Nourish your skin with Chantecaille’s Gold Collection
Welcome to Chantecaille’s most innovative product yet: the Gold Recovery Intense Concentrate, a month-long program of botanical serum that seeks to transform your skin
For a long time, the beauty industry worked hard to tell us that if the passage of time was evident on our bodies or our skin, it was a sign that we had let ourselves fall apart, that we must nip and tuck and hide our true selves in order to be truly beautiful.
Thankfully, such messaging is becoming increasingly unfashionable, making room for brands and customers that embrace growing older, whatever age we are and whatever life throws our way. For family-run French cosmetic company Chantecaille, this means celebrating all generations and tailoring our skincare to our age and lifestyles.
Chantecaille’s Gold Collection focuses on energising the skin. Made with real 24K gold as well as a gold heptapeptide (a new ingredient that the brand believes is most powerful gold ingredient yet), stem cells and botanicals, the range concentrates on repairing, soothing, and calming to enhance the skin and seeks to reduce the impact of sun damage and extreme dryness.
Intelligent serums
This fall, Chantecaille adds the Gold Recovery Intense Concentrate A.M/P.M. ($620) to their collection. The concentrate is a month-long day / night program of botanical serum that aims to target dullness and hyperpigmentation and return firmness and elasticity to the skin.
The A.M/P.M serums are made with supercharged ingredients including the new gold heptapeptide. The ingredient is a combination of gold and peptides that works by boosting the skin’s own collagen, to soften the appearance of wrinkles; light activated enzymes, to improve skin’s radiance; and revitalizing microalga to increase the skin’s moisture for glowing, radiant looking skin.
With the AM formula designed to work most efficiently in daylight and the PM serum’s ingredients designed to perform best when cells are renewing overnight, founder Sylvie Chantecaille describes the serum as intelligent – formulated with ingredients that change the skin based on the time of day you apply them. She calls it “the Rolls Royce of skincare”.
Sylvie has long believed in the healing power of gold, citing Chinese medicine’s belief in the power of the mineral to treat physical and emotional signs of trauma and stress. Gold’s properties, which Sylvie cites as being “antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and circulation-boosting” are believed to regenerate the skin and stimulate cell metabolism and collagen production.
In with the energizing, out with puffiness
Sylvie’s daughter, Chantecaille’s Creative Director Olivia Chantecaille, sees ageing as liberation. “I have found that with age comes a new level of calm, vision, and understanding. I believe that the older you get the more comfortable you are in your own skin.” Her biggest advice when it comes to skincare is: “Don’t be afraid of aging — fear can lead you down the wrong path when it comes to taking care of your skin.”
Stress, says Olivia, is the biggest problem facing our skin today. “Stressed skin creates free radicals that damage your skin cells,” she says. Which is why gold is such an appealing ingredient. “Gold is very powerful for soothing and de-stressing”.
Olivia swears by the Nano Gold Energizing Eye Serum($210), made with plant stem cell extracts to reduce the appearance of lines and fatigue under the eyes and a blend of botanicals and peptides that softens the appearance of dark circles. “The powerful botanicals in the Nano Gold Energising Serum target lines and puffiness, while the rollerball massages and encourages any retained fluid to flow away from the under-eye area,” she says.
Infused with antioxidant 24K gold that soothes, an anti-puffiness complex that works to improve lymphatic circulation, and Matrixyl 3000 Tripeptide designed to tone and reduce wrinkles, the eye serum is also a daily must for Sylvie. “The cooling glass rollerball feels amazing to apply and instantly, my tired eyes appear more youthful and awake, and dark circles, fine lines, and puffiness disappear,” she says.
Alex Chantecaille, Sylvies daughter and the brand’s Vice President of Sales and Promotions explains that the serum’s lab-grown plant stem cells “draw on plants’ natural resilience and anti-aging properties while serving as a pure source of ingredients that aren’t tainted by pesticides”. What’s more, they’re a more sustainable option, because they don’t require much soil or water to grow.
Wake up refreshed
Alex also swears by the collection’s Gold Recovery Mask($275) that she describes as having a “consistency like freshly whipped butter that feels delicious on red, irritated, post-sun or post-wind face.”
The rich, multi-tasking product is infused with blackcurrant seed oil to reduce redness, 24k gold and silk extracts for antioxidants and probiotics and peptides for toning and firming. The mask has become a cult classic, with many customers using it as their go-to night cream. It works by targeting both horizontal and vertical ageing on the face.
Sylvie says that probiotics in the mask stimulate cell turnover, and a combination of peptides provide a more toned, firmed, and glowing complexion. Meanwhile, blackcurrant seed oil calms redness and strengthens the skin barrier.
Alex loves it so much she sleeps in it every night – “24 karat gold is one of the most powerful, antioxidant, and soothing skin healers and helps to remove stress, irritation, and redness from your skin. This ensures I wake up looking glowy, dewy, and fresh. Upon waking my face feels firm and looks balanced and a touch golden & radiant,” says Alex. “I really recommend this to everyone—especially my closest girlfriends”.
Of course, while women are the ones who most often feel the pressure to remain young, ageing isn’t a female-only experience. Sylvie’s youngest child and only son and Director of Photography & Media at Chantecaille, Philippe Chantecaille says his go-to product when he is seeking extra hydration is the Nano Gold Energizing Face Cream ($420). “It’s definitely luxurious and really moisturizing, but I also find it helps with darkness from hyperpigmentation. It evens out my skin tone and my skin just looks and feels so much healthier when I use it everyday,” he says
Words to live by
Philippe grew up around product samples and ingredient testing as the brand launched when he was in high school. As a result, he has a matter-of-fact approach to getting older, saying it is simply “inevitable”. “I look forward to growing older,” he says. “As a man I do notice changes in my skin, but at the same time I know myself better — I know my body better than ever and I know my skin, and so I know how to treat it and what works best for me inside and out. There is a comfort in knowing that.”
Philippe’s motto for growing older? “Feeling confident in your appearance is empowering. Every day you are beautiful — but it’s really how you feel about what’s in the reflection that comes through externally when you present yourself to others. Taking care of your skin is a good start.”
Sylvie echoes this sentiment. “Age is just a number. I understand some days you wake up and hate what you see in the mirror as you get older. But if you find what makes you feel good and don’t stress about what you can’t change, you’ll be happier. And if something bothers you, there are great products to keep your skin in its best shape.” For Sylvie, looking young doesn’t mean wrinkle-free. It means “energized, shiny, healthy and fresh.” Happiness, says Sylvie, “is the perfect anti-ageing ritual.”
Alex has learnt she can get through anything. “I feel more in control and there’s a contentment in knowing you don’t have to try to be the cutest, youngest, prettiest, most perfect girl in the room. Being your chic, happy, confident self is more than enough.”
And when you need a little help on feeling positive about the passing of time, there’s always something for it. “Put simply,” says Olivia, “our Gold Recovery Intense Concentrate A.M/P.M is the most advanced way of transforming your skin and reversing aging while you sleep. It refines the quality of skin and in about a week your skin is tighter, firmer, better. You will see actual results, visible effects on the skin, both immediate and long term.” We certainly like the sound of that.