Finally!

It all first started when I was still under the spell of the Allure magazine’s holy grail in the mid-Nineties. I followed every product, color cosmetic and wished to the high heavens that I were 50 so I could have a diamond scrub to erase my wrinkles. Of course, these days I couldn’t care less. I’m that wash-and-go kind of girl. One that unceremoniously pampers oneself with not much pomp, but of course still with the best products (not that backpacker yet OK).

It was around then in my HMW phase (now I’m just emotionally high-maintenance) when I serendipitously read an article from ironically the patron saint of all HMWs in the world, Naomi Campbell. She extolled on the precious potion called Creme de Corps and said that what she only uses for everything (meaning canoodling with sleazy billionaires to whacking assistants with her phone). If the lotion could speak, it would be the star witness for all her crimes.

Being one so easily swayed, thankfully, I bought a bottle along with other products mentioned such as Kiehl’s Silk Groom (K.D. Lang used it for her mop), Kiehl’s Lip Balm No.1 (used by practically everyone who mattered at that point) and the wonderful Amino Acid shampoo that brought Aruba to your shower with its refreshing coconut scent and I was hooked. This was more than 10 years ago – never been kissed (well, from what I recall anyway) and already soaking in the understated luxury of Kiehl’s. To this day, they are still staples in my bathroom, among other new discoveries like the Creme de Corps washing cream, Sodium PCA moisturiser, suncare, and Grapefruit bathgel.

One of my most treasured Christmas presents, a Rafe travel kit from Ricco and Tina Ocampo, is all stocked with mini versions of Kiehl’s products that I bought for myself last Christmas. Since I travel quite a lot, it’s filled with freebie samples that the company is notorious for giving out, bursting at the pockets – they’re one of my most treasured material possessions. Some people bring pictures of their family to feel at home in cold hotel rooms, I bring my Kiehl’s.

If you look at the bottles and their lack of advertising, you can say the products do indeed speak for themseves. They were formulated in an era when women wore chastity belts and corsets. Until a rather strident Columbia University grad bought the company, retaining the venerable name and expanding it. His son Aaron Morse, a no-nonsense scientist, was one of the people to invent fluoride in toothpaste, helped to formulate penicillin, and was instrumental in the development of the chemical that would fight tuberculosis. He went on to run the business as well with his daughter, and together they formulated new products using natural ingredients just the way an old school apothecary would with brandishes from modern science.

Being a sort of renaissance man, he decided to entertain men in his store with his wild collection of planes, cars, and motorbikes while the ladies lapped up his products for the better good of mankind. Today, every Kiehl’s store has a motorbike, a symbol of his presence in the company.

Now under the ownership of L’Oreal, the brand has expanded its hundreds of products, including color cosmetics, to the world. Manila will soon get a taste of it in the next month. This saves me from those ungodly sephora.com shipping tabs and owing jetsetting friends favors for bringing me that one extra Creme de Corps that I need in every corner of my room.