“We use an ingredient that has been proven to work in clinical trials – retinol – combined with a patented proprietary set of ingredients that, together, also have clinically proven results.

“The great thing about Augustinus and his discovery of TFC8 is that because it activates natural communication processes, it’s not antagonised by other ingredients.

“If you do TFC8 with vitamin C, lipids or other ingredients, it doesn’t harm the effect of the TFC8. What we discovered with vitamin A [retinol] is that to achieve full potency, you don’t need a high dose.”

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Would you still recommend using the product at night and avoiding sun exposure?

Rosier: “Yes, it’s still more prudent but nobody had a reaction during clinical trials. Consumers and people that have tried it in the team or outside the team have had zero reaction or redness.

“It’s impossible to peel with this. That’s the advantage of retinol combined with TFC8 – there’s no reaction. It’s the good side of retinol without the drawbacks.”

What do you think about ingestible retinol? Would you recommend it?

Bader: “If you have retinol as a chemical, it’s different from eating carrots [also a source of vitamin A or retinol]. There’s no toxicity in carrots so that’s what I would recommend.

“Don’t eat retinol because it has such a high concentration that embryotoxicity can occur. There are medications you can take [containing retinol] but doctors are not allowed to prescribe them to everyone.

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But you still make other ingestible supplements.

“Not everyone has access to good food. Our food has become super industrialised and is often artificially created, so it’s good to think about what you eat. If your food is not good it makes sense to supplement your diet.”

“If we had reduced the concentration or used a slightly lower quality, it would work economically but we didn’t do that. So what drives us is more the efficacy of the clinical trial, which we don’t compromise on, and research.

“The issue with supplements is probably 95 per cent of those being made out there will never be assimilated by your body, they will go directly in and out. Some of them could actually accumulate in your body in a negative way, so absorption of the ingredients is key.

“For our skin supplements, the research and the production was driven by making sure what you ingest is being used and assimilated.”

What’s next for Augustinus Bader in Asia?

Rosier: “To get the brand more widely used in Asia-Pacific because once we get more people, they become ambassadors. If you’re a brand whose product doesn’t deliver then you need to always pay to recruit new customers. For us, it’s kind of a one-time investment.

“In 2018, we were a company of seven people, with a brand name that nobody could pronounce and only two creams, The Rich Cream and The Cream. Word of mouth contributed. That’s why, for example, in the United States we have a 90 per cent repurchasing rate, which is much higher than the industry average.

“The funny phrase I use sometimes is that we’re a bit like drug dealers. You give the first fix and then … the name of the game for us is to bring more people to the brand because we know that once they try it, we keep them.”

Augustinus Bader is available in Hong Kong at Lane Crawford.