STATE OF THE ART

La Prairie collaborates with Swiss artist Manon Wertenbroek to celebrate its reformulated Skin Caviar Luxe Cream

SINCE THE BRAND’S inception in 1978, La Prairie has been on a quest to elevate skincare to an art form through its commitment to excellence and innovation. So it’s only natural that the Swiss luxury skincare specialist has forged a close connection with artists from around the world. It was a French-born sculptor and painter named Niki de Saint Phalle who has had the most lasting influence on the brand, with her use of cobalt blue inspiring La Prairie to adopt it as the signature colour of its Skin Caviar Collection. Thirty years later, the colour remains a key element of the La Prairie aesthetic. And with the introduction of a newly reformulated Skin Caviar Luxe Cream, the brand turned to Swiss artist Manon Wertenbroek to create a series of works inspired by de Saint Phalle and that pay tribute to its heritage of science, aesthetics and indulgence. “It was a challenge to work with that colour because it’s so intense and it’s so deep,” Wertenbroek says at an exhibition of her works alongside de Saint Phalle’s Pouf Serpent Bleu sculpture at HART Hall in H Queen’s. “But at the same time it’s very symbolic. [Cobalt blue] is the colour of truth and introspection, and also a nostalgic colour.” Wertenbroek, whose work often focuses on social interaction and self-identity, produced three pieces for her collaboration with La Prairie. “I was thinking, what is beauty and how do we use it? How do we define ourselves through beauty standards?” she says of her inspiration for Mirrors, Blue Portrait and Window Glimpse. “I wanted to say beauty can be anything. It should be your own.”

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