How much would you pay for perfect skin?
A new haute couture beauty routine is the latest in high-tech skincare.
When it comes to luxury, personalisation is the ultimate vice. From custom built homes to made-to-measure couture clothes, the ability to tailor your life to your personal specifications is an indulgence of the highest order.
And while there’s always been the option to tweak skincare and beauty treatments according to broad definitions of our skin types, a fully-personalised routine — coded to you down to its individual ingredients — is a rarity not often offered even by the most high-end of beauty companies.
Which is what makes Biologique Recherche’s Haute Couture treatment, offered exclusively through Melanie Grant’s Sydney boutique, so unique. A new offering in Australia, the treatment gives customers the opportunity to have their skin analysed and then have a skincare routine crafted around even the most minute of particulars.
“The beauty of the Haute Couture Programme is that it epitomises personal skin care,” Melanie Grant tells us, “This makes it perfect for every skin type, concern, and goal. It’s collaborative, adaptable and it constantly evolves with your unique complexion and its needs as you navigate different seasons of the year — and seasons of your life.”
But, like all of life’s many luxuries, it comes at a price. The full cost of such an experience — from analysis with an expert team, to the products’ formulation in Paris, to follow ups with one of the best clinicians in Australia — comes in at around $20,000 AUD.
In the (selfless, of course) interest of science and beauty, I road tested the offering and documented the results.
Initial evaluation
The road to my in-depth personalised skincare routine began, unsurprisingly, with a thorough evaluation. Held at Melanie Grant’s calming Double Bay space, the Biologique Recherche team conducted a series of tests, accompanied by a lengthy questionnaire.
From questions about your diet, exercise, living conditions and day-to-day stress levels, to scientific tests of your “skin’s hydration, sebum ratios, transepidermal water loss, elasticity, firmness and melanin ratio,” the evaluation left no stone unturned. And while it can feel exposing to have your skin scrutinised in such depth (the up-close photographs documenting every wrinkle and blemish in particular), the end goal of creating a dynamic and detailed profile of your skin will prove invaluable over time. As Grant notes, the team not only tests for your current skin condition, but can work to predict future concerns.
“One of the standout elements of this offering is the ability to take a truly preventative approach,” says Grant. “The level of sophistication in the assessment and diagnostic tools allow us not only to treat existing skin concerns, but to pre-empt the potential behaviour of the skin in the future.”
“One of my guiding lights in treating skin has always been that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The Haute Couture Programme takes this to the next level by identifying whether a person is more prone to things like glycation, pigment inconsistencies or rapid collagen breakdown, and then working backwards with high functioning formulas to delay their onset, and possibly avoid it altogether.”
Formulation
After such rigorous assessment, it feels a touch strange to enter into a pause afterwards. But once you receive your initial programme, the wait makes sense.
After your consultation, the information is then sent off to headquarters in Paris, where every inch of your skin and its associated concerns is analysed. The lab there then begins the formulation of products engineered to your skin specifications. Six weeks later, once completed, the programme is sent back to Australia, and you’re called in for your next consultation.
But don’t expect to get a stack of creams and a serum and be sent on your merry way. The level of specificity of the tests results in a routine that prioritises the details.
Gifted to you by the Melanie Grant team, you receive two things in your bag. One, a box filled with eight golden vials marked with your initials, filled with serums, and two creams (one for day and one for night); and two, a comprehensive document listing your skin analysis, detailed breakdowns of every product and an overview of your prospective treatment.
As expected, mine was shockingly detailed. While the minutiae of my skin wasn’t all that surprising (I’ve had it analysed before for facials and treatments), the skin prediction mechanism was as impressive as Grant suggested.
Not only did the run-down break down my skin concerns piece by piece, but also gave me a road map of where my skin was headed.
“Marionette lines will appear,” it dutifully told me. Not ‘may appear’. ‘Will appear’. Consider me convinced.
Unlike receiving a shiny new serum, slapping it on and hoping for the best, the sheet gives you exact descriptions of each and its function within the routine. “Serum N. 1 HPS1A006 (the morning),” it advertises, “The serum coded HPS1A006 tailored to intensely dehydrated or malnourished Skin Instant profiles. This serum contains a moisturising active ingredient which participates in the dynamism of the skin’s natural lipid-restoring system to better protect the epidermis.” Don’t have to tell me twice.
Treatment
For those not quite used to a rigorous skincare regime, the Biologique Recherche one may take some getting used to. While the act of applying five serums and a cream morning and night isn’t foreign to me (which may tell you something about my beauty indulgences), it may take some adjusting for some.
The serums themselves aren’t as intense as you might expect. Relatively watery and thin in texture, and mostly odourless, the serums are patted into the face and décolletage one after the other, while the cream is also light and patted in in small amounts.
For myself, remembering the order and the number in application took a week or so. While it may not be the case for some (such is the nature of personalised skincare), mine are applied numbers one through five in the morning, and three through seven in the evening, with the corresponding creams to match.
And while I don’t find the process overly complicated, running out the door when you’re late for work is a little harder with five little vials to handle.
From the initial use, follow-ups with the Melanie Grant and Biologique Recherche team begin.
“This is a long term collaboration and one that is managed personally by our team,” says Grant. “You’ll have standing appointments in Studio throughout the course of your programme to check in, gain feedback and continue to care for your skin and update your formulas. You’ll also have a direct line of access to your advising doctor at Biologique Recherche in Paris for any additional questions you might have along the way, and to ensure your personalised formulas are performing optimally as your skin evolves.”
Results
While I wouldn’t consider my skin to be overly fussy, it knows what it likes and what it doesn’t. And while the thinness of the serums and lightness of the creams led me to wonder whether the routine would be hard-hitting enough for me, I needn’t have worried: my skin loved it.
Even, hydrated and soft, my complexion after about a week and a half of use definitely saw improvement. Cross-checking with my diagnosis chart, the remarks that the Biologique Recherche team noted were all on their way to be addressed. The visible pores around my nose and forehead were smoothed, my occasional redness along my cheeks and eyebrows was evened out, and my skin felt soft and bouncy to the touch.
More importantly, my skin felt healthy and well-adjusted. There were no breakouts, no (so-called) detoxing, no redness. My complexion felt hydrated without being slick, and even without being washed out. Par for the course, of course.
“I’ve had clients with such a diverse range of concerns — from congestion to sensitivity, pigment and fine lines — all experience unparalleled results,” says Grant. “And really, I would expect nothing less; these are clinically active formulas that are blended by hand to target, care for and fulfil the specific needs of each unique complexion.”
“In terms of calibre and efficacy, there really is nothing else like it. To create a novel offering like this took years and an unbelievable amount of research and development. Which is why — after waiting for so long — we’re so thrilled to finally be able to offer it to our clients.”
Will you take the plunge?
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