Chantecaille Women Talk Natural Beauty
Sylvie and Alex Chantecaille
Two of the three Chantecaille women, mom Sylvie and daughter Alex, opted out of the New York Fashion Week madness in favor of the slower paced environment of Fort Worth, Texas. But, when Sylvie Chantecaille is in the building, even in the middle of a Friday afternoon, she draws in quite the crowd. And the presence of the Chantecailles elicits one skin success story after another.
“I just had a woman who is waiting on a level four liver transplant. Over the last year she has been using us, and said her health is better and her skin is unbelievably better,” says Chantecaillle Creator Sylvie Chantecaillle. “Her Neiman Marcus sales person came to me after and said, ‘you have no idea the difference in her skin that she has seen since she has used you.’ ”
It’s moments like these with clients that constantly motivate Sylvie and her girls.
“That is what you work towards,” says Sylvie, who followed a successful career heading up Prescriptives at Estée Lauder Cos. by launching Chantecaille in 1997. A personal battle with Lyme disease had instigated an interest in holistic care.
“I thought if women are buying expensive skin care at least it should be good for them,” says Sylvie. “Women really needed protection and something that reinforced the immune system.”
Health is what Chantecaille is all about. You will never find chemicals, added fragrance or color in any of the products. Instead you will find organic vegan-friendly ingredients like blue cornflower, aloe vera, rice bran oil, flower milk, pure rose water, shea butter and sunflower oil.
Chantecaille fragrances
Chantecaille first began with allergy-free fragrances that were based on natural essential oils. These four fragrances laid the foundation for the company’s unique approach to beauty.
This exceptional purity of ingredients has converted even the most discerning faces into Chantecaille loyalists. Angelina Jolie, for one, trusts Chantecaille’s lip gloss on her signature pout.
“Her lips are very sensitive to product,” says Sylvie of her celebrity client’s much sought after beauty secret. “She will only use our lip gloss because it doesn’t hurt or dry her lips.”
“Actually downstairs on the cover of Vanity Fair is Angelina Jolie wearing Chantecaille,” pipes in Alex, who is the family business’ director of sales, referring to the magazine’s October issue with Jolie looking flawless in Chantecaille’s Future Skin, Le Stylo Liner, Macara Noir and Amaretto Lip Gloss.
Like the cover girl’s natural look, Sylvie and Alex shy away from dramatic color and heavy makeup, so much so that it’s hard to tell if they even have any on. All Sylvie wears is Future Skin, a lightweight oil free gel foundation. Her daily prep work, that includes a morning routine of Chantecaille’s Nano Gold Energizing Cream, lets her get away with wearing such little makeup.
“I use the gold treatment because it’s a healer and soother, and a great product to use if you have any precancerous cells,” says Sylvie of her go-to moisturizer. “Then I use the gold eye cream because I have really puffy eyes. When you are young you have really smooth and sexy eyes, but when you get older it’s not so sexy anymore.”
Alex, whose skin looks incredibly smooth and even, wears the brand’s tinted moisturizer with SPF 15, Just Skin.
“Ironically I don’t love to wear makeup,” says Alex. “When mom was with Prescriptives we had so many products at home, so as kids we were always playing with makeup, so I kind of see makeup as a dramatic sort of dressing up thing and I don’t wear it everyday. But this doesn’t feel like makeup, I sometimes have to look into the mirror to even realize that I put any on because it feels so weightless and natural.”
The family’s passion for beauty extends beyond the human face into nature.
“We love nature and animals, that’s why we always have our special compact,” says Sylvie. “We typically link it to the work of scientists and especially those trying to protect a species.”
La Baleine palette for The International Union for Conservation of Nature
Chantecaille’s most recent philanthropic palette is linked with Dr. Karen Eckert, whose work protects sea turtles in the Caribbean from the United States to Chile. And before that, a portion of their Les Dauphins palette benefited Greece’s declining dolphin population.
“Next Spring we are going to do corals. We are trying to work to preserve 10% of the high seas,” says Sylvie of the Spring 2012 palette they are currently developing. “Then my next big thing is going to be elephants.”
Chantecaille is available at NeimanMarcus.com and Neiman Marcus stores.
