Estée Lauder is taking its experiential wellness concept, the Skin Longevity Institute, global.
The tri-axis beauty brand is opening the next iteration of the institute at Hacienda AltaGracia, part of the Auberge Resorts Collection in Costa Rica. It will offer a range of skin and body treatments, as well as the brand’s EstéeLab Skin Pro tool for on-site diagnostics, and residencies with beauty and wellness practitioners. The two debut residents will be mind coach Manjit Devgun and aesthetician Crystal Greene.
“The first big launch of our Longevity Institute in Hainan propelled us back to the leading brand in Hainan again,” said Justin Boxford, global brand president of Estée Lauder. “The service experience and a number of services are a key driver of Re-Nutriv,” the brand’s luxury skin care range, he continued.
He’s also seen success with the company’s expansion of the model into the U.K. with Harrods, and in markets with the concept, “we’ve seen this amazing increase in spend and basket size, as well as dwell time,” Boxford said.
Estée Lauder has about 150 freestanding stores globally with Re-Nutriv cabines, “and we’re gradually converting the top tier of those stores into the Longevity Institutes,” Boxford said. In China, “we launched in Suzhou, and it’s been a tremendous success from every aspect. It’s been a driver of traffic to our stores and we’ve seen an incredible increase in new customers.”
A breakdown of figures from parent company The Estée Lauder Cos.’s third fiscal quarter, released Thursday, showed that the brand dragged on skin care and makeup for the quarter, the former due to continued headwinds in travel retail. To Boxford’s point, though, the brand also drove share gains in mainland China, the results revealed.
The rationale for Costa Rica was twofold: one, the country’s hub as a wellness epicenter, and two, as a tourist destination.
“It’s so rich in local culture, and what we loved about Hacienda AltaGracia is it’s established what they’re doing with longevity lifestyle practices that are inspired by what’s happening in the country as a whole,” Boxford said. “We see influencers, celebrities, high value customers going there. Lifestyle is in the core of it, and we really get to bring it back to skin. We have a very strong connection with them.”
The services range from body treatments to eye and light therapy, and LED light therapy. “There’s the most indulgent facial-sort of treatments for bodies, and hot stone and lymphatic drainage massages,” Boxford continued. “And then we have these exclusive age reversal advanced contour rituals, all about bringing your skin to its peak performance. This has been exclusive to what we’re doing with this partnership.”
