(Skin)
Grace Kelly’s Favorite Paris Beauty Center Is Reopening With A Luxe New Look
Talk about a dream house.
In a poetic twist, it turns out that even legendary beauty mega-centers need time for a makeover of their own. With the conclusion of an intensive two-year renovation, Parisian skin care brand Carita is reopening its iconic Maison de Beauté facility, a five-story wonderland of assorted treatments, services, and retail space for every possible beauty need, want, or whim. Dominating nearly 20,000 square feet at the heart of Paris’ Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré — a glamorous strip of endless fashion houses, embassies, and top-tier hotels — the historic Carita Maison de Beauté has been the city’s premiere destination for all things beauty for more than 70 years. On Oct. 3, at the tail-end of Paris Fashion Week, the house reopens its famous arched doors to the world, ushering in an entirely new era for the larger-than-life beauty outpost.
Carita’s Maison de Beauté’s decadence is by design. The original house, conceptualized and opened by the Carita sisters themselves, first began welcoming stylish, high-profile guests back in 1952. Stars like Grace Kelly, Catherine Deneuve, Marlon Brando, and Yves Saint Laurent all regularly turned up at the luxurious house for assorted treats and treatments, helping Carita’s Maison earn a reputation as the ultimate rejuvenating escape.
Far more than just a place for the best facials, the Maison is stuffed floor-to-roof with every possible facet of the beauty industry. Tucked into the first floor, nearly a dozen treatment rooms are filled with high-tech equipment and carefully calibrated lighting — there, guests can experience everything from eye rejuvenation to the latest skin care innovations, all lead by Carita’s highly trained professionals. From there, traipse through the light-flood atrium into the house’s retail space, filled with of-the-moment beauty products and signature skin care offerings from the Carita line. The Look Studio, perched on the third floor, is dedicated to makeup — including semi-permanent makeup — and treatments like eyelash extensions. Interestingly, it occupies the same floor as what might be the house’s most mind-bending feature: a full-sized private apartment, complete with a living and dining room.
A full-service hair salon — which includes an ultra-exclusive privée section — shares a floor with the house’s restaurant, Rosy. An intimate dining space where the Champagne nearly flows freely, it’s the ideal endcap to a day of luxury and beauty.
Spend an hour, spend the day, and possibly even the night — if you can swing access to that opulent apartment, that is — and you’d still have new corners to explore.