“Together with other scientists I came up with a treatment where you take the body’s own proteins, from blood, and stimulate the cells to produce healing factors and anti-inflammatory proteins,” she explains when we meet her in Paris during fashion week. “You spin the blood, take out the red blood cells and inject it into the joints so it stops the process of inflammation and reduces the ageing process.”

She went on to develop a tailor-made cream that’s made by mixing a base concoction of her own making with the client’s blood: haute couture for the skin, if you will.

Sturm is in Paris to promote her practice to fashion editors, designers and models. When we meet her she’s ensconced in a suite at Le Bristol, one of the city’s luxury hotels, surrounded by her team and her family. Two bedrooms have been transformed into spa rooms, where facialists perform treatments and Sturm extracts clients’ blood to make her signature potions.

It’s a smart marketing move on the part of Sturm. Although she’s been at the forefront of skincare for two decades and has had her line of products for eight years, she’s only been actively promoting the brand for the last two years.

“I prefer development and research but I have to be involved in the business side too,” says Sturm, who defines herself as “militant” in her approach to skincare.

She started making the blood cream for herself but once her patients discovered it, they clamoured for more products. That’s how she came up with her own line, which now includes cult items such as the Hyaluronic Serum, Sun Drops and the Enzyme Cleanser, as well as supplements and even baby skincare.

According to Sturm, inflammation is the cause of skin problems. Preventing inflammation and hydrating your skin are vital. “You can prevent inflammation by avoiding harsh ingredients on your skin, things like fragrances, mineral oils or lasers and acid peels. We use anti-inflammatory ingredients like purslane and aloe vera that take inflammation out,” she explains.

“My stuff just works. When skin is healthy and inflammation is out, your skin is hydrated then it’s just beautiful.”

As you’d expect from a skin doctor, Sturm has strong opinions on skincare fads. She doesn’t like words such as natural or organic that are common in the industry and prefers to use the word “clean.” “Clean is good,” she explains. “We don’t use toxic ingredients: no mineral oil or perfume. Anything that could irritate the skin is not in the products.”

“If you make an organic or natural product and use all these herbs, they have to be distilled; it’s not that you’re putting grass in them,” she adds. “Many essential oils can actually be bad for your skin.”

“I don’t like retinol because it destroys your skin barrier function and makes your skin vulnerable to pollution, sunlight that can penetrate your skin much more easily and cause premature ageing, pigmentation and even cancer. It’s too aggressive. It dries out your skin.”

Although she is aware of the rapid improvement that one experiences after using retinol, she believes that quick fixes don’t work and that her more gentle method promotes healthy skin that lasts in the long run.

Everything she creates, Sturm explains, starts from her own needs as a woman in her 50s and as a mother. “I started my baby line because I have a four-year-old and I wouldn’t trust any other products on her skin,” she explains.

The baby range, she adds, has been very popular in Asia, where her line launched last year at Joyce Beauty in Hong Kong, with plans to expand throughout the region.

Sturm believes that her natural skin philosophy is perfectly suited for Asians, who are not into heavy make-up and instead prefer a healthy-looking and flawless complexion.

“I started this healthy skin trend,” she says. “I was one of the first doctor brands and people have acknowledged that it works. I’ve always been about natural skin, showing your skin with less make-up. I’m a trendsetter in that way, like Gwyneth, who also likes natural skin.”

The brand has been on a roll recently, expanding rapidly and working with celebrities and influencers to raise awareness. Sturm attributes the rise in popularity to her increased marketing efforts but also to people’s new-found embrace of health and wellness.

She reveals that when she started her line of products almost a decade ago she met with a trend forecaster, who told her that in the next decade people will be more interested in experiences and beauty rather than just accumulating objects as they did in the 1980s and ’90s.

“It’s all about experiences and beauty now,” she says. “With social media you want to produce content and also have good skin. Even though people can use filters, this will eventually change. Showing your natural skin is much more beautiful.”