Above: Chef Carla Hall discussing her favourite “liquid” recipes.
With age comes wisdom … as well as moments of nostalgia. In unwrapping the two inaugural products of the Caire Beauty collection (Caire Triple Lift Molecule Mask and Caire Theorem Serum Boost), founders Lorrie King and Celeste Lee, along with noted chef Carla Hall, fondly recalled their college days, first travels across Asia and youthful dreams. However, they all agreed they were in the exact place where they needed to be in life.
Of course, like stamps in a passport, they acknowledged that they also had the marks of every place they visited to get there in the forms of wrinkles, age spots and other annoyances. They also pointed out during the virtual product launch and cocktail party, completed with Hall’s refreshing lemon, ginger and collagen mocktail, that even the best prepared among us managed to forget about taking certain precautions on our personal journeys. (In my case, covering the face, but neglecting the neck and cleavage area).
While the discussion of age, ageing, ageism and the media’s obsession with youth touches a certain nerve in every woman, the Caire founders, Hall and other special guests, such as Claire Gill of National Menopause Foundation, stressed the way we collectively and individually address this reality can make all the difference. We can’t turn the clock back, but why would we want to if we can be proactive and age with pride moving forward, and not lose sight of the wonderful things we’ve learned and experienced that makes life richer?
Or, as Gill pointed out, ‘We can change how we talk about menopause and what we call it. The medical terminology is not how we have to define it. We can change that, and I love hearing that women want that!’ In response to a comment I made in the event chat room about influencer culture making a once non-age oriented industry (journalism) more ageist, she replied, ‘Totally agree about the influencer culture. We need more women influencers over 40 talking about positive ageing rather than anti-ageing.’ To which, Lee added, ‘At Caire, we like to say age-mpowering.’
As the name suggests, Defiance Science is Caire’s own Ph.D.-developed science that addresses the specific signs of skin ageing that are caused by hormone decline and menopause, such as facial sags and under-eye bags, loss of firmness and structure in the face and neck—while providing the users knowledge of why these changes are happening and suggesting they can do something about it.
‘We really wanted to understand why our skin suddenly changed in our 40s and early 50s,’ says Lee, who started her career in beauty with Givaudan, the world’s largest maker of flavours and, later, established her own boutique consultancy, working with numerous top-tier brands and portfolios including Pernod Ricard, Kopari, Coty, Colorescience and Avon. ‘Even though we all worked in beauty over 20 years, we discovered a dirty secret: nobody wanted to discuss the impact of changing hormones on ageing, either because leading brands either didn’t know how or simply didn’t want to solve it.’
Beyond the conversation of what ‘self-care’ actually means to women over 40 (and those who haven’t hit it yet), the creators of the line explained that their first goal was to develop ‘formulations [that] take a revolutionary hormone defying approach’ to occupational hazards regarding ageing, such as sags, bags and skin volume. The science behind them involved infusing skin with molecules and triggering skin to turn on “latent” molecules.
While use of hyaluronic acid has proliferated in products from the affordable pharmacy varieties to high-end boutique and spa lines, and is also in Caire’s product DNA, the experts agreed that success in bringing about a more youthful appearance relates to the right combination of skin care, proper diet and a more positive outlook on ageing.
One major takeaway was that good products, like the person using them, multi-task as they work as make-up primer as well as a moisturizer, toning agent and topical vitamin supplement. While it is estimated that 99 per cent of anti-ageing skin care only treats the hydration on the skin’s surface, the research that went into Caire involved examining and treating what goes on beneath where skin cells actually start. The products’ vegan, clean and cruelty-free formulas reinforce skin structure up from the inside out to impart a smoother, suppler, and more resilient skin. However, the formula is safe for usage around the eye, nasolabial and neck areas, and deliver nutritive and skin-building benefits for up to an hour after application.
‘It was super-important to me to ensure that Caire science be both clean and clinically sound,’ affirmed King, who started her career in beauty and CPG at Unilever, spearheading the iconic Elizabeth Taylor and Chloé franchises. Later she was CMO on the US launch team of Boots in the US, global marketing lead for Halle Berry and Céline Dion and other fragrance brands at Coty. She adds, ‘There are dozens of skin care companies in the world. And yet women over 40 and 50, which is the single largest group of women in the country, are not offered sophisticated solutions created specifically for them. It’s fundamentally disrespectful to women that teen acne is the only hormone problem that gets studied.’
Caire Therom Serum Boost is available in the following sizes: 1 oz for US$56, 0·5 oz for US$34, and a Mini Sampler Trio of 0·1 oz droppers for US$32. Caire Triple Lift Molecule Mask is available in the following sizes: 1 oz for US$52 and 0·4 oz for US$12. The Caire Defiance Science Duo (1 oz serum and 1 oz mask) is available for US$100. Caire Beauty is exclusively available at cairebeauty.com.
New Zealand label Ketz-ke, featured in Lucire KSA’s September 2020 issue, has, like numerous other fashion labels, created designer masks. Masks—
