Dear reader, I must confess that on a recent glorious morning, I commuted with wild abandon to get to a breakfast at Steenberg, a practically picture-perfect wine farm in the Cape.
I might have been slightly driven by my recent Bridgerton escapist rabbit hole, and the prospect of breaking bread with a real-life count was frankly rather delicious and not to be missed. Plus, Count Philippe d’Ornano has the advantage of a fabulous mother — Isabelle — whose stylish and storied apartment in Paris, complete with a mammoth snail sculpture or two roaming the ceiling, has pride of place on my Pinterest board. So naturally I was called to meet the CEO and chair of the family-run house of Sisley Paris.
He is, dear reader, a larger-than-life French gentilhomme with a very full head of hair (more on this later), and I am happy to report that he read the room of editors and special friends of the brand really well and, instead of focusing on strategy or market share, regaled us with his own warm memories of South Africa.
“I came for the first time 30 years ago,” he said. “South Africa is a country of my heart. I love wildlife. I love surfing. And I love human contact. I kept a very strong memory of that.”
What followed was not a corporate presentation; it was a family story. “My family has been involved in cosmetics for close to 100 years,” he said. His grandparents co-founded Lancôme in the 1930s. Then World War 2 stopped everything.
Later, his father, Hubert, and uncle, Michel, still in their twenties, left university and started again from almost nothing.
“They had one suit between them. When one had a client, he passed it to the other.” Their office was a tiny Parisian attic.
Sisley, as we know it, was founded in the 1970s, but its roots stretch back to that early family determination to build something independent. When his father declined to renew a contract with the US owners of the previous company, he chose uncertainty over security: “If I sign again, I will not be independent. I want to create my own business.”
He began Sisley in a small office with two rooms, with a clear and uncompromising intention.
“The purpose was efficacy,” d’Ornano said; they were driven not by trends and marketing theatre but by results.
He spoke of plants not as romantic symbols but as complex chemical universes. “In one plant, you can find 100 to 200,000 different ‘actives’,” he explained.
The process of extraction, isolation and synergy is complex: “One plus one in chemistry does not equal two. It can be zero. It can be three.”
Only a fraction of the world’s plants have been scientifically studied. The field remains vast, and that open horizon drives Sisley’s research. Every Wednesday, he told us, the family still sits with research, marketing and operations.
“From the start of the idea to the end of the product, we are personally involved.” And, crucially, “the marketing people are not allowed to look at the price”.
The product is created first. Cost is discussed later. This philosophy shaped their anti-ageing sun care range, which took five years to develop, and it shaped Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Âge and the forthcoming Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Âge Longevity Essential Serum, of which we were given an exclusive preview ahead of its launch this month.
“What we seek is to have an efficient product that gives results,” he said.
The Longevity Essential Serum builds on decades of research into the mechanisms of skin ageing, targeting cellular energy and visible signs of time with the brand’s signature plant-based precision. It is not positioned as a miracle cream but as the continuation of a philosophy that favours patience over speed.
He is careful with the word luxury. “We do not see ourselves as luxury,” he said. “The great luxury is to be a family business, to do what we want to do, to take the time to make the products we want to make.”
Time, in his world, is independence. When asked about competitors, he recalled being pressed for an answer on another occasion. “I said it could be the iPhone,” he smiled. “We do not look at competition. The more you look at others, the less creative you are.”
Instead, Sisley watches science. New research into skin longevity. Cellular mechanisms. Global academic networks.
Yet the most affecting moments were not scientific: a consultant who hands a mirror to a woman with severe skin issues and watches her cry with joy after a makeover, and another consultant who realises she may be the only person some elderly clients speak to all week.
Empathy, he insisted, is the differentiator. “The best-selling people are people who are genuinely interested in you.” Not age. Not appearance. “It is empathy.”
Production remains largely in France to maintain control over the complex plant actives. Stability is rigorously tested. Innovation continues across skincare into Hair Rituel by Sisley (he points to his own mane as proof) and neurocosmetic exploration through the group’s newer initiatives. But the central principles do not shift.
In an industry addicted to immediacy, d’Ornano’s message feels radical.
“Take the time. Do it properly. Let the results speak.”
From the March issue of Wanted, 2026
