1. beauty expert
october 2011
THE SINGAPORE
175
A
ndy Bevilacqua looks relaxed
and comfortable in the
waterfront hotel’s penthouse
suite as he shows me the
unrivalled view of Vancouver’s English
Bay, pointing out the vistas from the
three floor-to-ceiling windows that
wrap the suite. It’s a picture of wealth
that I expect from such a luxury brand,
but Andy is about to allay my cynical
thoughts and turn me into a true La
Mer addict.
You see, Andy is the Vice President
of Research and Development of the
Max Huber Research Labs at La Mer,
and he is passionate about the crème.
“Max Huber was inspired about
the energy of things and,
as a physicist, he was
always thinking about
the energy component
of his Miracle Broth,”
explains Andy.“And, of
course, how its energy
could be transmitted
into the body.”
Andy sees my
polite but sceptical
expression and smiles.
Andy has seen
this expression before and
understands it – 25 years earlier,
he had held the same scepticism.
In 1986, Estee Lauder wanted to
buy the cult brand from Max Huber, but
he refused to sell. It was decided that a
youngscientistworkingforthecosmetic
giant would replicate the crème: He
would copy down the ingredients listed
on the jar and recreate the formula.
Simple. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t
get it right.
Five years later, when Max Huber
passed away, they were approached by
his daughter, who was carrying on her
father’s legacy – she couldn’t figure out
the right formula either. And stocks of
the cult crème were running out.
“We only had some notebooks, a
bit like family recipe books, and some
verbalinstructionsthathisdaughterand
her Uncle Bob could remember,”says
Andy.They continued their experiments
and were beginning to worry that
they would never figure it out when
Secrets
Can sound and light
work their magic on a
skin-healing seaweed
brew?We step behind
the curtain to find out
By SHELLEYTRAVERS
Of The
Deep
The giant kelp,
Macrocystis.

2. beauty expert
176
THE SINGAPORE
october 2011
they stumbled on the magic
ingredient – the seaweed and
how it was fermented.
The Magic
Ingredient
The kelp that is used to
create the Crème de La
Mer is special giant kelp –
Macrocystis – that can only
be harvested twice a year off the
Vancouver coast.
Used in food and beverage
products and medicines,
La Mer’s share of the kelp
is hand-picked and then
packed in temperature-
controlled boxes and
flown overnight to the
Estee Lauder labs, where
the process of turning this
greenish brown sea plant into
creams and serums takes place.
The Magic Process
By using music – actually, the sounds of
the ocean where the sea kelp once lived
– and muted lighting, the fermentation
process is said to be enhanced and
the Miracle Broth that results is
more effective than that from kelp
manufactured in a standard way. This
application is known as sonochemistry.
Andy explains that sonochemistry
is not a new concept – it was first
written about in 1927 – and it’s
scientifically proven. Sonochemistry
relates to the chemical effects that
sound has on certain species.
“The sound waves are used to
create chemical reactions,”explains
Andy.“The ingredients in the La Mer
products are all natural, but what’s most
important is how they are added and
work together to make the broth – like
making fine wine,”he smiles.
The Magic Broth
While the Miracle Broth remains at
the core of its main line, La Mer now
includes make-up, lotions and serums
created with warmer climates in mind.
“We figured that people who live
in warmer, humid climates would like
a lighter texture better,”explains Andy.
“So there’s the Moisturising Gel Cream,
which is very light but super
hydrating, and the Moisturising
Lotion and the Oil-absorbing
Lotion, also light in texture, but
with light powders that stay on
the skin invisibly, so if you were
to have an oil breakout or some
perspiration, the powder is able to
absorb it and remove some of the
shine.”The lotions, says Andy, are
made up of tiny spherical silica that
containnylonpowder,highlyeffectivein
absorbing oil and perspiration.
New to the Singapore market, the
Radiant Serum boosts the skin’s ability
to reflect light by sweeping away dull
skin cells and plumping the surface. La
Mer’s The Concentrate is engineered
with the original concentration of
Miracle Broth and is reported to have
amazing skin-healing benefits.
Although La Mer has not
performed formal studies, Andy is very
proud of The Concentrate’s success.
La Mer gets feedback all the time
from skin specialists, customers and
surgeons, who have used the product
to assist healing and rave about how
effective they found the product to be in
healing skin tissue and scars.
At the end of the day, the magic
ingredient in La Mer’s products is not
The Radiant Serum,
$445 (30 ml).
The Vancouver
coast, where the
kelp is farmed.
The kelp is
hand-picked.
The Concentrate,
$490 (30 ml); and
$637 (50 ml).
so much the magical seaweed that can
only be farmed in very few places in the
world and only at certain times. And it’s
not just the other ingredients that make
up the broth, which is heralded as a
miracle. It really is the treatment of all
of these things together and the gentle
fermentation process they undergo that
lies at the heart of why so many of us
love Crème de la Mer.
It’s a homemade recipe for success
– a recipe that will no doubt be a cult
favourite for years to come. W