CRÈME DE LA CRÈME

We explore the skincare formulas that continue to enchant successive generations.

- Evie Leatham

I have a favourite mirror elaborately framed with cloudy-white porcelain flowers, each petal paper-thin. It was originally my grandmother’s and now sits on my dressing table, the antique glass lightly marbled with mercurial marks. My grandmother, my mother, and I have all contemplated our reflections in that mirror, likely performing the same beautifying rituals, and I always find comfort in this seemingly small connection, a thread between then and now.

Such constants are also being welcomed in our skincare regimes. The barrage of novelty has slowed, and many of us are returning to trusted classics as we seek the anchors of familiarity, feel, and effectiveness. Some of this is pure nostalgia. I still recollect the thrill I felt when that grown-up, womanly world first became mine with a visit to the beauty halls on my 16th birthday. The luxurious textures, the powdery scents, the reassuringly heavy jars, all gave me a sense of confidence and belonging that those creams—or the updated versions of them—still elicit today.