Luxury: February 2020

What dreams are made of: Dragons of Walton Street’s Helicopter Bed

It may have spent the past 40 years creating the most elaborate children’s furniture for the most exclusive clients (Princes William and Harry and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice have all slept in the company’s nurseries), but Dragons of Walton Street readily admits that its “most technical venture to date” started life as a bespoke commission from a client in Dubai.

The Helicopter Bed is sculpted from steel and high-density resin by British master carpenters in London, and hand-painted in West Sussex. It also marks the first time the manufacturer has worked with fibreglass, which it used to create the piece’s smooth curves and high-polished finish. The bed is designed to include both a tail rotor and rotary wing, while integrated LED bulbs light up the tail lights, roof and control panel on the dashboard. The latter can be further personalised with a joystick, in-built USB ports, walkie-talkies and speakers.

The bed also comes with an optional top-deck desk, should young flyers take it upon themselves to steer the craft upon waking. “We relish the challenge of making any child’s dream a reality when it comes to beds,” says Lucinda Croft, creative director and daughter of Dragons’ founder Rosie Fisher.

“The Helicopter Bed is so much more than just a place for aspiring pilots to rest their heads. It unlocks a whole world of imagination.” Other beds include a James Bond-inspired vintage car and a Cinderella-style carriage bed, each a bespoke commission that is now available to buy for up to Dh264,000.

Customisation and bespoke creations lie at the heart of Dragons’ oeuvre. From one-off beds, chairs and bookcases to colourful toy boxes, rocking horses and hand-painted artwork, the manufacturer will work with any spec, design and material, and handcrafts its products in-house from start to finish. The delight lies in the details, as you can choose the upholstery of the leather, colours of the carpet, personalised text, plaques and flags, and even the tiles on the floor and trim of the curtains in the case of Dragons’ detailed doll’s houses.       

The company’s latest products include the My Feelings Alphabet framed print, a visual tool to help children understand and articulate emotion (think A for adventurous, B for brave, C for curious, D for driven and the like), and the Blossom Tree collection created in collaboration with luxury wallpaper designer Juliet Travers.

Croft says that the UAE is one of Dragons of Walton Street’s biggest markets, with more than 30 per cent of its annual revenue coming from clients in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “Dragons is lucky enough to have had Arab clients from the very beginning and has established a long-standing trust with these families, which has in turn led to personal recommendations to friends and family,” she says.

In addition to shipping to the UAE, a selection of Dragons’ products are available from Nest for Kids in Abu Dhabi Mall and there is talk of opening a showroom in Dubai in the future.

www.dragonsofwaltonstreet.com

Panna Munyal

As years go, they don’t get much better than 2019 for chef Mauro Colagreco. It started with a third Michelin star for Mirazur, his restaurant nestled in a far corner of southern France; then, that same restaurant took the title of best in the world; and Colagreco was named chef of the year – twice. “It’s a year we won’t forget in a while,” he says, his expression suggesting he is still trying to take it all in.

But there’s little time to bask. Colagreco is entering the new year by taking his first steps into the UAE dining scene. Perhaps steps is underselling it; he enters with more of a leap, as he takes on not one, but three restaurants at Dubai’s stalwart resort, the One&Only Royal Mirage in Al Sufouh.

“It’s a big challenge,” he says as we settle down in the lounge of Celebrities, the fine-dining restaurant he now helms. “Dubai is not an easy place for fine dining. I am so happy to be starting in a good place, with a good partner. The Royal Mirage is still at the top after 20 years, and I think that is very rare, not only in Dubai, but in any city.”

If anyone can make it work, it’s Colagreco. Born in Argentina to a largely Italian family, good food is in his genes. He recalls his childhood as a permanent open table, with friends and neighbours forever in and out of his grandparents’ home, never leaving without being fed something delicious. “Food was always in our home. The best memories from my childhood were always centred around food,” he recalls.

But it was only after studying for a bachelor’s degree in literature and two years reading economics that he realised his love for food ran deeper than his grandmother’s cooking. “Something clicked,” he says. “I understood numbers were not my passion.”

It was then that he enrolled into culinary school in Buenos Aires, shortly before leaving for Europe at the age of 20. “Very quickly, I understood I needed to be in Europe to learn the basics. I left thinking I would come back to Argentina in three or four years – that was 20 years ago.”

He chose France as his European base, arriving with nothing more than his phone. His first years in the country were spent working with Bernard Loiseau in his three-Michelin-star Burgundy restaurant, before moving to Paris for a stint at Alain Passard’s famed L’Arpege, as well as spending time working with Guy Martin and Alain Ducasse. It was six years after arriving in France that Colagreco had the chance to open his own restaurant. Before Mirazur, the chef had never been to Menton, a Medieval town on the French Riviera.

“I arrived in February and we opened in the April,” he says. “It was like starting on a blank page and I was able to build something very personal and very new. It’s very special.”

Menton, as it turns out, sits on the edge of the Italian border, bringing Colagreco right back to his roots. “We have the ocean, we have the mountains, all in the same place. In the middle of that, we have a chef who is Argentina-born with Italian roots, training in France, with a Brazilian wife – I really don’t believe in borders,” he says.

Instead, Colagreco takes his inspiration from the land around him, growing vegetables in the gardens of the restaurant and working with local producers to source the ingredients that have made Mirazur such a success. “I believe more in the emotions of the food; the origin, the country. You need to understand the land and understand the place. I keep all my origins out and start from there.”

Thanks to the rich and fertile Mediterranean coastline, this approach has been magic for Mirazur, something that was confirmed when, in June 2019, it took the top spot in World’s 50 Best Restaurants guide. “It was amazing to achieve something so incredible, it’s something we never dreamed of. I’m so proud of the team,” he says. “At the beginning, it was hard for us because we started our own restaurant in a place that was not home. It was tough and a lot of hard work. But to be at the top of the culinary game, it’s amazing.”

But Dubai is not the South of France. The desert landscape of the UAE is a different ball game for Colagreco, yet that hasn’t stopped his push for local ingredients. “It’s a challenge, of course. We work as much as possible with locals and with farmers, and that is something we plan to increase,” he says. “Just this week, we had a farmer in for dinner from Al Ain, who proposed we work with him. When you are determined, you can find solutions. With all this rain Dubai has been having, who knows what will start to grow.” As if on cue, heavy rain lashes against the restaurant’s window. “You see?” Colagreco gestures. “Anything is possible.”

With this, he tells me that the chefs at Celebrities have created a little garden of their own, inspired by the six weeks they spent training at Mirazur last summer. “They have flowers and the first plants of tomatoes growing,” he says. “It’s just the beginning, but I am so happy and they are so proud of them.”

Tiny garden aside, Celebrities will not be an extension of Mirazur. However, you will feel the famed restaurant’s soul in the menu, the chef reveals. It will follow the same format, in that it will offer diners the choice of two menus: one that they will be able to see and choose from, and one that is blind. “That’s something new for Dubai,” Colagreco explains. “It’s a menu that takes some confidence from both us and the guests, so it’s a good challenge. I think our approach is different to classic fine dining, which is so straight. We believe in a new approach. We want things to be more relaxed.”

While the menu at Celebrities will change regularly, it features all the hallmarks of Colagreco’s famous style. Think light flavours, fresh seafood and seasonal fruit and vegetables. “One of the plates I have made here is fat duck – foie gras with dates and citrus. We have started little by little to introduce Middle Eastern flavours in our fine-dining cuisine, which is new for me and something I am excited about,” he says. “The challenge is to try to understand what you can find here to make good food. Because Mirazur is not only me, it’s not only my team, but it’s the place, the producers, the product of the area that is so high and so fresh, and that makes all the difference. If we try to reproduce that here, it will be a bad copy.”

As well as Celebrities, he has designed the menus for The One&Only Royal Mirage’s Beach Bar & Grill, for which he has turned to his South American roots for inspiration, and Esplanade pool bar, which focuses on simple yet tasty food, he says.

He might be a chef at the top of his game, but Colagreco knows all too well the challenges that the fine dining scene in Dubai can pose, and he enters the market with just the right mix of confidence and caution. “It’s a very competitive market,” he says. “Five years ago, it was all the casual restaurants that were doing well, but fine dining was difficult. I think the city is more ready right now. There have been a lot of openings and closures, but we believe the people here love food, they love to eat out and they love the experience. I really think it’s a good time for this kind of proposal.

“I don’t believe in starting out wanting to be on top; it took 14 years of work at Mirazur to get there. Here, it’s just the beginning,” Colagreco adds. “I think one of the best moments of the restaurant is the beginning. You have all the passion, the energy, and you believe in what you are doing. It’s the beginning of something good.”

Gucci’s leather Princetown loafers, with their sleek shape, horsebit buckle and optional shearling lining, have become a footwear staple in the fashion world. They come in solid hues, metallic or velvet finishes and gingham patterns, sometimes topped with embroidered bee and floral motifs or the brand’s trademark red and green stripe. But this season, an entirely new rendition of the shoe is making its debut. Lined with lamb’s wool, this It-slipper is decorated with Mickey Mouse emblems that dance across a brown background of double-G logos. 

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2020 is the Year of the Rat, and to commemorate the Chinese New Year, which commenced on January 25, Gucci joined forces with one of the world’s most famous rodents, for a limited-edition collection of accessories, clothing and jewellery. Knitted sweaters, tracksuits, T-shirts and hoodies from the collection feature the playful Disney character, who also makes his mark on duffels, backpacks, luggage sets, clunky trainers, rubber slides, watches, shawls and bucket hats. For Dh10,950, you can get your hands on the brand’s cult leather Marmont bag reimagined with fanciful illustrations of Mickey and Minnie. 

These launched hot on the heels of another luxury brand’s appropriation of Disney. Miu Miu, known for balancing ladylike style with a fresh, rebellious flair, wrapped up 2019 by releasing a capsule collection of festive sweaters that featured famed Disney characters from productions such as Bambi, Alice in Wonderland and The Aristocats. Priced at Dh3,900, the bright, childlike sweaters have been selling swiftly on sites such as Farfetch.com and Mytheresa.com.

They’re characters you’d spot on children’s clothing and school bags, yet adult men and women are shelling out thousands of dirhams to don stylish reinterpretations of these cartoon characters. They certainly make for good Instagram fodder, but is there something psychological at play? Are these wealthy consumers in the midst of a midlife crisis, provoking grown men and women to gravitate towards famous characters more commonly plastered on plastic lunch boxes and childrens’ colouring books? Not exactly. The cartoons are simply part of a wider style trend. Nostalgia has been a recurring theme on the runways of late, with the resurgence of everything from bum bags to bucket hats – and it’s what’s fuelling this fashion fervour, too.

“Disney is a part of everyone. It’s what we have all grown up watching as children, and then when we grow up, with our families,” explains Heidi Shara, a Dubai resident and founder of online personal styling service, Wear That, and ex-luxury womenswear buyer for Chalhoub. “So, the fact that we can wear something that is iconic, and has been part of us since we were children, teamed with some of the coolest brands, means we can re-live a little bit of our childhood, while still looking cool.”

Disney characters hold universal appeal, offering fashion lovers, irrespective of their race, religion or culture, a chance to turn back time. “Fashion and fairy tales go hand in hand; they’re both built from similar themes of escapism, nostalgia and mystery. Disney’s captivating illustrations have served as an inspiration to both pop culture and fashion over the past 118 years – they rekindle memories and resonate with people from a broad spectrum,” explains Corinne Amelia, chief executive of personal styling and shopping agency Style Me Divine.

“Our generation has grown up watching, dreaming and fantasising about Disney. The highlight of every childhood holiday was visiting Disneyland and being overwhelmed with emotion at the chance to meet and greet Donald Duck. Nothing quite brings those feelings back like being able to relive them as an adult, and now you get to look insanely stylish at the same time. Collaborations with Disney fundamentally make luxury more relatable in a playful yet pristine approach; the grown-up way to love Disney,” she says.

Shara’s favourite instance of Disney in designer fashion was Kenzo’s 2016 Jungle Book-themed collaboration. And while characters such as Mowgli, Alice and Mickey may be timeless features of Disney’s storied legacy, some brands are experimenting with newer films – such as Frozen, for instance. “I have such a soft spot for Frozen, so of course I wanted to get my hands on a Comme des Garçons X Frozen tee,” says Shara, who points out that these collaborations are often timed to coincide with the anniversaries of Disney films, or with new releases.

Commes des Garçons launched its Frozen collection to mark the one-year anniversary of the popular motion picture, and when the new Cinderella film was released in 2015, luxury accessories brand Charlotte Olympia launched a Cinderella-themed capsule collection, which reimagined her famous glass slippers. These transparent platform heels, priced at Dh6,960, were adorned with Swarovski crystals. Another item from the collection was an orange, Swarovski-studded, suede pumpkin-shaped handbag, costing Dh3,655.

While some of these luxury fashion pieces may seem gimmicky, or like one-off trend pieces without longevity, Amelia says that on the contrary, they can hold timeless appeal. “Gucci’s iconic Ace trainer was a hero piece of the last decade, as was its Marmont handbag – team these with Mickey Mouse and they are guaranteed classics,” she says. And while it might feel like we’re seeing a resurgence of Disney in fashion now, the luxury world’s relationships with the fantasy film powerhouse is in fact deeply rooted. These collaborations, both old and new, have historically sold like hot cakes – often garnering stupendous resale value.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Cartier produced limited-edition 14-karat gold charm bracelets topped with enamel Disney character charms – and while they retailed for under Dh400 when they were first released, they’ve now become rare and coveted. Last year, a Cartier bracelet depicting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs sold at auction for Dh436,109, and a Cartier Pinocchio bracelet is currently on the Christie’s auction block.

“Disneyana” is a term that has come to cover Disney-themed memorabilia, which includes clothing, accessories and jewellery. Maha Al Quaiti, marketing manager at The Luxury Closet, which sells pre-loved designer goods, says that while clothing usually has a lower resale value than accessories, since ready-to-wear trends are constantly in flux, limited-edition Disney fashion pieces have a hype value that makes them more in-demand.

“The aim of these collaborations is to target a younger generation, or art-driven individuals, and they create a big buzz, so the pieces become more expensive when they’re no longer produced,” she explains. Red Valentino put out an entire Snow White-inspired collection in 2014, which featured clothing, clutches and shoes with punchy prints modelled after poisoned apples and the heroine’s trademark red hair bow – some of these items landed online at The Luxury Closet, alongside a Cinderella clutch by Charlotte Olympia.  

Though many high-end collections that pay homage to Disney are bright and peppy, some designers reimagine the characters through a darker lens, influenced by edgier, grunge-inspired fashion – a savvy approach, since streetwear has been dominating the runways in recent years. Bambi first debuted on the catwalks at Paris Fashion Week in 2013, when Riccardo Tisci incorporated images of the loveable deer in sweatshirt, T-shirt, tote bag and backpack designs for Givenchy. These were, for the most part, black, and in keeping with the aesthetic of the fashion house, borderline gothic. Amelia says Tisci made Bambi “a style icon” that year, as the brand’s Bambi-themed products reached cult status.

Marc Jacobs’s 2018 Mickey Mouse collection also took a streetwear approach and featured deconstructed, graffiti-style images of the mouse on denims and oversized hoodies. “Nowadays, work and day attire are becoming more casual and fun, and luxury brands are embracing youth culture by including famed 20th-century figures such as Mickey Mouse or Bambi in their clothing lines. This kind of collaboration is universal, and the main aim is to attract millennials,” says Al Quaiti.  

So, while Disney fashion items may certainly evoke a sense of nostalgia for older consumers, they’ve also helped luxury fashion houses appeal to a younger audience. Coach, for example, was an ageing American leatherwear label before Stuart Vevers joined as creative director in 2013 and gave the brand a more fresh and youthful identity, pushing brighter colours, trendier silhouettes and younger celebrity ambassadors, including Selena Gomez and Michael B Jordan. In 2016, Coach debuted its first Disney collaboration and a year later, the two teamed up again on a wider range of leather goods featuring both Mickey and Minnie.

In 2018, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were the muses for the label’s A Dark Fairy Tale collection. “It was fun to explore the darker side of these stories and mix Disney’s nostalgic charm with Coach’s creativity to bring my memories from these fairy tales to life within our world of accessories and ready-to-wear. The Disney spirit truly reinforces the new youthful perspective we are bringing to luxury at Coach,” stated Vevers.

The names of the Seven Dwarfs – such as Grumpy, Happy and Sneezy, were embroidered as patch-like appliques on clutches, cross-body bags and totes, while flowers, jewels and poisoned apples were plastered on hoodies, T-shirts, jackets, shoes and a leather notebook – the latter was bought by this writer, and it is where, once upon a time, she started jotting down notes for this very story.

Powered by close-ups of porcelain skin, the 12-step, or in some cases even 17-step, K-beauty rituals have been the subject of thousands of magazine editorials, YouTube tutorials and social media posts. Technologically impressive, K-beauty has introduced some undeniably fun innovations.

But in fiddling about every night with cleansing sticks and cushion compacts, scooping out jiggly “bounce cream”, patting on an essence, pumping out a different serum for the eye area, cheeks, forehead and neck, then unwrapping and smoothing on a hydrating sleeping pack (panda face, cat face or cute message? Up to you), we have basically been slathering on chemical after chemical (well, apart from the snail mucus that earned South Korea much publicity a few years ago. Naturally high in hydrating hyaluronic acid, that was a little too natural for some consumers). Once the novelty has worn off, who has the time or energy, let alone the bathroom cabinet space, to plod through that kind of overcomplicated ritual?

Hence the allure of German skincare, which is known for its simplicity. Cleanser, toner, moisturiser: quick, efficient and easy to use, with the emphasis, like German engineering, on performance and function. Products applied, cotton-wool pads chucked in the bin, and you’re done. Three or four minutes max.

Germany maintains strict rules about the safety and quality of its skincare. The country’s authorities also approve far fewer ingredients for use than many other countries, such as the United States. At a time when people are increasingly concerned about the provenance of everything they buy, that is reassuring.

However, it’s not only their relatively small number of comprehensible ingredients and the thrifty straightforwardness of their delivery systems (basically, a pot) that make German products so appealing. Traditionally based on medicinal plants and herbs, much of German skincare is still composed of ingredients grown the way they were a century or so ago. Not on the kind of pesticide-soaked mega-farms that supply to many major well-known brands now, but on smaller farms run on organic lines, without chemical additions, or bio-dynamically, using composting and crop rotation to keep the soil healthy.

With the market for clean beauty on the rise – this section of the skincare market grew 44 per cent in 2018, as opposed to skincare’s growth overall of 13 per cent – German-made creams and lotions chime perfectly with the zeitgeist. Along, of course, with the clean beauty mantra: “Don’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth.”

Radiant skin, as most of us have come to wryly recognise, is mostly about what we eat and how we live on a day-to-day basis. But what we put on our skin has a considerable effect on its outer layers, and can also, depending on molecule size, seep into our tissues and blood stream. That’s why skincare products should ideally be as pure and chemical-free as our food.

One of the first skincare pioneers to live by (or at least sell by) the clean beauty mantra was German-born doctor, Max Huber. He was the rocket scientist who formulated the famous La Mer – still a bestseller, at about €125 (Dh506) for 30ml – while trying to heal burns he sustained in his laboratory. In the 1980s – he launched it in 1983 – he was absolutely everywhere, demonstrating its purity to beauty editors and department store buyers by taking a fingerful from a pot and eating it.

Yet since the 1980s, as the skincare business has exploded, most formulations have become evermore toxic. Shockingly, of the 70,000 skincare products listed on the “Skin Deep” database of cosmetics and skincare investigated by American activist organisation Environmental Working Group – which unmasks the not-so-beautiful side of the beauty industry – only 1,250 have been judged to contain nothing potentially toxic or provenly carcinogenic.

None of the parabens, phthalates or formaldehyde in many of the other 68,750 products, that is to say. Scary. But it makes the traditional image of the German woman with her healthy, all-natural look – rosy cheeks, unmade-up skin, shining eyes – more alluring than ever in an age obsessed with transparency, authenticity and super-purity.

Valued at €17 billion in 2018, German skincare has a long pedigree. Nivea, one of the best-known face creams, and the world’s first stable water-in-oil emulsion, was formulated by German chemist Dr Isaac Lifschutz and launched in 1911. Kate Winslet and Joan Collins have both said they use it. Purity has been a prime selling point for German skincare ever since the organic Weleda, a Swiss-German brand, launched in 1921, solving the problems of many sensitive-skinned folk – inexpensively, too; most items in the range still sell for under €25.

More recently launched brands include Lavera – which comes from verum, the Latin word for truth, and founded by Thomas Haase in Hanover in 1987. The brand produces more than 300 organic ingredients itself for its 280-product line. Just Pure, meanwhile, sells its small-batch products mostly to top spas, harvesting its all-organic ingredients only according to the phases of the Moon. “So sometimes we have only a couple of days for production,” says founder Gabriela Just.

Many of Germany’s most famous lines, however, have been – and continue to be – doctor-led. After all, deservedly or not, there’s nothing like a white coat to lend an air of trustworthiness. The country’s best-known organic line, Dr Hauschka, was launched in 1931. Its delicate lotions – based on ingredients such as calendula, rose and lavender, as close to 100 per cent organic as possible – were developed by a small group of idealists that included the eponymous doctor’s friend, Dr Rudolf Steiner, a great proponent of biodynamic farming.

Even the scent of Dr Hauschka’s bestselling Rose Day Cream (about €30.50 for 30ml) makes you feel soothed. Four tonnes of rose petals are needed to make just a kilo of the rose oil that is its principle ingredient. And the light Night Serum, designed to let the skin regenerate by itself instead of suffocating under a rich night cream, has no doubt simplified many night-time regimes. Users and enthusers include Julia Roberts, Kylie Minogue and Jennifer Aniston.

The star of the new generation of German doctor-led lines? Made in Germany might not be as powerful a selling-point on a face cream as Made in Italy is on a jacket, if it weren’t for Dr Barbara Sturm. It is perhaps the Düsseldorf resident who, more than anyone, can be credited with kick-starting the current craze for German skincare.

A former orthopaedic surgeon, she radiates health and reliability. In her twenties, however, she suffered from skin problems that nothing seemed to cure. The “blood cream” she launched to such excitement in 2003 came about after she’d seen the soothing, anti-inflammatory results of the plasma she injected into her patients’ joints and wondered if it might have an equally effective result if applied to the face. It did.

The cream got massive publicity, but was complicated to deliver, since it involved each buyer giving a small sample of their blood and then waiting a few days while it was added to their own pot of cream. Fine in a spa setting, but impractical at beauty counters. Sensibly, however, she followed it up in 2013 with a simpler Molecular Cosmetics range – serums, masks, cleansers and moisturisers packaged with exquisite minimalism – and has occupied the bestseller slot at Space NK pretty much continuously ever since. That’s despite, or perhaps because of, charging €290 for 30ml of Super Anti-Ageing Serum.

Professor Augustinus Bader had an even better story. The shy director of applied stem cell biology at the University of Leipzig caused paroxysms of delight and desire when in 2018 he launched a single product called, simply, The Cream. After spending 30 years researching how to treat child burns victims, he’d formulated a gel that eliminated the need for a skin graft – The Cream was powerful, containing a mix of amino acids, high-grade vitamins, and oils of evening primrose, argan and avocado.

Plus, he’d launched it to raise funds to continue his research. “The best cream I have ever used,” enthused Carla Bruni. Other celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham and Margot Robbie.

The endearing professor has since added The Rich Cream to his line, also selling at about €205 for 50ml and also based on technology that directs the natural ingredients to activate stem cells within the body. And if that isn’t a win-win story that makes you feel virtuous about spending hundreds on a face cream, what is?

Meanwhile, Dr Timm Golueke – one of Germany’s top dermatologists, with a practice near Valentino and Jil Sander on Maximilianstrasse in Munich – has made his name by being the first person to use fern in skincare. Fern was the first plant to emerge from the sea and flourish on land, and being an evergreen naturally highly resistant to sunlight makes it a powerful anti-inflammatory ingredient. Royal Fern products such as the Phytoactive Anti-Ageing cream, at €235 for 50ml, are thus logically effective on rosacea and to protect against sun damage.

When I met him recently at the launch of the new Urban Retreat day spa in London, where he is now seeing clients for a week each month, Dr Golueke told me he’d visited South Korea for research. He’d been very impressed by some of the technology, such as their Ultraformer, he said, which uses ultrasound to tighten the skin. “But I was so surprised, when I went to Seoul,” he added earnestly. “I saw so much bad skin.”

PS. Remember BB creams, or “blemish balms”, an apparent South Korean invention that in 2011 started the whole K-beauty thing? It was invented in the 1950s by a German. Dermatologist Dr Christine Schrammek developed the balm as a way to protect her patients’ skin after a chemical peel and to give them some colour at the same time.