An Atlas of Natural Beauty: Botanical Ingredients for Retaining and Enhancing Beauty

by Victoire de Taillac, Ramdane Touhami

Overview

The perfect gift book from Paris’s iconic apothecary L’Officine Universelle Buly captures the elegance and sophistication of the Parisian beauty standard in a beautifully illustrated and detailed guide—with easy-to-follow recipes—to retaining and enhancing natural beauty.

“Nothing is simpler, more enjoyable, more self-evident, or more efficient than taking good, natural care of yourself.” This is the philosophy of L’Officine Universelle Buly, a reincarnation of the legendary Parisian beauty emporium established in 1803. Since then, it has brought natural skin and body care to seven cities across the world, offering clays, oils, plant-based powders, and other gifts from nature collected by Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touhami over the course of their international travels. An Atlas of Natural Beauty is the result of their research and passion: an encyclopedic guide to simple recipes and protocols that will help anyone retain and enhance their natural beauty.

This exquisitely designed book allows you to sample Buly’s unique aesthetic heritage as a French apothecary, as well as discover the modern uses, properties, and home beauty recipes for more than eighty exotic and diverse range of seeds, flowers, oils, trees, fruits, and herbs. From apricot and avocado to argan oil, jasmine, and jojoba, each ingredient is accompanied by a gorgeous illustration, its providence, its primary use, and recipes for how to use it as a beauty solution now. These ingredients are easy to find, and the recipes are easy to replicate, whether it’s making a simple oat bath to smooth skin, a sake lotion for your scalp, or a lemon “shine water” to brighten blonde hair. An Atlas of Natural Beauty is the perfect gift for newcomers and obsessives alike, empowering us all to take care of ourselves and feel confident in our skin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501197352
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/13/2018
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	649,266
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Victoire de Taillac and his wife Ramdane Touhami are the owners of L’Officine Universelle Buly and currently live in Tokyo. He is an entrepreneur, art collector, and designer. He and his wife are an artistic Parisian powerhouse, living in an impossibly stylish apartment (recently featured in Vogue and Stella Magazine) with their beautiful children. They launched L’Officine Universelle Buly in 2014, a beauty products brand which is sold at international locations and at Net-a-Porter/Mr Porter. An Atlas of Beauty is their first book.

Ramdane Touhami and her husband Victoire de Taillac are the owners of L’Officine Universelle Buly and currently live in Tokyo. She is an aristocrat-turned-shopkeeper. She and her husband are an artistic Parisian powerhouse, living in an impossibly stylish apartment (recently featured in Vogue and Stella Magazine) with their beautiful children. They launched L’Officine Universelle Buly in 2014, a beauty products brand which is sold at international locations and at Net-a-Porter/Mr Porter. An Atlas of Beauty is their first book.

Read an Excerpt

An Atlas of Natural Beauty


Nothing is simpler, more enjoyable, more self-evident, or more efficient than taking good, natural care of yourself. Nothing is easier than devoting the requisite amount of time to it—no more than you would spend on commercial cosmetics—and nothing is more pleasant than giving meaning to your beauty rituals. Just like a short breather, this can fit into any day’s schedule. It is a lifestyle which does not require much space and does not even involve fancy words or overly intricate steps—a source of delight that lends sweetness to everyday life.

And that must be the world’s best-kept beauty secret: there is no need to go overboard to stay at the top of your game. All it takes are a few gentle movements and the many things nature and nurture have to offer, generously and often economically.

This book also provides the perfect opportunity to regain control: it is no longer about brands, fads, and appearances—it is about you. The simple knowledge we have gathered here, along with your own experimentations, should give you the gratifying ability and privilege to care for yourself and your loved ones.

Beauty is not all about marketing and promises. To attain beauty and well-being you must keep it simple and speak the truth. This type of natural beauty exists, and it is within reach. Discovering these authentic beauty secrets also provides an opportunity to travel through time and space, to marvel at the riches of the plant world and at man’s ingenuity in discovering and making the most of them. Nature-based beauty has the precious added benefit of encouraging us to use gentle organic ingredients, whose active concentration is much greater than that of the average industrial product. With these beauty recipes and natural products, which L’Officine Universelle has had the pleasure of collecting and sharing, you know exactly what your skin is getting: nothing but the best.

At L’Officine Universelle Buly, we select with passion and curiosity the very best of these “raw” materials. By favoring traditional agriculture and the work of rural cooperatives, we support the endurance and growth of these communities, which are rightly proud of their know-how and of perpetuating these traditions.

This book lists eighty ingredients and raw materials to take good care of yourself, along with tested recipes garnered from the collective experience of all of the world’s cultures. These simple and precious products have been kept alive by continued use and by the beauty habits of the inhabitants of all continents.

This is an experience that is simultaneously millennial and yet ever so contemporary.

Time stops, beauty is universal. Re-enchant your bathroom, join in the game, and create your own beneficial and efficient rituals.

Table of Contents

Natural Realty 7

First Things First 9

The Right Rituals 10

The Right Preparations 12

The Right Tools 14

Taree of Ingredients 17

Recipe Index 233

Who Are You? 238

List of Concerns 240

Table of Treatments 243

Index 251

A Few Realty Essentials At Your Service 254

Acknowledgments 256

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/03/2018
This beautiful guide from wife-and-husband team de Taillac and Touhami, owners of the historic Paris apothecary L’Officine Universelle Buly, introduces a version of health and body care that draws upon natural materials and can be easily individualized. The authors offers an abundance of information, botanical and scientific, in conjunction with recipes for ointments, washes, and masks made by harvesting and preparing items that can be grown in the garden. For example, they state, the oil from the seed pods of the nigella plant renders great benefit to those with skin blemishes and acne; pomegranate can be used for a “great quick scrub,” as well as an “instant beauty recovery mask”; avocado fortifies hair; and hemp oil “renew the skin’s firmness and radiance.” The final chapter poses the rhetorical question “Who Are You?” and answers it with descriptions of various skin types (“your face gives off a certain radiance”; “your face is shiny”; “your skin is prone to redness”). De Taillac and Touhami’s practical book, with its elegant illustrations, shows the way for better personal care with the ultimate purpose of, literally, feeling more comfortable in one’s own skin. Agent: Susanna Lea, Susanna Lea Assoc. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"With an increased demand for brands with authentic origin stories and uncompromising ingredient sources, a new wave of apothecary-style beauty and wellness aids have caused a rush on small-batch, ancient recipes. . . No one has remastered Old World traditions quite like Paris’s L’Officine Universelle Buly. . . . Walking through the doors of the Rue Bonaparte atelier in the city’s Sixth Arrondissement is like walking into a portal back to the 1800s." —Vogue

"I basically screamed at my desk when I heard that Bergdorf Goodman was not only going to start carrying the line in its stores, but also open a physical shop located on its beauty level, designed with an art deco aesthetic and bedecked in ivory-colored lacquer with brass accents. . . . If the packaging, formulas, and shockingly affordable price don't sell you, maybe the fact that you won't have to purchase a plane ticket to buy them all will. Merci, Buly!" —Nylon

"At last, a stateside conquest to add to its already illustrious history." —OUT Magazine

From the Publisher