Front and Centre with Nannette de Gaspé

After years working behind the scenes in private equity, Canadian Nannette de Gaspé is moving front and centre with her eponymous face-mask brand. The tagline? “Wearable technology meets luxury cosmetics.” It is now available at major retailers around the world including Selfridges, Colette, Barneys and Holt Renfrew. It’s also been raved about in magazines like Vogue and Allure. Here, she talks to us about business, beauty, and finding her voice. —Aileen Lalor

Aileen: Talk us through your background. How did you make the leap from business to beauty? 
Nannette: I’ve worked in private equity for many years. I’m also on the board of the National Research Council and am an advisor to the senior management of Holt Renfrew. About a year and a half ago we were presented with an investment opportunity in a biotech company that had developed technology to deliver active ingredients deep into skin, as far as the bloodstream, by dry-printing the formulation into a ‘Techstile’ mask, which had a cashmere-like feel. We looked at the mask and were fascinated. They were able to demonstrate how powerful it was. With any kind of formulation they put onto it—scarring creams, cellulite creams, you name it—the effect was multiplied versus application on skin. We invested in the company and I took over as executive chairman to help the company commercialise the technology. Many of the world’s major cosmetics companies were interested and I went to Paris last September to discuss working with some of them. While I was there, I met the head buyer from Selfridges and showed him the masks. He said, “This is the bomb! This is the most amazing thing. We want you to launch the brand.” It made perfect sense—we had this great product, technology, clinical results and it would take years to get to market if we worked with the major cosmetic companies. So we did it ourselves, launched in May 2016, ridiculous success!

Aileen: How does it feel to be centre stage now, after a long career behind the scenes?
Nannette: It’s an interesting thing. For most of my life I’ve not stood front and centre. I’ve always let someone else do it. It’s only in the last few years as a woman that I would really I would say found my voice. People say to me: “What are you doing? This is the most competitive industry. You’re never going to survive it,” and I say, “I don’t know what I don’t know, but I’m just going forward.” Two things have driven me very much: letting go of my fears, and not being attached to the outcome. I don’t believe that this will fail, I believe in the technology and the product, but whatever happens, it’s all about the journey and I’m having a ball. Someone asked me why I was risking my reputation on this. My reputation? You know what? I’m growing. I’ve never been so passionate! I’ve been in banking all my life. I’ve sat quietly at meetings. You wouldn’t see me animated. This has brought out something that was inside me—the creative side, the passionate side. If we can all discover those things in our lives and take that chance, it’s amazing.

Aileen: Why are your masks dry, instead of wet, like most sheet masks?
Nannette: All creams, serums and wet masks contain water—wet masks are on average 80 per cent water, with five to seven per cent active ingredients. Ours are 87 per cent active ingredients, so you’re able to deliver a much more intense amount into the system. When you put a wet mask on, the water is absorbed and the actives stay on the surface, so you go out in the environment, the water starts to evaporate and the actives are exposed to oxidation and degradation. In this case, it’s the opposite: there’s no water. The actives, which include plant extracts and peptides, are activated by your skin pH and body temperature. They go deep into skin and stay there in a pure form to feed upwards for hours after the mask has been applied.

Aileen: What kind of results can we expect from using the masques?
Nannette: We did clinical testing in the top lab in France on women with an average age of 58, which is a tougher skin to see results in (usually, clinicals are done with an average age of 40-something). Three hours after one use there was up to 20 per cent reduction in wrinkles, up to 62 per cent increase in hydration and up to 11 per cent improvement in pigmentation. All these are clear clinical measurements—depth of wrinkles, hydration levels, darkness of pigmentation—not observation by participants. It’s not just a temporary cosmetic effect. The ingredients are actually repairing skin from within.

Aileen: Are they designed to be used like conventional masks – ie once or twice a week as part of a regular skincare regime?
Nannette: Each mask has enough active ingredients to be used three times for 15 minutes each time. We know you see results with one use, and more results with consecutive uses – a more reparative effect. We say you can use it once in a while, once a month, once a week, three days in a row for a more curing effect. We don’t suggest that you replace your skincare regime with this, but when you put it on, you don’t need other skincare afterwards except sunscreen during the day. I use the Youth Revealed Masque for Face while I’m blow-drying my hair. It doesn’t stick to your face like a wet mask. Instead, it hooks here [over the ears twice, using loops that extend from the temples and the chin].

Aileen: What’s the long-term plan for the Nannette De Gaspé brand?
Nannette: Right now we have products for the face, eyes, neck, mouth and hands. We’re working on a mesotherapy mask with vitamins, minerals, hyaluronic acid—everything that a doctor would inject. We know that we can deliver to the same place as needles. That’ll be out in September 2017. We’re investigating administering ingredients like Botox but that’s a pharmaceutical application so won’t be under the Nannette de Gaspé brand. We’re also working on a range called Plump & Lift, which is designed for the breasts and buttocks—you place the Techstile inside your underwear. Last summer, one of the women in our labs tested it on one breast. It grew a cup size and lasted a month and a half. When she went on vacation she had to put a pad in one cup of her bikini! Plump & Lift will be out in winter 2017. We’re interested in developing exfoliant masks, and eventually we will produce a full skincare range too.

Aileen: How successful have you been so far?
Nannette: It’s been phenomenal. We’ve been written up in at least 80 articles around the world in titles like the UK’s Daily Mail and French and American Vogue. US beauty magazine Allure had it analysed by a cosmetic chemist, who said it was a, “wearable technology innovation that could change the mask game as we know it.” It’s sold in places like Barneys, Holt Renfrew and Selfridges—stores that are looking for innovation—and we’re going into Net-a-porter in the next couple of weeks. And we only did our pre-launch in May 2016! Where are we going to be in a year? To the moon, Alice!

Aileen: What’s your personal beauty regime like?
Nannette: An exfoliant once a week to take away all the dead skin cells to allow more effective delivery of other ingredients you’re applying. I cleanse, tone, always apply a serum, then moisturizer and sunscreen every day. At night, retinol cream after the serum and a rich anti-aging cream on top of that. I go to the gym at six every morning, come home and drink my green juice and have a light breakfast—I have a very healthy lifestyle.

Aileen: Typically Canadians are quite relaxed about beauty in comparison to people from Europe or Asia. Do you think we’re getting more diligent?
Nannette: I really think we are. The person who first called me about this investment, who presented it to me, she said forget fashion, it’s all anti-aging. All the trends now are health and wellness. Athleisure, everyone’s into green juices and powders. Everyone from very young ages is into maintaining their skin. The whole beauty industry is going to get bigger and bigger.

Aileen: How Canadian is your brand?
Nannette: Completely! Everything is developed, created, financed, produced, branded and packaged here.

Nannette De Gaspé Youth Revealed Masques for Face ($145), Eyes ($110), Neck ($120) Mouth ($100) and Hands ($100) are available at Holt Renfrew and Holtrenfrew.ca. You can also buy a collection, the Library of Skin Seduction, which contains all five masks.