WHEN SHE’S NOT BUSY LIFTING and toning the
jawlines of Amber Valletta and Naomi Campbell, Danuta
Mieloch, the facialist and founder of Rescue Spa in New
York and Philadelphia, can be found in the workspace
of her Bucks County, Pennsylvania, farmhouse. After
more than 15 years as an in-demand aesthetician, Mieloch
is endlessly tinkering with her first product: a stand-alone,
milky-smooth cream of her own design. “I’m obsessed
with finding that potion that does it all,” she says.
She’s not the only one. Following inevitable fatigue
from multistep skin-care routines popularized by
Korean beauty imports, and viral tutorials on YouTube
and Instagram, there is a new demand for streamlined,
do-it-all moisturizers. At her spa’s boutique, Mieloch
is consistently reupping her supply of Biologique
Recherche Creme MSRH to balance dry, hormonal skin
(“I can’t wean women off it”), and The Face Cream
from Dr. Barbara Sturm, the Düsseldorf-based physician
better known for the bespoke collagen-stimulating
salve she makes for patients spiked with their own blood
cells. And don’t get Mieloch started on her Augustinus
Bader. The German biomedical professor’s debut
product, simply called The Cream, launched last year
with the same, hyper-reparative amino acids used in
his medical-grade burn gel. Backed by Melanie Griffith
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and fronted by Diane Kruger, the intensely hydrating
cream is on track to exceed sales of $20 million this year.
“I think everyone wants to invest in simple routines
now,” Dallas-based facialist Joanna Czech says of
today’s skin-care enthusiasts, who have been raised on
clean ingredients, transparent practices, and the often
overhyped promises of social media. “They don’t want
17 serums or oils, which to be honest, are not necessary.”
Czech has little trouble moving jars of the German brand
Medical Beauty Research (MBR)’s plumping Cream
Extraordinary, or Chuda’s Healing Hydrating Cream.
“There’s this movement toward really focusing on keeping
extra products to a minimum,” says Larissa Jensen,
a beauty-industry analyst for the market-research firm
NPD Group, which saw a 8% spike in moisturizing
creams last year while sales of moisturizing face oils, that
onetime skin-care favorite, dropped by 4%.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Seoul is already ahead of this
shift. AHC, a Korean-based company, has just launched
its Essential Real Eye Cream for Face in the U.S. One tube
of the multitasker, a lighter version of the line’s hugely
popular eye cream that fans were using off-label on their
cheeks for an extra glow, reportedly sells every three
seconds in Korea—a statistic that should inspire Mieloch
to work a little faster.—kari m o lva r BEAUTY>88
VLIFE
84 OCTOBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
YASU & JUNKO/TRUNK ARCHIVE
