“This 5-star treatment is worth its weight in gold” – VOGUE (France).
Guerlain’s deeply intensive Orchidee Imperiale Skin Renewal Treatment comes with a promise – that in 28 days 100% of skin cells will be renewed, leaving skin completely regenerated and revitalised. It’s a promise that comes with a price tag – £783. But as the beauty industry has proven again and again, if something works, women will – if they can and want to – pay for it, and this 4 x 15ml vial treatment is testament to that.
I put my skincare regime on hold for a month and switched to this, curious to see if it would live up to the promise. You use the four vials in two steps, to achieve what Vogue France called “spectacular skin renewal on a par with that of a post-Botox visage.” Step 1 is a soft peeling process designed to rejuvenate and rediscover your skin’s natural brightness. Step 2 helps firm the regenerated skin from the base of the cells to the surface.
The science behind it is this: orchids possess age-defying properties which Guerlain has extracted and calls New-Generation Imperial Orchid Molecular Extract (IOME), and it’s this extract that acts on skin’s key longevity (aka anti-ageing, youth-preserving) mechanisms in a number of important ways:
- IOME stimulates the longevity gene that is responsible for the synthesis of an anti-inflammatory protein.
- It combats the spiral of immuno-ageing.
- It preserves the original composition of the cell membrane.
- It increases the regeneration potential of epidermal cells.
- It reinforces DNA protection.
- It controls the overproduction of melanin to “turn back cellular time”
- It delays cells’ entry into senescence by maintaining, throughout the days, an increasing number of young and active cells in the skin.
- It maintains the vitality of cells by safeguarding their surrounding ecosystem.
- It increases skin cells’ life expectancy.
I have to say, for me the most dramatic difference was visible in the third week. As a treatment it couldn’t be easier – there’s no complicated application process and the texture of both Step 1 and Step 2’s two x 15 ml vials is like a silky, thick milky serum, which smells very luxurious and feels it.
I could tell something good was happening by the end of Week 1, as my skin looked particularly “rested and refreshed” but it was during Week 3 that I’d put my money where my mouth is and say yes, this worked for me. After much peering – and scrutinizing – in the magnifying mirror, into the third week my complexion looked distinctly and indisputably firmer, skin ‘younger’ – as if I’d “de-aged by about 3 years” and consistently had a full night’s sleep for three weeks (not!). My skin looked and felt smoother than it has in years, deeply rested, “de-stressed” and seemed to be ‘acting younger’, for lack of a better way of putting it.
Price-wise this is not a treatment you’re going to do often – and you wouldn’t need to anyway because it’s designed as a twice-yearly renewal/intensive boost. It’s a gorgeous – and incredibly simple to use – course of treatment, rather like a luxurious boot camp for skin.
I remember reading somewhere that when Guerlain launched their now legendary Orchidee Imperiale Face Cream (in that iconic blue and gold-lidded jar), it sold out at the SAKS Fifth Avenue store in New York within hours of launching – at a price of around $350 a pot/pop! – and that was about six or seven years ago.
Guerlain 28-Day Orchidée Impériale Skin Renewal Treatment at ESCENTUAL.COM