L.A. skin-care guru Kate Somerville launches six new products
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Kate Somerville, the facialist-to-the-stars turned skin-care tycoon, hosted members of the press at her Melrose Place skin-care clinic Thursday to introduce six new products that she said further her mission of creating formulations ‘with a high strength of active ingredients coupled with elements that are calming.’
The brand debuted a new version of its enormously successful facial exfoliator, ExfoliKate (the No. 1 selling exfoliator at Sephora) for acne-prone skin, called ExfoliKate Acne ($65).
Packing a much softer scrubbing bead (jojoba), an impurity-drawing clay base and a medicinal dose of pure tea tree oil, the new formulation, which recently launched, ‘won’t take the top of a pimple off — it will clarify the skin without any danger of scarring,’ said Somerville, who started out in skin care 20 years ago working in a doctor’s office treating pre- and post-operative skin.
Another standout product — set for a March release — is Clinic-to-Go ($48), a proprietary disposable facial pad with a slot for your fingers that comes preloaded with the product on the pad. Boasting 20% lactic acid (a great sensitive skin-friendly exfoliator) and a huge dose of skin-brightening vitamin C, ‘This really mimics the lactic acid peel we do here in the clinic,’ said Somerville.
The skin guru also introduced a bigger box of her popular self-tanning towelettes, Somerville 360 ($64) — a product she created in response to clients, including Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, who would come into the clinic with self-tanners on that had faded into dirty-looking stains (out in March).
CytoCell eye cream ($75), a product based on Somerville’s Cytocell cream that will be released in April, claims to diffuse light and reduce puffiness through the use of stem cell technology; while KateCeuticals Multi-Active Repair ($195), also out in April, is ‘the most powerful anti-wrinkle cream I’ve ever used,’ said Somerville, noting with a wink that she wanted to call it ‘The Big Heavy.’
Complexion Correction ($48 to $80) — a three-product system out in June — claims to reduce brown spots and redness, though ‘I have to say you’re going to look worse before you look better with these products,’ said Somerville. ‘The cells will turn over and discoloration will darken, then it will lighten dramatically.... It will really change your complexion.’
Kate Somerville products are available at all Sephora and Neiman Marcus stores and at the Kate Somerville clinic in L.A.
Photos, from top: Multi-Active Repair cream and CytoCell eye cream from Kate Somerville. Credit: Kate Somerville.