topics, she has contributed to Business Week, The Herald Tribune, The Scotsman, and Bloomberg News.