I was lying on the bed of a sun-drenched suite along the Champs-Élysées getting one of the best spa treatments I’ve ever had in my life. Just an hour before, I left my perch at a Parisian cafe, hopped on the Metro, and joined the flocks of tourists going from store to store, many a shopping bag in tow. Tucked away nearby is the L’Institut Guerlain—a beauty and wellness haven offering a tranquil retreat along one of Paris’s busiest avenues.
The space, originally designed by Jean-Michel Frank, is light and airy. Among the marbled surfaces, French paneling, and decadent florals on display, you’ll find gorgeous bees sprinkled about. A motif, the team reminds me, is central to the Guerlain brand—first used in the mid-nineteenth century on the Eau de Cologne Impériale bottle dedicated to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. In 2010, after twelve years of research, Guerlain honored the bees again with the launch of its Abeille Royale. Powered by BlackBee Repair Technology, a combination of Ouessant black bee honey and royal jellies, its products are designed to boost skin’s natural processes for a firmer, bouncier, more youthful-looking complexion. These days, Abeille Royale has cemented its status as one of Guerlain’s bestsellers—an essential component of the Tailor-Made Treatment I was in for; its products featured throughout my 90-minute facial and massage. The star was none other than the Youth Watery Oil—which just received a 2025 upgrade.
Dr. Frédéric Bonté, a pharmaceutical doctor and Guerlain’s scientific communication director, tells Vogue that the new Youth Watery Oil Serum is inspired by the scientifically-proven healing power of honey, after 15 years of research with honey and royal jelly. “Our research, along with a recent partnership with Restore-EQ4, a French research center specializing in rejuvenation and stromal cells in regenerative medicine, has enabled us to better understand and target new biological pathways involved in skin regeneration,” he says. “It all began with our intuition of a parallel between wound healing processes and skin repair mechanisms, which was later reinforced by a meeting with a French surgeon, Professor Descottes, who had been successfully using honey-based dressings for 25 years in hospitals to treat stubborn wounds.”
The just-debuted serum amplifies the benefits of the O.G. Youth Watery Oil (which launched in 2013) by combining three types of honey all sourced from black bees from different regions—chosen with great care by the Guerlain research team to ensure its efficacy. “To properly select the right honeys, we analyze their composition, test their biological activities, and choose the most effective ones—keeping in mind that only a limited number of honeys possess reparative properties,” Bonté continues. “This approach led us to select the production of a resilient bee species, the black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), native to Western Europe. Living in isolated, unique ecosystems, these bees produce honey with complex compositions capable of acting on biological targets involved in skin repair and beauty.”
The rejuvenating properties of honey are bolstered by four glycols, adenosine, and a vitamin C derivative—mixed into a weightlessly hydrating elixir composed of 99% naturally-derived ingredients, suited for all skin types. What I find most alluring about the formula though is what most consumers likely remember the oil by—its tell-tale golden beads, made from a propolis oleo-extract and a radiance-boosting complex designed to burst hydration into the skin for immediate nourishment.
