La Prairie celebrates 30 years of Skin Caviar
Nothing says “luxury” quite like caviar.
Knowing this, Swiss luxury skincare brand La Prairie based its most iconic collection — Skin Caviar — on those precious pearls, and the line has been so successful that this year marks its 30th anniversary.
“We decided to do something audacious and different because we are La Prairie,” says Niki Yuri Na, La Prairie’s general manager for distributor markets. “We wanted to go in a way that no other brand has taken, so we commissioned four contemporary artists around the world — selected artists known to take a scientific approach to their art pieces.”
Each of the artists interpreted a Skin Caviar product through an installation (or two), and an exhibition of their pieces, called “The Art of Caviar,” has been touring the world, beginning with Art Basel in Switzerland last June and traveling to Paris for Fashion Week, New York also for Fashion Week, Hong Kong and soon Shanghai.
“How do we link a skincare brand to an art exhibition?” asked Yuri Na. “Was Da Vinci a scientist or an artist? He was both, and that’s how we think of La Prairie.”
The luxury skincare brand was established in 1978 with a clinic in Montreux, Switzerland, basing its luxury formulations on the pioneering cellular therapy of Dr. Paul Niehans.
“He was a scientist and at same time an artist who had the vision to really develop products that are applied masterpieces,” says Yuri Na.
Inspired by La Prairie’s latest Skin Caviar product, Absolute Filler, which plumps the skin, architect Paul Coudamy sculpted “Living Cells,” clumps of caviar-like black magnetic marbles clinging to a geometric frame of lacquered steel.
Coudamy did a second installation inspired by caviar: “Solid Frequencies,” a glass tube containing black marbles that follow the viewer’s hand movements when the piece is touched.
Creative studio Bonjour Lab designed an interactive digital work: “Moving Pixel,” golden beads that form frozen silhouettes of the viewer to connote the firming effect of Skin Caviar Liquid Lift.
Always fascinated by the interaction of man and machine, artist and engineer TremensS did an audiovisual installation with a laser, representing La Prairie’s steam distillation process to capture the caviar water used in La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Essence-in-Lotion.
Art, photography and design studio Cinq Fruits contributed a series of photographs depicting the beauty and luxury of La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Luxe Cream and Luxe Cream Sheer, which lift and firm skin.
“This year, we’re celebrating a lot of things,” said Mike Huang, Rustan Commercial Corporation’s vice president for Store Development and Expansions. “One is the 30th anniversary of Skin Caviar. Secondly, it’s also the 19th year of our partnership in the Philippines between Rustan’s and the La Prairie group, and we’re also celebrating the 65th anniversary of Rustan’s.”
“The Philippines is a very growing market, and we hope to grow the market even more,” added Yuri Na. “I had a chance to meet our consumers here, and Philippine women are very very demanding. Because our brand is very niche market, they are very high, luxury clientele and we cannot disappoint them, so La Prairie will continue our journey as a pioneer to make the most innovative skincare that can give timeless beauty.”
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La Prairie’s Skin Caviar collection is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source.
