Clarins

Clarins was founded in 1954 in Paris by Jacques Courtin-Clarins, a French medical student who transitioned into beauty therapy. The early business was a beauty salon offering plant-extract-based facial treatments — and Courtin-Clarins's commercial insight was that the plant extracts driving the salon results could be packaged as retail products. The 1960s and 1970s saw Clarins expand into wholesale skincare distribution, building the family business into a multi-product portfolio. Beauty Flash Balm launched in 1976 as a multi-use radiance booster — and remains in continuous production 50 years later, still in essentially its original formulation. Double Serum launched in 1985 as a dual-phase plant-extract serum, and has cycled through 9 formulation generations since launch (most recently with 21 plant extracts in the current generation). The brand has stayed family-owned through three generations of Courtin-Clarins family leadership — Olivier Courtin-Clarins (third generation) currently leads the brand alongside his sister Prisca Courtin-Clarins. Headquarters remain in Paris, with manufacturing in France. The family-owned structure differentiates Clarins from L'Oréal-owned (Lancôme), Estée Lauder-owned (Estée Lauder, Clinique), and LVMH-owned (Dior, Guerlain) prestige skincare competitors.