SECRET VIALS

The R&D of skincare and make-up is a serious, and closely guarded, science. Dior affords Wallpaper* an insider’s tour of its high-tech travails at LVMH’s Hélios centre in France’s Cosmetic Valley

- AMY SERAFIN

Edouard Mauvais-Jarvis was an ex-veterinarian studying pharmacology when he became fascinated by skincare. ‘People tend to believe that cosmetics are superfluous,’ he says. ‘But cosmetics have an essential role to play in social relations. The skin of your face is the first thing that others see when you establish a personal connection.’ There is an evolutionary aspect, too – our initial impressions can attract us to a healthy person as a potential mate, or warn us away from an unhealthy one as a possible carrier of disease.

As France gradually reopened after the Covid-19 lockdown this spring, Mauvais-Jarvis, now Dior International’s environmental and scientific communications director, took Wallpaper* on a tour of Hélios, the state-of-the-art centre where LVMH, Dior’s parent company, conducts research, creates, and innovates around perfumes and cosmetics for some 14 different brands. Dior is the luxury group’s biggest beauty brand, and represents a whopping 70 per cent of the centre’s activity.