In full BLOOM

Lancôme continues its storied skincare legacy with a revolutionary new rose-and formulation-in its arsenal.

- EMILY HENG

Amid a field of roses in Grasse, the south of France, a hushed silence has descended. I am watching, rapt, as Antoine Leclef, Lancôme's head horticulturist, deftly grasps an exquisite blossom. "The way to pick them correctly is to place two fingers underneath and one finger inside the centre of the rose," Leclef elucidates. "Roll it and brace it forward. You know you've done it correctly when you hear this sound." His statement is punctuated with a crisp snap. Gently, he leans forward to place the delicate configuration of petals on my palm. It is plush and pliant against my skin, feather-soft. "And there you go," he finishes. "It is that simple." 

Simple is relative, in this case. Standing in Lancôme's Domaine de la Rose-the French label's sustainable horticultural site devoted to brand development and biodiversity conservation-I am reminded of the extensive work that goes into the production of a simple pot of moisturiser. Admittedly, the Absolue Soft Cream is hardly a conventional point of reference. Its breakthrough formulation alone reads like a labour of love.

Within its dense, silky cream lies Lancôme's Absolue Perpetual Rose, a flower hand-harvested in Valensole, France, that took 10 years to create. Roses are harvested at dawn and hand-delivered to the Lancôme atelier so they are able to undergo green extraction.

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