The skincare pro Hollywood has turned to for 40 years

When Mila Moursi arrived in L.A. in 1979, there were facialists but it was a lacklustre scene. As an enterprising young French aesthetician trained in traditional European therapies, hydrotherapy and cosmetic chemistry, she seized the opportunity. Setting up her salon in Beverly Hills, Moursi imported a hydro tub and began offering treatments that were at the forefront of skin science. “We did treatments with the tub, cellulite massage, body scrubs and seaweed wraps. Back then treatments like these were cutting-edge,” she says. It wasn’t long before Hollywood’s biggest names, both male and female luminaries, started flocking to the salon. “It was the right place and the right time,” she says.

“I had Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. Some of them I’d watched as a school girl in Paris, like Roger Moore!” A decade later, the name Mila Moursi was passed to a new generation of fresh-faced actors. Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston are long-time devotees, as are Ellen DeGeneres, Charlize Theron, Rashida Jones and Chelsea Handler.

“It’s not easy to keep a celebrity client because they are always looking for the next miracle,” Moursi says. “It’s an industry where appearance is closely tied to booking their next job, so they can become insecure. I don’t do quick fixes, so sometimes they leave, and sometimes they come back when they realise the quick fixes don’t work. Generally, our clients stay with us for years and years – we’re lucky that way. I commit to the client and give them the best product, equipment and service. So, it’s luck, but it’s also earned.”

Almost 40 years on, Moursi keeps up with the latest industry advancements while standing by European traditions; her nourishing, beautifying and anti-ageing skincare collection is, to this day, made entirely in France. The best part? All the products that keep A-Listers hooked are available at MECCA. Moursi, who visited MECCA HQ, shared some of her wisdom with us.

“I’ve sold my product in my spa for 25 years as a regime for clients after treatments. I teach them that great skin is a team effort, you can’t just come to me and then do nothing yourself. For that reason, it has to be a product that works. So, we have a real high-performance product, not an empty promise.”

“The key to great skincare is to have the best ingredients possible. There are so many different qualities. The best neroli oil might be $50,000 a kilo, and the lowest grade might be $20, but they both get called ‘neroli oil’ on the label. That’s why my products are on the expensive side. I don’t want them to be expensive, but I need them to perform and I respect the ingredient. If I’m using a new peptide, and the clinical reports say it needs to be at nine percent to be effective, that’s what I do. I’m not going to just put it in at two percent just for marketing. I’m in the services business, so I need results.”

“So often people cut it, but toner completes the cleansing. Even if you wipe off your cleanser with a warm washcloth, you have a bit of residue. The toner removes it and it’s also a delivery product. It makes the skin more receptive to the serums and creams that follow, so it’s saving you money too.”

“Lifestyle is really important. If you’re not taking care of yourself from the inside, I’ll be working for nothing from the outside. Before you start a regime or see an aesthetician, you have to be exercising, getting enough sleep and drinking enough water. Skincare is really miraculous today, you can achieve incredible results and age so gracefully, but you have to do it from inside and out.”

“I started telling my clients that they needed to be good on the inside for them to be beautiful. Then I thought I should probably stop saying that! But I do believe it. Your wellbeing and mental state come through. If someone is negative or dark inside, you can’t see their beauty.”