The history of PAYOT

At a time when a career was just a dream for most women, Dr. Nadia Payot was making her mark as one of Europe's first female doctors. The legacy left by this remarkable women is a unique beauty concept the world knows as Payot.

Sometimes an event can change the course of a life forever. Perhaps, if Dr. Payot hadn't visited New York and meet Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in 1918, the spark of genius that turned her passion for medicine into a worldwide beauty phenomenon may never have struck. For in the graceful body, but sadly lined face of Anna Pavlova, then 38, Dr. Payot clearly saw that exercise could keep the muscles firm and body taut, then, surely facial skin could be similarly spared the effects of premature ageing. In that brief encounter, the essential link between mind, body and soul was confirmed and Dr. Payot recognised the need for a beauty concept that addressed all three elements.

At a time when soap and water were considered sufficient pampering, Dr. Payot developed a skin care range including herbs, plants and minerals, the sources of life, the pillars of Dr Nadia Payot laboratory research and the basis of the products ingredients.

Her success was sealed with the opening of her first beauty institute in Paris in 1920, followed a decade later with the emergence of the legendary Payot Institute at 10, rue de Castiglione - the magnificent 18th-centuary mansion where stars such as Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman all retreated to when life's stresses called for an intensive dose of TLC. It was here that Europeans experienced their first ever facial.

Just as fashion trends and attitudes have changed since those early years, so to have the pressures on people today. Payot products have evolved with the times, encapsulating Dr. Payot believed that "beauty comes from within" and a person's radiance depends not solely on skin care but on their inner harmony.