To anyone who asked why he only painted blue monochromes, Yves Klein told an ancient Persian tale: ‘One day a flautist began playing just one note, incessantly. After 20 years of listening to him, his wife pointed out that other flautists produced more varied sounds – even tunes. But the flautist replied that it wasn’t his fault if he had found the note that everybody else was still looking for’’.

For Klein, being an artist meant living in universal harmony with the perfect shade: a blue that didn’t diminish in quality and intensity of colour while suspended in a synthetic resin binder, able to unify heaven and earth and disappear into the horizon. Because sometimes you just need one ‘thing’ for it all to come together….If for Klein, his enlightenment and his all-in-one was blue, for the Japanese company Asahi Kasei, in terms of beauty, Pellicer™ is the essence which they firmly believe in and have invested in over many years.

Pellicer™ is a raw material and just like Klein’s famous blue can go it alone: for hair, face and body. A gemini amphiphilic compound produced from plant components, it has two hydrophilic tails and three hydrophilic groups. It repairs damaged skin by permeating the stratum corneum and improves skin barrier function with a ceramide like action. It revitalizes fragile and damaged hair by reconstructing the hair fibre. Only a small quantity is required in gel formulation to transform the hair’s surface and make it uniform and super silky.

For one of his most memorable expositions Klein chose to invite his guests into a completely empty gallery space serving them a blue cocktail that coloured their urine for days, as if he were saying, even if you don’t want to remember me you will. Asahi Kasei is somewhat more politically correct and invites you to try their product and experience its results first hand.