French skincare that’s ‘tres magnifique’

When it comes to skincare, the French don’t care what products Julie Delpy or Catherine Deneuve buy. Not as celebrity-oriented as Americans, French women rely more on the technology behind a product rather than on an endorsement by Juliette Binoche.

So when Mi-Ryung Kim Bellvert and Vivian Marton created their French company FMGI International, they enlisted Swiss lab experts to formulate the products for their two nascent luxury skincare brands, Botlux and Qiriness.

Despite the name, don’t think that Botlux has anything to do with Botox. The moniker is actually a contraction of beauté né de luxe, which means "beauty born from luxury."What’s surprising is that two Korean women created this French brand. Both are married to Frenchmen and are now based in Paris.Launched two years ago at Galeries Lafayette, Botlux is a tightly edited line of only six items: three primary-care products for cleansing and exfoliating, and three treatment products that combat all three aspects of aging (mechanical, biochemical and visible manifestations like age spots).

Using BXA, a hexapeptide that relaxes the muscular contractions that cause wrinkles, the Liss smoothing range consists of an Eye Contour Serum Pen – already a best seller in the Philippines thanks to its cunning packaging, which customers (especially men) love to use because it reminds them of a tool; the anti-wrinkle and whitening Face Serum – fondly called the "serum of love" by clients because of the radiant bloom it imparts; and the Face Cream – another best seller meant as an overnight treatment, rich with nutritive caviar and proteins to stimulate collagen and elastin production while you sleep.

The primary-care line, Reva, cleans and smoothes skin daily without stripping it. Reva’s active ingredient is a red-fruit and flower complex of blackcurrant, bilberry, raspberry, and hibiscus flower that resurfaces skin without irritation.

The three staples of the line are the Cleansing Milk, which feels as cool and velvety as a fruit yogurt when you massage it in; the alcohol-free Toning Lotion, which contains fragrant rosewater to soothe, control oil production and pore clogging; and Reva’s best seller, the Exfoliating Cream, one of the high-tech new exfoliators that sweep dead skin away chemically – with fruit acids and Keratoline – without the abrasiveness of grains that can nick skin. Deemed the Best Exfoliating Cream by Elle magazine, this product doesn’t even need to be washed off. After a minute, you buff it with your fingers and it flakes off, taking the dead skin with it and leaving your face matte and satiny-smooth.

In objective tests done on 4,000 women, where the depth of facial wrinkles was measured with instruments, Botlux had a success rate of 100 percent. After 30 days, wrinkles were reduced in depth and width by 27 percent, while fine lines were almost completely erased. For a new brand with not much of a heritage behind it, Botlux is proving wildly successful. Featured in top magazines like Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle, it’s currently the top-four skincare brand in European countries like the Czech Republic and Poland.

Bellvert credits their success to the fact that very few brands concentrate exclusively on the rapidly growing anti-aging market. Botlux is also a triple threat, addressing all three aspects of aging with active ingredients used in maximum and optimal doses. "The trend is the culture of youth," says Marton. "Women are on a perpetual search for the anti-aging solution."With Botlux, they just may have found it.

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Always on top of the beauty trends, Bellvert and Marton couldn’t help but notice that while both spas and facials became mega-phenomenons, there were few spa-quality facial lines that women could use at home. Hence Qiriness: natural, effective products with aromas that promote well-being. Qiriness is a sensory experience for the home, with its cool, creamy textures and fragrances. In the privacy of her boudoir, a woman can destress, give herself a leisurely facial whenever she feels like it (without having to book an appointment and schlep to a spa), and emerge visibly soothed, energized and glowing.

Like Botlux, Qiriness used high-tech Swiss cosmetology to formulate the common active ingredient, EOS (energizing, oxygenating, soothing), a complex that blends natural plant, herbal and marine extracts with mineral water from a Swiss source.

Qiriness’s line is a bit more extensive than Botlux’s, with 18 products color-coded into three phases: preparation (champagne), treatment (teal), and ritual (lilac). Standout products include the Sauna Visage, a modern twist on old-fashioned facial steaming. You drop an effervescent tablet into a bowl of hot water and it releases a wonderful, aromatic steam, much like treating your face to an herbal Finnish sauna. The Massage Face slows down cellular metabolism, tingling and detoxifying your skin, while Le Wrap, a green moisturizing balm, has the luscious texture of butter. Leave it on 15 minutes or overnight for a more intensive cure.

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Botlux and Qiriness are exclusively available at Marionnaud, on the 2nd floor of the Main Mall of SM Mall of Asia.