What is it?
A skincare range from self- styled 'facialist to the stars' Ole Henriksen. The Los Angeles-based Dane was in town last week to help train local staff. Product ingredients include cucumber, apricot, avocado, chamomile, lavender and sesame extracts, with anti-ageing ingredients such as vitamins A, D, E, ester C, alpha hydroxy acids and liposomes. The cleansers, toners, creams and serums are said to deliver a variety of benefits, from cell firming to oxygenating, soothing, protecting and hydrating.
Who is Henriksen?
He says he's the name in skincare in Hollywood. His celebrity-client list reads like a roll call at the academy awards. (Barbra Streisand was among his first clients in the 1970s and still uses him). He recently advised new mother Princess Mary of Denmark about prenatal and postnatal skincare.
Henriksen was born in the small Danish village of Nibe. He got the travel bug after becoming a show dancer. His travels brought him to Asia, but he developed cystic acne in Indonesia. After consulting a local practitioner, he became interested in natural skincare, and went on to study cosmetic chemistry in London. He later moved to California, working briefly in a clinic where he became an acne specialist.
'The glamour of Hollywood appealed,' he says of his move to LA. 'But in 1974, no one wanted to hire me, because I was a man. So, I opened my own place.
'One day, the Los Angeles Times said they'd put me to the test over six weeks [using a staff member with acne] and it worked. I've never had an empty seat since.'