From the beginning Chanel based its vision on a belief: the intelligence of nature is unsurpassed. It was this that inspired a new generation of treatments that gave rise to the N ° 1 line that offers an innovative, holistic and eco-responsible approach to beauty by combining anti-aging skincare creations (Serum Revitalisant, Crème Revitalisante, Crème Yeux Revitalisante, Poudre de Mousse Nettoyante, Lotion Revitalisante, Sérum-en-Brume Revitalisant), make up (Fond de Teint Revitalisant, Baume Levres et Joue Revitalisante) and a scented water (L’Eau Rouge) whose formulas are based on camellia, the emblematic flower by Gabrielle Chanel.
The open-air workshops
n one hundred years, starting from the creation of N ° 5, the French maison has built an important expertise in the cultivation of flowers, essential raw materials for its fragrances. The production and use of May rose and Grasse jasmine are part of the traditions that it has been able to protect and evolve over the years, in particular by creating a partnership, in 1987, with the Mul family. For over twenty years the company has been carrying out its skincare treatments by conducting scientific research in its four open-air laboratories located in different climatic zones of the world to create the noblest active ingredients. The workshops are the result of an exemplary approach on an environmental and territorial scale that enhances each territory through a virtuous agro-ecological approach that uses innovative farming practices.
According to these same criteria, since 1998 Chanel has been conducting a project focused on camellia in Gaujacq, in southwestern France. The program was established in collaboration with Jean Thoby, an international expert on camellias, who for several decades has cultivated a botanical conservatory garden dedicated to the conservation of plants in this small municipality of the Landes, which includes 2 thousand varieties of camellias collected all over the world, including two mother plants of Camellia japonica “Alba Plena”, which ten years ago were the starting point for the start of Chanel’s crops, and more recently to the farm dedicated to camellias, located near this exceptional garden . The farm also houses a phyto-analysis laboratory, which allows maximum proximity to the plants to observe them in their natural environment, study them, analyze them and identify the most promising ones, as well as a pre-transformation center, which prepares the flowers immediately afterwards. the collection for the extraction of active molecules.
In the open-air laboratory of Gaujacq the camellias are grown in the open ground, according to rigorous and environmentally friendly agricultural practices, without the use of chemicals. To preserve and enhance its natural qualities, an agroecological experimental crop was set up according to an agroforestry process: a permanent symbiotic cultivation that aims to enrich the soil and strengthen the ecosystem between the plant, the earth and the water, while increasing the resistance of plants to disease. This approach earned the laboratory a level 3 Haute Valeur Environnementale (HVE, high environmental value) certification, the highest in the French environmental certification system for farms, and the “Conversion to organic agriculture” award. The combination of the two ensures that agricultural practices implemented throughout the farm are optimized to minimize environmental pressure.
Biological research on the red camellia Czar
The maison’s research team has highlighted the activity of an extract from the red camellia flower, the “Czar” variety of Camellia japonica, so baptized at the beginning of the 20th century in homage to its majestic beauty. Odorless and very delicate, this flower is a force of nature: neither water nor cold compromises its petals in the least.With its winter flowering and evergreen foliage, this variety of camellia is a unique plant in many respects, a true treasure botanist, as explained by Chanel. In fact, it is not a flower like the others: in the heart of its petals is concentrated the protocatechic acid, an active molecule never observed before in the camellias analyzed by scientists, able to protect cellular vitality by intervening in the first stage of skin aging.