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Sous vide slowly gained popularity among adventurous chefs, but high-end restaurants did not begin adopting the technique en masse until after revered chef Thomas Keller wrote his explanatory cookbook Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide in 2008. Adventurous foodies have been cooking sous vide – or at least, experimenting with it – over the last decade, and more-affordable immersion circulators are making the technique even more widely known to the general public.

Cosmetics are made of oils, butters, emulsifiers and hydrates. Agitation and heat causes most of the natures emollient proteins to break down, or in scientific terms, become denatured. In this process the emollient constituents begin to shrink and evaporate in a linear fashion until the temperature reaches 175°F. This leaves an excess of the fats which explains why most commercial high street cosmetics are greasy and leave a film on the skin.

Chauffage Doux keeps the binding temperature at a precise level so the protein contraction occurs horizontally up to that temperature, so most of the botanicals held within the oils and butters are retained.

There’s also one other factor to consider when talking about chauffage doux, and that’s collagen, the vitamins that contain the anti-oxidant properties. 

Water has the distinct feature of being nearly ten times more efficient than air as a medium for transferring heat to ingredients. Add in the ability of a chauffage doux machine or immersion circulator to maintain constant temperatures (our machines can keep water temperature within one-tenth of the unit’s setting), and you have a binding process that is almost perfect.

Sous vide is French for “under vacuum,” reducing the air in contact with the ingredients during the binding process, thermal transfer is most efficient, moisture doesn’t evaporate from the ingredients, emollients  don’t escape, the effect of the combined vitamins are enhanced, and the possible growth of bacteria is minimised.

After the gentle heating where the ingredients bind harmoniously to keep in all the skin emollient properties, the whisking adds the lightness to the cosmetic. Precise balloon whisking draws in exactly the right amount of air to soufflé the cream so it can be easily absorbed within the skin. The first stage of whisking happens at the optimum Chauffage Doux temperature to ensure emulsification is achieved and no oil water separation occurs to leave the cream in a split state.

Once emulsification has just been reached, no oil droplets are separating from any water elements, the cream now needs to set quickly with 3 more temperature stages.

The first temperature stage is vital as we are not adding harsh preservatives; we are adding living vitamins and folates that gently preserve the cosmetic for 12 months. If the temperature is too high, the vitamins and folate chains are broken so the preservative will not be effective. If the temperature is too low, the absorption of the folates and vitamins is not effective so the cream does not have a protective layer against bacteria. The whisking action and temperature is vital to ensure green preservation with only natural vitamins and a folic barrier.

The second temperature stage allows the natural essential oils to drift through the cream so the smell is clean and fresh without being overpowering. High street cosmetics often take a large percentage of fragrance to mask the ingredients smell, Chauffage Doux is typically at a minimal 1% level that creates a harmonious aroma that reacts with the neural senses.

The cosmetic is fixed; everything has been done by hand without electrical whisks and agitators so the final process to fill the tubes needs to be done by hand.

Chauffage Doux cosmetics are hand piped into the tubes which again adds lightness to the cosmetic within the tube.