The popular stereotype of the beauty industry is that it is populated by John Inman types, using the word “darling” a good deal and mincing about in cravats. In fact, it is a business largely conducted by straight men in pinstripes, more concerned with the bottom line than bottoms per se. Xavier Ormancey, a swashbuckling Frenchman, bucks both trends, typically being found dangling off Himalayan precipices or thigh-deep in scorpion-infested rainforest rather than camping it up or taking refuge behind a desk. In the past year the father of three has led explorations to 12 of the remotest regions in the world. One can only assume that he has a supremely tolerant wife.
A chemist by training, now head of cosmetic research for Chanel, Ormancey, 42, scours the globe in search of undiscovered natural ingredients that just might constitute skincare’s next big thing. Of late, his favoured destination has been Madagascar, a hotspot of biodiversity owing to its status as the crossroads between Africa and Asia. Here not only has he seen off crocodiles and the mosquito-borne, joint-freezing chikungunya virus, but also scorpions, snakes, spiders and leeches. It is a spirit of adventure that has earned him the moniker of “the beauty world’s Indiana Jones”, never more so than of late, with the company about to launch an anti-ageing cream eight years in the making, based entirely on his Madagascan researches. “I’m very proud,” he beams. “I have been able to capture a diamond in a mine, remove all the sand and polish it”.
The cream, Sublimage, has its origins in the northern extremity of Madagascar from whence, almost a decade ago, Ormancey received a tip-off about a species of vanilla tree bearing an amazing, life-giving fruit, of which only 13 specimens remained. After many days’ relentless trekking he had his eureka moment, committed to film by Chanel. Field tests of the Vanilla planifolia pod revealed that it comprised over 60 per cent active ingredient, in this case fruit polyketones, unrivalled even by antioxidant super-sources such as grapeseed or green tea. “It can take ten minutes to see a result, but we were saying ‘Wow’ after a minute.” Of the 107 species of vanilla found across Africa, Polynesia, Indonesia and South America, this is the best that Ormancey can find.
I meet him at Chanel’s super-slick laboratories at Sophia Antipolis, near Antibes, where he is all boundless energy and boyish fresh- facedness. Is this latter quality attributable to Sublimage? “Ah, no,” he grins ruefully. “At this stage, the cream is available only for journalists.” This journalist can attest to Sublimage being such a potent fix that acquaintances were remarking on its effects — it made my skin glow so much that for once I was prepared to ditch my make-up — within hours (a good job too given its Crème de la Mer-esque price of £155). This plush, velvety cream has, according to Chanel, tested well for hydration, wrinkles, radiance, evenness and firmness, rather than just one particular effect, as is typical with “wonder” ingredients. So it is not surprising that Ormancey is happy, looking forward to seeing his baby reach shop counters on September 25.
Botany is in the Ormancey blood. His roots are in rural Burgundy, in a family with a profound love of nature. Much of his inspiration stems from a botanical family archive, the “Herbier de M Rouglin”, a meticulous collation of pressed specimens, with Latin names, botanical families, location, characteristics and medicinal applications compiled by his forebears a century ago. Another relative, a great-aunt, was a white witch. “So I was in contact with these things. But it’s been a long journey. Twenty years ago I could not use this knowledge because everyone was looking for chemical answers.”
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Ormancey’s academic background was in organic chemistry, specifically phytochemistry. The association with Chanel has been a 15-year affair and he remains grateful for it. For a commercial operation there is a good deal of “pure” research: scientists dictating to marketers rather than the other way round. Doubtless the marketing men roll their eyes at some of their golden boy’s eccentricities, but, then, they do not spend their lives braving serpents and rickety planes. “I believe in fate and signs and things like that. And I have things around me to bring me luck.” These include a Tibetan friendship bracelet and an Indian trinket that wards off bad luck, somewhat incongruous under a Chanel watch. A rechargeable gold chain hangs about his neck: “I have a Hindu icon, and I place my chain before it to reload it with luck. I would not talk about Christianity or God. I would talk about science, listening to nature, fate, meeting the right people at the right time.”
Fatalism comes not only with the territory, but with its fruits. Ormancey works on 100 botanicals a year, sourcing, testing and retesting. Out of these only four or five will be used because of their effectiveness, growing requirements, or political considerations. “You have to be patient and tenacious,” he notes, with no little understatement. “I can tell you a story to illustrate this. We heard about a flower from the Himalayas. It grew in an extremely inaccessible place: first a plane, then a car, then a two-day hike. We collected samples, dried them, but when we tested: nothing. So, there being no FedEx or UPS, I travelled there again and the locals said: ‘You made two mistakes. First, you have to work on it when it’s fresh. Second, you have to pick it at a precise moment, and only the part exposed to the sun’. So we redid our tests and it was amazing.”
Vanilla planifolia was still more amazing. With characteristic robustness Ormancey set about making it even better by creating a technique he calls “polyfractioning”. This is a process that maximises the effectiveness of a raw ingredient by stripping away its desired properties from thousands of surrounding molecules. It demands 12 procedures, ever refining and perfecting until Chanel achieves a customised active ingredient, planifolia-PFA (that is, polyfractioned planifolia), its efficacy up to 1,000 times more potent than the untreated extract.
“We have a nickname for polyfractioning. You know the Da Vinci Code? We name it the Paracelsus Code after the Renaissance doctor who created the notion of capturing the quintessence, or healing power, of a botanical.”
The company’s investigation into 144 active ingredients in rival creams found, according to Ormancey, that only one possessed an overall beneficial effect, and that was their customised version. One can only speculate on how much Chanel spends on research each year as it refuses to disclose figures. And such secrecy surrounds polyfractioning that researchers sign stringent confidentiality contracts, and only its creator and a colleague know the entire process. That said, a competitor would be hard-pressed to replicate Sublimage, as few companies exert such control over their wares. Chanel grows and harvests its ingredients, rather than being dependent on suppliers (a lesson learnt from perfumery). “We decided we would be farmers,” chuckles Ormancey.
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Ironically, it was Ormancey’s domestic environment that supplied beauty’s bounty hunter with his most vicious war wound. “My worst problem was being bitten by a spider in my house. Because you’re at home, you’re relaxed. I ended up with a huge infection.”
What’s the evidence?
By Dr Toby Murcott
What’s so special about plant extracts? A review published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Experimental Dermatology examines research into the antioxidant properties of a number of plant extracts, including green tea and pomegranate. It concluded that adding this type of extract to skincare products may be effective in reducing skin cancer and photoageing, damage caused by exposure to the sun.
How do they work? We have a natural antioxidant mechanism to ward off sun damage to our skin but bright sunlight can overwhelm it. Adding antioxidants in creams is thought to boost this natural protection system.
So is this new extract good news? Perhaps, but it is impossible to give any independent scientific opinion on this until research is published.
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What about Vanilla planifloria? Vanilla planifloria, which produces vanilla flavouring, does contain antioxidants. However, the research did not identify nor discuss the polyketones, active plant ingredients, which are said to be at the heart of Sublimage.
Dr Toby Murcott is a former BBC science correspondent