Bordeaux. Immersed among the vineyards, twenty minutes from the city of French wine par excellence, lies Les Sources de Caudalie, a successful experiment undertaken at the hotellerie by Alice and Jérôme Tourbier and created at the vineyard belonging to the Château Smith Haut Lafitte.

It is a hotel with six buildings for the accommodation of guests and it offers three separate restaurants, one Michelin-starred and two gardens studded with installations of contemporary art and dedicated to jogging or bicycle rides. This French paradise also includes a winery: the Château Smith Haut Lafitte as well as a magnificent spa.

Everything here revolves around wine. Indeed, the basis of the Cosm-Ethics of Caudalie is those different elements contained within the actual grapes: «The vineyard is a treasure trove of inexhaustible benefits and riches. The vine extracts that we use come from the French vineyards of Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy» confides Mathilde Thomas.

Caudalie’s Cosm-Ethics owes its name to the combination of a selection of efficient ingredients of natural origin; it does not use any ingredient which might be controversial or undesirable such as, for example, preservatives or elements of animal or polluting origins and it strives to get right up to

100% naturalness. Caudalie’s commitment to the planet is remarkable: since 2012, the cosmetic company has donated 1% of its global turnover to associations working towards environmental protection by joining the “1% for the Planet” initiative. The final aim is to reforest the planet, to the cause of which the company has already contributed considerably by planting 7,368,923 trees with eight million by 2021. In day-to-day life this commitment is represented by a sequence of micro-gestures such as the choice of recycled paper or wood for the packaging of their products, the use of recycled plastic or plastic coming from sustainable sources for the bottles as well as re-utilising the waste water from the spa and so on.

These are the main elements of the grapes that are used in Caudalie’s cosmetics:

• polyphenols, extracted from the grape seeds which possess an- ti-oxidant and anti-wrinkle properties;
• viniferine, a natural extract from the sap of the vine which helps towards the luminosity of the skin and helps in the prevention and treatment of skin blemishes;
• resveratrol, an extract from the vine shoots which tones the skin and softens wrinkles;
• grape water, extracted from organic grapes which is intensely hydrated and soothes sensitive skins.Caudalie has created the very first Spa Vinotherapie: 1500 square metres with treatment rooms and covered and open swimming pools. There is an array of special treatments such as the famous Crushed Cabernet Scrub, Honey and Wine Wrap, Barrel Bath, and Winemaker’s Massage and the Premier Cru Treatment for the Face. These are unique treatments that exploit the benefits of the thermal water springs which flow at 540 metres below ground – a clear demonstration of the potential of vine extracts.