Skin Deep

A facialist, a doctor and a plastic surgeon weigh in on three unique approaches to skincare. CHRISTINA KO and ZANETA CHENG report.

All in skin

Before Sarah Chapman opened her Skinesis Clinic in London’s Sloane Square – a flagship that is, for devotees including Victoria Beckham and beauty editors across the city, to skincare what the Apple Store is to mobile technology – she spent all her time looking at skin from every vantage point in the skincare industry. Her initial contact with skin was as a make-up artist, which led to a career trying to perfect the canvas itself so that there would be no need to conceal and cover. Subsequently training as a facialist – Chapman worked for botanical brand Darphin followed by a spell at results-driven cosmeceutical brand Environ – she developed a unique holistic approach that insists on performance.

“I don’t believe in skin type,” she says. “I think we have skin conditions. Your skin changes. It changes with seasons, with age, it changes with stress. I have people that I’ve treated for 20 years and I do something different every single time they come because their skin will have changed.”

Chapman’s range reflects its founder’s philosophy, integrating a core daily range with boosters to support and treat specific conditions that arise with changes in skin. Her standard for each formulation is rigorous and unrelenting.

“Our approach is faceto-formula,” she says. “We’re diagnosing skin all the time. What’s going on? What does it need? And then creating the product to do that.”