The Lemon Appeal: a new lifestyle platform celebrating artisans and 100% Amalfi lemons
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The Lemon Appeal is a new luxury lifestyle platform which aims to convey the history, wisdoms and artisanal stories of the ancient Amalfi lemon groves through its different categories: Skincare, ceramics, home and garden ware, and food and beverage. Mother and daughter founders, Anik and Sophie Michaud, lived in the region immersing themselves deeply with the people, culture and ‘heroic agriculture’ before launching. I caught up with them to hear the enchanting story, their passion to celebrate and continue the traditions of the Amalfi located artisans and developing their first ‘sleeping mask’ skincare product.
‘I’ve always had a love of lemons – even my 40th birthday party theme was lemons – but the seed of the idea to start The Lemon Appeal happened when I started travelling around Southern Italy immersing myself in the ‘masseria’ culture (‘farm to fork’),’ explains Anik, ‘I started talking with an Italian friend and thought maybe I should use this passion in a more structured way, so I moved to a small house right amongst the Amalfi lemon groves for a period of time, meeting agronomists to really understand about the lemon types and the IGP.’
I query what exactly a lemon IGP is and how many varieties there are?
‘They are the same thing you have in wines, I believe across Italy there are seven of them,’ Anik continues, ‘there is no other country that comes close for lemons, 18th Century German writer, Von Goethe, describes it as il paese dei Limoni (country of lemons).’ Whilst there are varieties in Sicily and other parts, the main Amalfi lemon IGP is the Sfusato Amalfitano, ‘watching the seasonality of the lemons and how they grow when we were living there full time was beautiful; the lemons all come out with different shapes and scars, they are wobbly, so that is how I wanted to form our ceramics in a local family run workshop – I call them perfect imperfections.’
So how do these Sfusato Amalfitano lemons differ from other regions? ‘The lemons in Amalfi are different for instance from the ones in Puglia. I am studying with a local university to see the biological differences but characteristically our Amalfi lemons are thicker in peel with juicier essential oils so there is more to extract.’ The female artisans and craftswomen who have been part of this ancient lemon growing ecosystem are an inherent part of The Lemon Appeal story, Anik enthuses, ‘it is actually a very difficult artisanal technique because the lemons are grown on terraces which are on a steep cliff so going up and down during harvest is labour intensive,’ she continues, ‘women were doing this for generations after the men had picked, pruned and planted lemons, going up and down the cliffs often carrying around 50 kilos of lemons on their necks and singing songs to keep momentum – now its done by donkeys!’
By immersing themselves so deeply in the culture, The Lemon Appeal is rooted in a circular system which aims to give back to the soil and eco-health of the region; the land is not easy to maintain as it is heroic agriculture ‘the viruses of the environment don’t die during the winter months so there are a lot of abandoned groves which are infected so it is difficult to not have your groves be affected too.’ Take a quick look at The Lemon Appeal website and you will come across an ensemble of characters who live and breathe the heritage and craftmanship of Amalfi: Mario, An Expert Lemon Grower as were his great-great grandparents, who warns that many of the Amalfi Coast’s lemon orchards might be gone in a decade if nothing is done, Mr Palma, President of Azienda Agricola who considers the lemon groves as ‘magic’ but has concerns that people are moving away from that line of work because the cliffs are too arduous and the work backbreaking and lowly paid, and hero paper maker, Amalfi (his name), who is still using centuries old local artisanship to create the sheets of pulp the viewers see dry hanging. So compelling are these artisan stories, a short form documentary about Mr Palma’s life and farm in collaboration with The Lemon Appeal won the 2026 Hermes sponsored Gold creative award.
Launching a skincare range around the incredible properties of the lemon juice was a natural fit – albeit much more challenging than it looks – and probably why lemon as a skincare ingredient is rare to come by. ‘The texture has to be right so it is not so thick it sticks to your skin surface or ends up on the pillow and the smell can’t be too tart – we had to take a step back when formulating the scent because traditionally it has been used in household cleaning so is too lemon-y,’ concedes Anik.
As someone who suffers from acute anxiety and disrupted sleep, I find most night creams too thick in texture and that essential oils supporting sleep come in the form of pillow sprays or aromatherapy oils. The Lemon Appeal ‘sleeping mask’ is an efficacious and sensuous blend of the two: the creamy texture seeps into the skin after a long day penetrating into the epidermis to regenerate cells overnight whilst the light but punchy Sfusato lemones sential oil and Zagara-inspired citrus fragrance works to slowly drift you into an easy but deepened sleep. Other ingredients include Vitamin C for skin brightening, niacinamide and ceramides for nourishing and strengthening skin barrier and to absorb the delicate citrus fragrance and hyaluronic with medium molecular weight. And other goodies like aloe, jojoba oil, shea butter. Sourcing ingredients sustainability and maintaining transparency of supply chain is inherent to The Lemon Appeal story – ‘we get the lemon water and essential oils direct from Mr Palma.’
Anik explains that the formulation process was made possible working with local expert chemist Ludovica of family founded La Beaute ‘it took a lot of playing around with testing and percentages around the essential oil to create the formulation.’ Next out will be The Lemon Appeal Day Cream which will be ‘more zingy’ in scent to give that morning lift and will include SPF. Afterwards they will formulate a zero waste scrub product utilising all the raw goodness of the lemon pips, leaves, membranes and so forth.
Touchingly I opened my Lemon Appeal product to a note from the founders written on Amalfi paper made from cotton and created by the local mill – the oldest Western mill still in existence dating back over 500 years. Infact, the prototype used by The Lemon Appeal for their new line of stationery and cards is the same one the mill uses to give their annual gift to the Pope – a homegrown Amalfi paper notebook.
Anik’s vision is to reach all parts of the world with the inimitable story of the Amalfi lemon groves and artisans, The Lemon Appeal will continue to expand with something for everyone from Lemon marmalade, pesto, olive oil, to furniture and more ceramics.
Bravo!