Auroville, South India · Est. 1976
Every scenttells a story
Maroma crafts sustainable, ethical, high-quality fragrance, home, and body care from our home in Auroville. Every product carries a journey worth celebrating.
Our story
Born from a vision of creativity with purpose
Maroma began as a small incense workshop inspired by the beauty and quiet of the land around us. Over the years we grew into a globally recognised maison, still faithful to Fair Trade, sustainability, and community.
From those early handmade sticks to vegan, eco-conscious care today, each formula holds decades of craft, ethical sourcing, and a wish for sustainable living.
What we make is more than fragrance or skincare. It is an extension of Auroville's vision: to uplift, to inspire, and to leave the world a little better.
The founders
Vision, chemistry, and a gift for connection
Paul Pinthon
Chemist and craftsman
In 1976, Paul, a chemist by training, joined Auroville's ideals of unity and sustainability to his science. He began with natural incense that was both beautiful and kind to the earth.
Laura Reddy
Voice, design, and reach
In the early 1980s Laura arrived with a talent for communication and a designer's eye. She helped carry Maroma from a small workshop to a brand known around the world.
Together they pictured Maroma as more than a business: a way to empower artisans, fund Auroville, and invite a more sustainable way of living.
Mission & vision
Quality, integrity, and the Auroville Charter
Mission
We keep a creative commitment to a unique range of fragrance-based home and body care, choosing the highest quality natural ingredients and upholding earth-friendly Fair Trade practice as a matter of course.
Vision
As set out in the Auroville Charter, we work with social integrity and environmental responsibility. The profit we generate benefits the whole Auroville community, and the villages around it.
Fair Trade
People before machines
That has been Maroma's motto from the beginning. We are members of the World Fair Trade Organization and Fair Trade Forum India — a partnership of dialogue, transparency, and respect.
- 01
Opportunity for producers
Most of our team are women from neighbouring villages, in a region with few other paths to independent work.
- 02
Transparency
Maroma is held by a Trust, not private owners. Accounts are audited. Employees receive salary slips. Annual reports are public.
- 03
Fair trading
Long relationships with workers, suppliers, and clients, plus committees for welfare and a safe workplace.
- 04
Fair payment
Suppliers are paid above the local rate. Employees receive at least Tamil Nadu minimum wages, ESIC, provident fund, insurance, leave, and yearly increments.
- 05
No child or forced labour
Everyone who works with us is over 18.
- 06
Equity and respect
Pay follows skill, not gender. Talent is welcome regardless of religion, nationality, or politics.
- 07
Good working conditions
Fire and first-aid training, sanitation, meals, filtered water, and the Auroville health centre a short walk away.
- 08
Capacity building
People move across roles. Gardeners have become supervisors. Typists have become managers of export and sourcing.
- 09
Promoting Fair Trade
Yearly awareness training for staff and local suppliers, and the same story told in our shops and catalogues.
- 10
Respect for the environment
Recycling, reused wax and perfume, soak-pit water, solar lighting, cruelty-free formulas, and mostly vegan recipes.
Community
A part of Auroville, and of the villages around it
Auroville
Maroma is Auroville's largest employer and a major contributor to its development. Abroad, the brand carries Auroville's values into the world.
Neighbouring villages
In Kuilapalayam we have helped improve local infrastructure, living conditions, and access to school — supporting the advancement of women's education in the region.
A wider India
Maroma has given financial and practical aid in two national moments of need: the Kargil War in 1999, and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
