“Mon a day in early spring, it rains intermittently and it is still cold, and you are in Gaujacq, in the South-West of France, walking through the supply chains of Camelia Farm from Chanel Beauty. You are among the first to see it and, not without emotion, you cannot help but ask yourself: “How is it that I feel like a wet chick and these delicate flowers defy the climate with their perfection?” writes Claudia Ciocca, beauty expert and influencer, traveling with Chanel Beauty.
Chanel beauty, journey among the camellias with Claudia Ciocca
The answer soon comes from two prominent figures of this place. The first is the international camellia expert Jean Thoby which explains how these flowers do not have a senescence program: “Genetically, they are not programmed to die. For this reason, the more time passes, the more beautiful and strong they are ».
Claudia Ciocca at Chanel Camelia Farm holding a camellia, Coco Chanel’s favorite flower (Photo credits: Federico Avanzini)
And then, Nicola Fuzzati – Director of Innovation and Development of Cosmetic Ingredients – tells us that the ability of camellias to maintain their beauty unchanged even in hostile conditions derives from the fact that they are rich in catechins and polyphenols, with marked moisturizing properties.
Camellia, Chanel Beauty’s beauty flower
At which everything becomes clear, you have for the umpteenth time the confirmation of the fact that Coco Chanel was a visionary – the camellia, coincidentally, was her favorite flower – and you also understand why you can’t do without Hydra Beauty Micro Sérum: because again, coincidentally, it is packed with active ingredients extracted from camelliaa flower that defies time and adversity.
Claudia Ciocca at Chanel Camelia Farm holding a camellia, Coco Chanel’s favorite flower (Photo credits: Federico Avanzini)
At this point you also realize why Chanel has decided to make it a botanical treasure, so much so that it has started to grow, right here in Gaujacq.
Chanel Camelia Farm, where history and technology come together
It all started in 1998 with a collaboration between Chanel and Jean Thoby and its botanical garden-conservatory (which houses more than 2000 varieties of camellia). First to carry out rresearches and experiments on flowersthen to take some plants and start creating plantations, to give birth, less than a kilometer away.
Jean Thoby, at the gates of his botanical garden (Photo credits: Federico Avanzini)
Chanel Camelia Farm is a farm that has not only saved the Camellia Japonica Alba Plena from extinction, but which was immediately distinguished by the vision under which it was conceived: a model of sustainability which winks at Jean Thoby’s belief that “plants will save humanity”.
The research project that creates ingredients for skincare
It may seem like an exaggeration but it is not, believe me. Precisely because the Research Chanel is inspired by nature to research new ingredients and, at the Camelia Farm, everything revolves around respecting it.
Camellia, the protagonist of Chanel’s Hydra Beauty formulations (Photo credits: Federico Avanzini)
Cultivation follows a agreological model which has obtained the highest HVE (Haute Valeur Environnementale) certification and which contributes to preservation of biodiversityso much so that it has favored the reappearance of a protected species, the marsh lycena.
It is surprising how thanks to this project Chanel not only vouched for the production conditions of the emblematic flower of its skincare treatmentsbut also as thanks to the in-house Phytochemistry Laboratory, managed by Nicola Fuzzati, he is also able to analyze it closely and master its quality.
This confirms the first impression I had when setting foot in the camellia fields in the morning: beauty can be cultivated in Gaujacq. Literally.
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