Retrouvé founders Jami and Klaus Heidegger had some very well-laid plans for their fall launches: The Dermal Defense Hand Cream ($55) would hit just as the seasons were changing for most of the country, giving consumers the option of a hard-hitting, actives-packed solution for combatting dryness with the colder weather.
And then COVID came.
“We just had to get it out,” Jami says, referencing “the old days at Kiehl’s” (her grandfather bought Kiehl’s in 1921 and she worked alongside both her father and him for many years at the legendary brand). “We don’t even have all the packaging finalized and we only have small batches, but we had to get it out. Hand care is a health concern.”
This coming week, the Cream will be available on the brand’s site (you can pre-order it now and anyone who snags one early will also get a 15 mL-size of the popular Baume Ultime with purchase) and, like everything in the Retrouvé line, the Heideggers did not scrimp when it came to the ingredients.
“Everything we do has to have a high concentration of ingredients, be clinically effective and have minimal or no water,” Jami explains.
The new launch continues that theme, with a fragrance-free formula that’s 17-percent humectant and made from a ton of marine extracts, vitamins and antioxidants—including brightening niacinimide, vitamin C and natural retinol alternative bakuchiol—plus sustainable panthenol and avocado oil, two ingredients the family is particularly proud of. The mix makes for an intensely hydrating product that somehow does the impossible of sinking in to skin, but still sticking around post hand-washing.
As Jami explains, the key ingredient of the new product is really the avocado oil, which the family has been farming via the principles of permaculture on their ranch in Malibu—a move they credit for making the ingredients even more potent. After a fire, which destroyed a good portion of the trees, the avocados grew back even stronger and the Heideggers plan to fully move all manufacturing over to the property (where everything is also fully recycled) soon.
One other bonus: “The avocados grow so plentifully there,” Jami says. “We have to give them away!”
