The world's most luxurious skincare gets a makeover

For La Prairie, skincare has always been an exercise in reconfiguring time. Since it started producing skincare in 1978, the storied Swiss brand has sought to distill rejuvenation into a tangible product, making it possible to recreate the natural markers of vitality – smoothness, firmness, radiance – on the surface of the skin. It’s a feat that practically defies the natural aging process, which is why, for its Platinum Rare collection, the brand has looked as far as the cosmos for the secret to youthful skin.

The collection is inspired by what La Prairie calls ‘The Platinum Moment', or the point 3.5 billion years ago when platinum hurtled to earth in a meteor shower. The precious metal had been formed by the collision of two neutron stars in the far reaches of the universe, a place with a much stronger gravitational field than Earth. According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the stronger the gravity, the slower time itself proceeds. For La Prairie, platinum is a symbol of a different dimension of time or, in their words, ‘a place where time is suspended.'

This month, La Prairie has launched a reformulated version of its signature Platinum Rare range, the most high-end of its skincare offerings. The entire collection consists of six products – the new Platinum Rare Haute-Rejuvenation Cream and Eye Cream, a velvety-soft Elixir and Eye Elixir serum, as well as Night Elixir and Platinum Rare Cellular Life-Lotion.

The unparalleled ability of the Platinum Range to completely transform skin is the result of two signature formulations. The first, is their Exclusive Cellular Complex, the core ingredient of all La Prairie products and the legacy of the brand’s mastermind Dr. Paul Niehans.

La Prairie as it is known today began as Dr. Niehans' Clinique La Prairie, which opened in 1931 for a select group of clients looking to restore their health, as well as their appearance, in the famed Swiss chalet. Niehans was a pioneer of cellular therapy, believing that the administration of cells could strengthen the skin against external stresses and repair damaged tissues.

Dr. Niehans research into cellular therapy is the foundation of La Prairie's Exclusive Cellular Complex, a formulation so highly-protected that its components are produced in two separate labs and then blended in a third, so that no single scientist or chemist has access to the formula. 

Each of the La Prairie products blend the Cellular Complex with a precious material for a unique effect, from the revitalising gold in the Radiance Collection to the firming caviar in Skin Caviar. Yet the most luxurious is the brand’s Platinum Rare, which relies on an exclusive formulation known as the Platinum Multi-Peptide to activate collagen production, strengthen the skin barrier, and refine moisture balance.

It does this through a unique complex of peptides, the building blocks of proteins in the skin like collagen and elastin, which are bound to spherical platinum particles that trigger the skin’s rejuvenation process. 

In keeping with La Prairie's long-time patronage of the arts, visual artist Nobuhiro Nakanishi and composer Max Richter have produced a collaborative installation that reflects Platinum Rare’s ethos of ‘time suspended.’ Entitled ‘Echo of Time’, the installation features a ‘layer drawing’ by Nakanishi with sequential photographs of the Swiss Alps layered one on top of another.  

The work expresses the malleable nature of time, which is simultaneously fractured through individual images and elongated through their sequential presentation. In the words of Nakanishi, ‘when we look at the photographs in these sculptures, we attempt to fill in the gaps between the individual images. We draw from our physical experiences to fill in missing time and space, both ephemeral and vague. In this series, I attempt to depict time and space as sensations shared by both viewer and artist.’

Nakanishi's series is accompanied by Richter’s epic orchestral production that, in the composer’s words, was ‘inspired by the notion of eternity.'

‘I wanted to prolong the experience so that it remains with those who hear it.’ The piece was displayed at Shanghai’s West Bund Art & Design earlier this month and its exhibition at fairs next year is still to be confirmed.

INFORMATION

laprairie.com