PARIS — Groupe Clarins claims to have the ultimate skinny on slimmers.
With its latest skin care product, called Lift Minceur Anti-Caption, or Body Lift Contour Control, the company says it has doubled the firming power of its previous contouring gel — Body Lift 2000, which came out in 1997. This is thanks to a new formulation paired with a body-contouring exercise regime that purportedly increases the product’s effectiveness. Body Lift Contour Control includes active ingredients such as liana from Peru and extracts of geranium, which when combined are said to stimulate two molecules that help regulate the elimination of excess lipids in cells. Body Lift Contour Control also comes with directions for an exercise routine meant to increase the product’s slimming potential. “The idea is help yourself and Clarins will help you,” explained Veronique Gohmann, international corporate manager for Clarins. “You can apply the product without doing anything, but by also doing the exercises there is the possibility to eliminate more fatty tissue.”
The regime developed by Clarins estheticians involves a series of muscle exercises and massage techniques a client can perform herself while lying on the floor and pushing against a chair.
It is not the first time Clarins includes specialized exercise techniques with one of its products: Its Lift Minceur Visage, which was launched in 1998, also comes with suggested exercise directions.
Nor is it the first time the company’s anticellulite product has been revamped. It is the second round of reformulation for the company’s slimming product, whose first iteration in 1995 was called Body Lift.
Clarins said it hurried to bring out the new version when it learned certain exercises boost its effectiveness. “Since Clarins discovered a new way of eliminating fat, we couldn’t wait until 2001 [to introduce the product] because we wanted to bring it to our customers,” said Gohmann.
Body Lift Contour Control will be launched globally in March — when women start thinking about their silhouettes in beach gear, said Gohmann — at the same time that single- and double-page advertising break in the press.
A 200-ml. bottle will be priced at $34. (Dollars are converted at current exchange rates in France.) And while Gohmann refused to talk numbers, industry sources estimate 1 million units of the product will be sold in the first year worldwide, or roughly $34 million at retail.