Insight
Essence
Ancient secrets, modern applications In a Czech monastery three hours outside Prague, monks toil over an ancient skincare recipe once used to heal the wounds of gladiators. Gavin Nazareth on this Fresh take on beauty. 56
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Some of the ingredients that go into Crème Ancienne.
ur destination is unknown. Even when we get to it, almost three hours later, the location must remain a mystery, and photographs are banned, as is all social media. Only a day earlier we were rendered from different countries across Asia to one of Europe’s most beautiful cities. Though the rendition was done in business class style. At the airport, black limousines with tinted glasses waiting on the tarmac, whisked us away to a private lounge, while our immigration formalities were sorted out. Then another vehicle dropped us off right in the centre of the medieval city, to our accommodation for the night, the Mandarin Oriental Prague. Our mission was to discover the secret behind the “ultimate antiageing treatment”. Not exactly James Bond-esque. But then this rich (yes, pun intended) face and body cream, formulated from a secondcentury recipe, could just be the next best thing to eternal youth. And who wants to snub an offer that allows you a dip in that fountain. At our eventual destination, a beautifully isolated white-walled monastery, monks in flowing white robes work from an ancient skincare formula to recreate a present day version of what was once used to heal the wounds of gladiators. The Crème Ancienne narrative harks back to the world’s first cold cream created circa AD 160. The credit for that goes to eminent Greek physician and
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