Moonlight flower
Moonlight flower cryoextract
INCI name:
Cereus grandiflorus
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Anti-Aging
The power of plants
Moonlight flower, also known as queen of the night, is a cactus native to the warm, humid, tropical forests of Central America, and has spectacular blossoms that can reach up to 40 centimeters in diameter. Sometimes it can take up to 20 years to witness the plant’s first flowers, which bloom only one night a year and release a powerful vanilla-like scent that attracts pollinating insects for the few hours they remain open. The plant’s Latin name, Selenicereus grandiflorus, comes from the Greek goddess of the moon, Selena, as a reference to the flower’s exclusive nighttime blooming activity. In France, it was Queen Marie-Antoinette's favorite flower, and she would spend long hours watching the plant. Clarins’ moonlight flower blossoms are harvested by hand and extracted while fresh by a cryoextraction process at -196°C. The very low temperature of this extraction method makes it possible to preserve the flowers’ most potent and fragile active anti-aging ingredients for use in our formulas.
Skincare benefits of Moonlight flower cryoextract
In cosmetics, moonlight flower cryoextract is used to visibly firm, smooth and boost skin’s radiance.
Responsible sourcing
Originally from the luxuriant forests of Central America, it is actually in Brittany that our Moonlight flower grows and blooms in a special cactus greenhouse . When it blooms, it is spectacular and it only happens once a year, and only at night. The entire process lasts only a few hours. The flowers are harvested one at a time by hand once fully opened.
