Irene Forte's Summer Skincare Secrets: From Sicily to the Spa

Irene Forte, founder of the eponymous skincare line and daughter of Sir Rocco Forte, shares her personal summer essentials with CULTURED magazine. After studying Italian literature at Oxford, Forte was drawn to the spa at her family's Verdura resort in Sicily, where she was unimpressed by existing skincare options. She launched her own line using organic botanicals like hibiscus, olive, and pistachio grown on the family farm, creating formulas such as the award-winning Hibiscus Night Cream, favored by U.K. fashion editors and Milanese stilisti. Forte's products aim to replicate the effects of vacation skin—calm, plump, and glowy—through barrier-boosting and calming actives. In the interview, she discusses her current obsessions: the novel "Il Gattopardo" by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which captures the soul of Sicily; Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" (1906), admired for its texture and atmosphere; the Duomo di Monreale and Cappella Palatina in Palermo, noted for their Norman mosaics; the town of Caltabellotta, where she married and is now an honorary citizen, recently recognized as an emerging Blue Zone; her Pistachio Body Oil, which she wears instead of fragrance, with notes of jasmine, pistachio, and vanilla; and her Hibiscus Rejuvenating Night Cream, which showed outstanding consumer trial results in 10 days, powered by a neuropeptide to smooth wrinkles. The article also includes links to other CULTURED stories and a newsletter sign-up.