Rose Above

When does fighting the natural process of ageing and pigmentation with skincare and laser treatments become counterproductive? Audra Roslani heads to Shanghai and uncovers the secret to timeless beauty.

“When you follow nature, you can never go wrong,” reads the quote from Christian Dior, as I walk down a path lined with hundreds of powdered pink roses, which leads to an immersive 360Ëš LED wall at Dior’s Skincare Scientific Summit in Shanghai. The exhibit charts Monsieur Dior’s love affair with the rose, and right now, visually, I’m perched on a Normandy coast cliff top with a soaring bird’s eye view, his mother’s rose garden at the Villa les Rhumbs coming into the centre, a mise-en-scène that would give birth to the symbol of the House of Dior.

Over the years, through designers such as John Galliano and Maria Grazia Chiuri, the rose has made recurring appearances, from the couturier-botanist’s iconic femme-fleurs silhouettes to intricate floral bouquets reimagined by Victoire de Castellane through precious stones, and even infused in the first Miss Dior fragrance onwards to the Centifolia rose at the heart of J’adore. But none is quite as special as the creation of Rose de Granville, the first cosmetic rose and the heart of Dior Skincare’s high-performing range, Dior Prestige.

MODERN NATURE

Beauty happens so effortlessly in nature, from the number of petals in a rose to the perfect shades of foliage in a garden full of blooms. It goes without saying that nature and beauty are intrinsically linked. Yet, as technology pushes forward, the exposure to external man-made stressors increases the likelihood of premature ageing.