Swiss skincare pioneer La Prairie has remastered its classic Skin Caviar Cream for the first time in 20 years—here’s how and why.
What’s more luxe than eating caviar?
Putting it on your face, perhaps—and La Prairie is the first and only company to do it. Founded by a Swiss doctor in 1931, La Prairie began as a spa clinic, but by 1987—after the release of the first product ever to harness the natural lifting, firming, and rejuvenating benefits of caviar—the company was lauded a skincare industry pioneer. The culinary delicacy continues to be the hero ingredient in La Prairie’s collections but now, the brand has remastered it in its cult-favorite moisturizer after 20 years.
But why fix something that isn’t broken?
“We knew that Caviar’s rich components had the potential to do even more than we were doing at the moment,” said the mastermind behind it all, La Prairie's Director of Strategic Innovation and Science, Dr. Jacqueline Hill. And, as directed by one of La Prairie’s five key values (others include Swissness, luxury, performance, and high-end service), innovation is crucial to the brand. CEO Patrick Rasquinet explained how the company “wanted to keep being innovative with this icon that has been successful over the last 20 years but also wanted to think about the next 20.”
And why now?
It took three years of development and testing for La Prairie to perfect the new formula due to the fine balance of maintaining certain elements while introducing new ones. “Of course, when you change the components you change the texture a bit and we didn’t want to change the experience and distance ourselves from our faithful consumer who loves the product as it is,” explained Dr. Hill. Reinterpreting the brand’s signature fragrance, for example, was a big question since scent goes directly to the brain and contributes most to the emotional aspect of the experience. If consumers don’t like the fragrance, they’ll view it as being less effective than it really is. But still, for La Prairie “ there was the wish and the willingness to master the product. And with the introduction of the new science, the timing was right,” said Rasquinet.
So, what’s next?
Dr. Hill reveals, without getting too specific, that there will be some new products that are not in the range at the moment, as well as an evolution and some improvements of other existing products. Until then, La Prairie’s Skin Caviar Luxe collection remastered with Caviar Premier—cream and sheer cream (50ml for $485 or 100ml for $880 each), and sleep mask ($375 for 50ml) is available on LaPrairie.com.
