Clinique Partners With Mount Sinai on Dermatology Center

The skin care brand has made a philanthropic commitment of $5 million over seven years.

Clinique is diving deeper into its dermatological roots.

The Estée Lauder Cos.-owned skin care brand has made a philanthropic commitment of $5 million over seven years to establish the Mount SinaiClinique Healthy Skin Dermatology Centre with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. It will study how skin ages, skin allergies and inflammatory eczematous skin conditions, including eczema and contact dermatitis.

Through investigating healthy skin, along with the skin of those with atopic dermatitis and other allergic skin disorders, the hope is that researchers may learn how to significantly slow the visible signs of aging in all people as well as in patients with eczema, who show signs of premature or accelerated aging.

Insights from this research aim to spur advances in the field of dermatology and skin health and will also inform and inspire Clinique in future product innovation to offer further solutions for people with allergic or sensitive skin.

“Years of chronic inflamed skin plays a role in premature aging. Extensive research has helped us understand the molecular map of skin conditions associated with allergy such as eczema and contact dermatitis, and we're now at a pivotal point in addressing these conditions and more,” said Dr. Emma Guttman, Waldman professor and system chair of the Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine. “With Clinique's support, we will continue to actively explore targeted approaches to reversing eczematous and allergic skin conditions with the goal of creating and sustaining healthy skin.”

In an interview with WWD, Clinique's global brand president Michelle Freyre noted that sensitive skin concerns among consumers have surged since the pandemic.

“Sensitive skin is really a global phenomenon. It's affecting a reported 71 percent of adults in the U.S. alone. Over 50 percent of dermatologist patients are self diagnosed with sensitive skin and in China sensitive skin is the numberone most treated skin concern among dermatologists,” she said. “We believe it's going continue to accelerate globally so that's one reason why we deeply care about this work.”

The move also marks somewhat of a full-circle moment for the brand, whose founding dermatologist back in the '60s was Dr. Norman Orentreich. His son and one of Clinique's current guiding dermatologists, Dr. David Orentreich, introduced Clinique's head of product development to Dr. Guttman. The meeting sparked the idea for the creation of the center, which Dr. Guttman will oversee. Her work has led to novel therapeutic targets for patients suffering from inflammatory skin conditions.

“Once we started learning about her and her world-renowned expertise in allergy and inflammatory skin diseases we thought this is such a natural continuation of our brand mission to create great skin, but also really supporting something that's really meaningful work,” said Freyre.

The funds will be used to recruit physicians and scientists, and provide resources for advanced equipment, clinical and laboratory space and support staff.