Jacques Courtin-Clarins, 85, Began Deluxe Cosmetics Firm

Jacques Courtin-Clarins, a French massage therapist who founded one of Europe’s largest skin-care product companies and whose name became synonymous with luxury cosmetics, died March 22 at his home in Paris. No cause of death was reported. He was 85.Born Jacques Courtin, he added Clarins to his name in 1978 as the company he started in 1954 was becoming an international success. The business, which now has annual sales around $1 billion, includes spas and salons worldwide that feature his plant-based oils, creams and fragrances.Clarins started as a Parisian salon where clients received massages with non-greasy oils and creams. His rubbing technique, marketed as the “Paris method,” emphasized firming and slimming as the goal. Courtin-Clarins persuaded celebrities of the era, including ballerina Ludmila Tcherina and screen sex symbol Martine Carol, to endorse his skin treatments.The company expanded its array of skin-care products, including Eau Dynamisante body spray and Lotus Oil body cream. It acquired perfumes of fashion designers Loris Azzaro and Thierry Mugler. Clarins worked with Mugler to create the Angel fragrance in 1992. It was a huge hit and emerged as competition to Chanel No. 5.Courtin-Clarins took Clarins public, while retaining a majority share of the firm for his family. His sons, Christian and Olivier, now lead the company. Christian, who unlike his father speaks English, is widely credited with charting Clarins’s international growth in the 1970s and 1980s, while Courtin-Clarins devoted his energies to operations.Clarins, which marketed itself as a high-end product, attracted skeptics who found more hype than substance in its product line.Paula Begoun, author of consumer guides to the beauty industry, wrote in her book “Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me” that “Clarins has steadfastly held on to the belief that whatever grows from the ground and smells nice must be the cure for every skin ailment from breakouts to the dreaded ‘sponginess’ of cellulite.”Courtin-Clarins was born Aug. 6, 1921, and raised in Paris. During World War II, he worked with the wounded in hospitals. Afterward, he trained in massage to treat circulatory problems and devised his line of treatment oils.He made his way around Paris, giving product demonstrations via massage. When he started the company, he named it for a sympathetic character he once played in a school production set during ancient Rome. He said he saw the name as a “good luck charm.”In the mid-1960s, Courtin-Clarins began retailing his beauty products to neighboring countries. Twenty years later, the company went public on the Paris stock market and began operations in Asia and the United States.Last year, he wrote a memoir, “Une Riussite en Beaute” (“A Beauty Success”). He said in 1996: “Before, I like all women. Now, I’m liked by all women.”

Jacques Courtin-Clarins, 85, Began Deluxe Cosmetics Firm

Jacques Courtin-Clarins, 85, Began Deluxe Cosmetics Firm

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