It has been more than a year since PERS founder and cosmetic surgeon Dr Antoni Calmon launched the skincare brand to the French market. But, now the four-step skincare line has at last come to the UK.
Creating the line was a natural extension of Dr Calmon’s practice. With a reputation built on an ethical approach and what he calls the ‘French touch’ – bespoke, ‘less is more’ procedures with results that appear decidedly God-given, rather than surgeon-given – PERS has simplified the skincare regime to its most high-impact essentials.
PERS skincare by Dr Anthony Calmon
‘My patients were lost. They didn’t understand what all these products were actually doing, and to be honest, neither did I,’ Dr Calmon tells Wallpaper* in his Marylebone clinic (he also has a site in Paris’ exclusive 8th Arrondissement). ‘The process began with me having to really educate myself. I started by surveying as many existing products as possible, and I realised that all of them ultimately fell into one of four categories: protect, enhance, repair, and stimulate.’
These categories provided the acronym, which gives PERS its name. Across each of them, are seven products designed to create the ultimate skincare routine: a quick drying Vitamin C serum, and an organic SPF 50+ which protect against oxidisation and sun exposure respectively; a choice between a rich and light hydrating moisturiser, and an eye contour repair cream; an enhancing multi-function glow balm; and a stimulating retinol.
Whilst the range is designed to be used together in its entirety, if Dr Calmon were to recommend one hero product to his clients, it is the SPF, made with broad-spectrum UV filters and antioxidants. ‘I was very specific about what I wanted the SPF to be – no white-cast, non-sticky, non-comedogenic, matte, and beautifully fragranced. We worked so hard to get it just right; three years of research went into the SPF before we launched. Plus, any dermatologist will tell you that SPF is the single most important anti-ageing product. If you don’t use SPF daily, then your other skincare is practically useless.’
This pragmatism is central to the PERS ethos. ‘There are stronger retinol serums on the market, stronger Vitamin Cs, perhaps. But products with higher percentages are more likely to irritate the skin and put people off using them. What is important is to promote consistency and to encourage a skincare routine that can become a long-term habit. That’s the only way to see results,’ Dr Calmon says.
In a stroke of genius, the high-tolerance 0.3% retinol serum is also infused with menthol, so that users can easily feel it tingling on the skin, and not overapply. ‘I wanted it to be so easy for people to understand the purpose of each product that you would be able to tell even if you couldn’t read: the menthol replicates the stimulating active ingredients, and it even comes in a red tube, which is the colour you will turn if you use too much!'
Whilst Dr Calmon’s background is primarily in aesthetic medicine, in many ways, PERS marks a full circle moment, since he comes from a family that counts generations of pharmacists. The visual identity of PERS – designed by his friend Pierre-Alexis Guine, and distinctly unclinical in appearance, particularly for a doctor-backed brand – is in part inspired by antique apothecary vessels, as well as French heritage beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands.
Even the fragrance of each product is drawn from memories of Dr Calmon’s grandmother, an evocative combination of pink pepper, rosemary and sandalwood. For Dr Calmon, PERS serves as his own Proust’s madeleine. But anyone who has experienced the bitter funk of lesser Vitamin C serums will delight in how pleasant the PERS version reads on the nose.
If the popularity of Dr Calmon’s clinical practice – beloved as he is by his London-based clientele, and huge social media following, for his scrupulous honesty and integrity – is anything to go by, then the introduction of PERS to the United Kingdom is sure to be a resounding success.
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