When it comes to potions and lotions, we are such suckers to marketing ploys and packaging – even a name gets us twittering like those excited little birdies around Cinderella.

That was how I felt that way when Guerlain first launched its ultra-luxurious cream, Orchidée Impériale a few years ago. I mean, what a name – and it comes in such a magnificent looking jar.

Since then, they’ve expanded the range to include a serum, eye and lip cream, toner, fluid and rich cream.

This month, the French brand is relaunching the original Orchidée Impériale. 

With a price of more than RM1,000, the cream is the brand’s most expensive, but it also comes with interesting science behind it.

The cream harnesses the powers of the orchid plant to help get you younger looking skin. Apparently, it took 10 years of researching the orchid (at the Guerlain Orchidarium), and why they are such resilient plants. Guerlain looked at 30,000 species of orchids, and identified three. And from the three, Guerlain scientists isolated molecules that literally stop skin cells from aging.

I’ve tried the original when it was first launched, and I had to pass it on to my mother – the cream is very rich, too rich for my then 20 something skin. Unless you’ve got really, really dry skin, and if you want to give this a go, I’d suggest using the Orchidée Impériale at night, or just a couple of nights a week. And if the cream agrees with you, get ready to see results!

Available at Guerlain counters.