The skin whisperer who can make you look 10 years younger
t 38, Brandon Trueaxe, a former computer science anorak, has comprehensively upset the beauty industry cart. First there are the cult products – at the cutting edge of beauty science and raved about by beauty editors and bloggers. Items such as Hand Chemistry Pro-Repair which targets the appearance of ageing hands; Niod’s Copper Amino Isolate Serum (Cais), which boosts the appearance of youth by keeping skin in a continuous heightened state of repair; the Stemm range, which battles thinning hair; and The Ordinary, an effective and almost ostentatiously low-priced line that launched last year and now barely stays in stock.
If the names are confusing, that’s because in the past three and a half years, he’s launched nine beauty lines (10 if you count the collaboration with The White Company) and some 150 different products.
Then there are his forthright opinions in an industry long on jargon and short on candour. Hope-in-a-jar promises get him hopping, and have done ever since he did a stint at a beauty company when at university. “In software everything was black or white, but in the beauty world, everything was fluff. No one took responsibility for the function of the product. Even the lab teams accepted that ultimately it was about textures, fragrances and make-believe results.”
Ouch. So why, as he puts it, did he “get his hands dirty” by placing himself at the heart of the industry – or at least at the heart of it in Toronto, where Deciem, his umbrella company is based?
Anger – and passion – is why. They make him an almost messianic figure, but also, one suspects, an uncompromising one. He co-founded a beauty product company called Labs – and left three years later with, as he puts it, “significant negativity. I didn’t get along with my partners.” He had a nocompete clause for three years during which time everyone advised him to focus on one thing at a time. That’s when he founded an umbrella group called Deciem (tagline: The Abnormal Beauty Company), so that he could focus on at least 10. “I’ve always had ADD,” he says. “It’s far more challenging for me to think inside the box.”
A motormouth who admits to not knowing everything about beauty science, he still appears to know more than pretty much everyone else. He was one of the first to point out that used the wrong way, hyaluronic acid, far from a golden bullet, dries skin out. It’s a large molecule that sits on top of the dermis and can draw water out of the skin, unless used in the correct formulations – which naturally Deciem’s lines do. Currently he’s proudest of Niod’s reviving Voicemail Masque. “Most stem cell related products are useless. If they refer to human stem cell activation, they’re just selling a dream. If they’re referring to plant stem cells, almost always they disintegrate in the formula or do nothing for skin. To use silicones as both physical and chemical protection for plant stem cells that can also interact with the skin within just a few hours was a remarkable achievement for our team.” Deciem’s promises are not without scientific flourishes. But in the end it comes down to results. He has tried nearly everything out there. He’s quite pro fillers and Botox. “For paralysing muscles, yes 100 per cent. For safety, nearly 100 per cent. Does it work to remove dynamic forehead lines (and in some cases, crow’s feet)? Yes. Do we need it to look beautiful? No. Lotions claiming to do what Botox does are bogus,” he says. He is against inflammation and peeling acids – mostly alpha and beta hydroxyl acids that prioritise shortterm gain over potential long-term harm. I note some of these in The Ordinary – that’s what some customers want, and he’s a realist. “But we make it clear we discourage their ongoing use and favour more advanced methods of renewal without inflammation.” Ultimately isn’t it time to get over our obsession with looking younger? After all, even the catwalk is finally celebrating women of all ages – with 50-year-old British model Cecilia Chancellor appearing at the Dries van Noten show this week. He believes the consumer is gradually recognising ageing well makes more sense than constantly striving to look younger. “The industry’s marketing has created an association between no wrinkles and beauty. But youth doesn’t mean beauty and beauty doesn’t mean youth. If I had to think of a marketing line [for his own products], it would be something like: was there beauty before wrinkle creams?”