You are part of the natural world, including your skin. You probably feel more comfortable in a forest or garden rather than a chemical plant. It’s because you instinctively align with what’s natural and honest — not with synthetic and plastic. We’re a Swiss skin care company that treats your skin to plant essences and living energy and formulates products according to wellness principles of traditional Chinese medicine. And that’s highly unique.
Promoting these natural principles for skin and body is still so unique in today’s world, our company faces challenges other skin care companies don’t. But because we so profoundly believe in wellness, healing and the remarkable results our lines provide for skin, we’re up for it.
A series of serendipitous events led to establishing PHYTO5 in the U. S.
After 30 years in the hospitality industry, as I was heading a mid-sized international hotel corporation based in the U. S., the foreign owners sold the company. I took the opportunity to take a much needed sabbatical.
And that’s when I began thinking about my next step because I’m not the kind of person to stay on sabbatical forever.
Then the first serendipitous event happened.
A friend told me about a small Swiss skin care company whose aging owners were looking for an exit. I’m French born and the lab/manufacturing facility was located in the French speaking region of Switzerland.
I discovered the company, Laboratoire Gibro, S.A., manufactured an extensive line of non-medical grade skin care with a totally unique and intriguing method. At that time, they called the line Phytobiodermie:
phyto/plant + bio/life + dermie/skin
I loved the natural plant-based idea of skincare because I was already living a more natural holistic life.
On top of that, the company’s chemists formulated the products according to the principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
The combination of Swiss/French, plant-based and TCM was right up my alley.
My father was a medical doctor in France. He’d traveled to Asia and there he fell in love with Chinese medicine and acupuncture, in particular.
After that hallmark trip, for the rest of his life, he would not only study acupuncture he practiced it on me as a teenager when I got hurt in Judo competitions.
My father could reduce the pain of my ankle and other sprains and accelerate healing so fast I could return to active training after just a few days. My cohorts were out for weeks.
That had made me a real believer in Chinese medicine. And I was intrigued to see how a skin care company could apply its principles to their products.
So I went on a couple exploratory trips to Switzerland to learn about the factory, products, method and people. And I was excited to maybe revisit my previous successful experiences with the principles of Chinese medicine and its Taoist roots.
I visited Laboratoire Gibro in the quaint hamlet of Fleurier, Switzerland, located in the Swiss Jura mountains(1) near Neuchâtel. (I learned the water used in all this skin care comes directly from these sub-Alpine mountains.)
Fleurier is the same town known the world over for its centuries old exacting haute horlogerie(2) watchmaking companies. Almost everyone has heard of Parmigiani, Bovet and Chopard.
The Fleurier name itself we roughly translate as flowering village—a name entirely apropos for a factory located within it that creates skin care formulated with essential oils of flowers.
‘Beauty Is Health Made Visible’ was this Swiss skin care company’s motto.
Having worked for decades in fine upscale hospitality, I was glad to discover this Swiss lab totally aligned with the concept of excellence.
They held a motto that professed a clear and very logical statement. It conveys that using the products improves not just your appearance but your well-being too:
Beauty Is Health Made Visible!
Their high integrity products completely reflected a one-of-a-kind uniqueness incorporating a philosophy, method, unique formulation, and lifestyle approach to skin care.
This wasn’t just a skin care line. I could see it went above and beyond skin care alone.
It was a wellness line.
And I surmised it would positively touch people in a way ordinary skin care never could.
I tested this claim of health made visible myself receiving face, body, and scalp treatments in a Phytobiodermie spa on the French Riviera. And deeper, I dived into understanding exactly how this skincare achieved remarkable results in both skin and overall wellness.
Formulated according to principles of TCM this skin care encourages a balanced flow of vital energy throughout the body.
Vital energy (called prana in yoga and chi, ki, or qi in Asian martial arts) flows subtly and invisibly through the body as life force. And TCM tells us any dysfunction of this life force vital energy can cause imbalance in a system(s) and potentially result in disease.
Talking to the expert Laboratoire chemists I recalled things my father said about how necessary vital energy flow is for health and wellness. He showed me firsthand how acupuncture frees up energetic blockages and balances vital energy flow to keep you well.
The Swiss chemists follow a precise method from the Five Element Theory of TCM to formulate essential oil blends.
And they design these synergistic blends to achieve the quintessential requirement for wellness: vital energy balance.
And as they do so they also take into account that each plant possesses its own unique energetic characteristics.
These characteristics follow the simple differentiation of:
It’s an actual art to blend certain essential oils together so that they restore and maintain energetic flow and balance.
Along with the primary goal of balancing vital energy, the chemists made sure the skin care also performed fundamental important functions like:
cleansing
purifying
mineralizing
hydrating
protecting.
All that’s a lot to consider when formulating an effective holistic skin care brand and I was thoroughly impressed.
It’s impressive now in the 2020s. So imagine what a standout it was all the way back in the 80s.
Coming from the hospitality industry, I felt this skin care was perfect for spas and particularly upscale hotels and resorts where perhaps the products would be better appreciated. (That was in the late 1990s—a time when the spa industry was poised for explosive growth worldwide.)
I purchased Laboratoire Gibro with a group of friends in late 1998 and opened a U.S. distribution center. Our goal was to establish this unique Swiss skin care in upscale hotels with existing or planned spas. And we hired licensed estheticians and massage therapists as trainers.
We rebranded Phytobiodermie—a French name that wasn’t pronunciation-friendly for most Americans—to PHYTO5. This name recognizes the core of our method: the plant-based aspect and the five elements of TCM.
And then we soon encountered many ‘teaching moments.'
We learned we had to accept American estheticians and massage therapists were less well trained than their European counterparts.
And even more, only a rare few technicians had even a superficial understanding of vital energy. Some thought the idea of vital energy was ridiculous. Others felt it went against their religion.
There was also such high turnover in hotel spas we spent an incredible amount of time training new technicians only to see them go someplace else a few months later.
It sapped our ability to instill any depth of knowledge. And it went contrary to our objective of training technicians over time so that they’d ultimately perform the most superior treatments.
At that time, spa directors received no steady supervision. Sometimes they reported to the housekeeping department or front desk. New spa directors came on board bringing with them a different spa menu and skin care line.
Spas wanted to use skin care lines advertised in luxury magazines so they could make retail product sales with little effort. We didn’t have the budget for that.
But all these years later, through trial and error, we’ve found our best avenues for sharing PHYTO5 Swiss skin care:
generally smaller spas and skincare practices
oriental medicine practices
chiropractic offices
wellness centers
boutique hotels
beauty salons
individual skincare practitioners
This way we can be more effective with our training. And the customers of PHYTO5 skincare professionals receive the best service and most remarkable results.
Our PHYTO5 trained professionals are enamored with our philosophy, products and wonderful outcomes in skin and wellness. They stay with us because their clients become devoted to all our lines of products: quantum energetic Five Element, Swiss and Ageless La Cure.
We enjoy being a niche Swiss skin care line carried by dedicated technicians and purchased by faithful consumers right here at our retail site.
What our boutique Swiss skin care company does for skin is highly unique. It blends a philosophy, method and lifestyle approach to skincare rarely found these days. We invite you to sample it and experience the difference for yourself.
…
Endnotes:
1 The Jura Mountains are a sub-alpine mountain range located north of the Western Alps, mainly following the course of the France–Switzerland border. The Jura separates the Rhine and Rhône basins, forming part of the watershed of each. The name Jura derives from juria, a Latinized form of the Celtic stem jor- meaning forest. The mountain range gives its name to the Jurassic period of the geologic timescale from about 208 million to 146 million years ago. The Swiss Jura is one of the three distinct geographical regions of Switzerland, the others being the Swiss plateau and the Swiss Alps. In Switzerland, the range covers the western border with France.
2 Haute horlogerie is the high art of watchmaking.
