Caudalie

In 1933 Mae West famously said ‘peel me a grape’. In 1995, Mathilde Thomas and husband Bertrand peeled that grape, deseeded it, destalked it, but instead of throwing all this away, with the help of Dr Vercauteren from the University of Pharmacy of Bordeaux, they saw the great anti-oxidant benefits. And so created their own beauty brand called Caudalie with the grape vine as the main ingredient.  They chose the name because Caudalie in the wine industry means ‘a unit of measurement of quality and duration the wines flavour stays on the palette – the finer the wine the more caudalies it will have’.

Named after the finest wines, Caudalie created the ultimate moisturiser – Premier Cru, to treat all signs of ageing such as wrinkles, lack of firmness, dark spots, and dullness. And after the success of their Premier Cru – The Cream, which has become one of the best selling anti-ageing creams in France, they were inspired to turn their dedication to the delicate eye area.

This year sees the launch of Premier Cru – The Eye Cream. Looking luminous in its gold and silver packaging, it does look like the ultimate ‘elixir of youth’ which Caudalie states it is, targeting all visible signs of ageing around the eyes. And if that’s not enough, Caudalie also says this eye cream has an original feature - it can brighten the eye contour sweeping the shadows away and eliminating dark spots.

And how does it do all this? Well it’s in the grapes. Caudalie has 3 patented ingredients all based on the grapes.

1. Grape seed polypehnols - the most powerful anti-oxidants in the vegetable world. They stop free radicals and are 10,000 times more effective than vitamin E.

2. Resveratrol from the grapevine stalks – identified as the most effective active ingredient for prolonging cellular life by Harvard’s department of medicine.

3. Viniferine from grapevine sap - helps diminish and protect against dark spots by regulating melanin formation.

Other grape ingredients are organic grape water and the nourishing grape seed oil.

Mae West might not have known what she was throwing away when she said ‘peel me a grape’, but now our eyes are opened, Premier Cru will let us still have our peeled grape and eat it without losing the benefits of the skin and stalks.