People to keep you perfect in 2026: Part 2

From the very beginning, this was never just about beauty. It was about knowledge, survival and the quiet power of women passing wisdom down through generations. So when someone tells you they’ve safeguarded a leather-bound book of beauty secrets for more than 200 years, you have to meet them.

You’ll recognise Dr Inna Szalontay—you met her in Life last issue. Since then, there’s been a visit to her Charlotte Street salon, the Art Deco jewel box that is Libi & Daughters HQ. In person, the story deepens—stretching back to Prussia, the Russian court, and a woman whose role was once known simply as a “skin whitener”.

Dr Inna’s great-great-great grandmother lived in Stettin, then part of Prussia (now modern Germany). She was a contemporary of Catherine the Great, who originated from the same town. When Catherine travelled to St Petersburg to become Empress, she summoned trusted physicians to care for her skin—long before dermatology existed as a discipline. Skin was treated by family doctors, and pale, unblemished skin was the currency of nobility.

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Dr Inna’s ancestor was invited to the imperial palace, armed with recipes she had learned from her father, a small-town pharmacist. With access to the legendary Apothecary Garden—founded by Peter the Great—she gathered herbs, experimented, and began documenting formulations. That book became the family’s most guarded inheritance.

“It’s written in German, Polish, Yiddish, Latin—every generation added something,” Dr Inna explains. “Medicine evolved, ingredients changed. Some herbs we now know are toxic, so we replaced them. But the philosophy never changed.”

The book is now too fragile to touch. Ink-stained pages crumble at the edges; it can only be opened with tweezers. Yet its influence runs through everything Libi & Daughters does today – and was passed on when Dr Inna reached her bat mitzvah.

Jewish history threads through the doctor’s story and it’s all about movement, exile, resilience. The family lived across Poland, Odessa, Georgia, Moscow and Israel. Dr Inna’s mother, Dr Libi Hershkovich, trained as an endocrinologist and dermatologist, running clinics in Tel Aviv and later Moscow, where she built a fully integrated medical centre treating skin as what it truly is: an organ reflecting the entire body.

“My family—cousins, uncles, aunts—are all in Jerusalem,” Dr Inna says simply. “That connection is part of who we are.”

This medical lineage is what makes Libi & Daughters different. Skincare here isn’t trend-led or ingredient-obsessed—it’s physiological. Every client has the choice to begin with the bespoke Red Box, formulated entirely around individual skin function. The stacked boxes in the salon lobby recall the wand cases at Ollivanders: identical on the outside, entirely personal within.

And there are rules. Everything is housed in glass—never plastic. “Plastic reacts with the product,” Dr Inna says. “Then you need preservatives to stop that reaction. Does your skin need those chemicals? No. Your skin has to work to eliminate them—and that’s what ages it.”

At the heart of the method are three formulas used in sequence, including the brand’s cult anti-ageing serum—designed not to overwhelm the skin, but to support what’s missing, restoring balance rather than forcing change. “We’re not designed to be improved,” she says. “We’re designed to be supported.”

It’s a philosophy that extends to children, ageing, and even injectables. Dr Inna is unapologetic about her scepticism of Botox, preferring methods that preserve natural physiological function. “Better to have a wrinkle than a problem,” she says. “Health first. Always.”

This is skincare as inheritance for 2026  From a Prussian apothecary garden to a London clinic. I am now addicted to the exfoliation serum, but I will have to ask for a rise if I want to keep using it and rob a bank if I want the red box. The alternative is to be very nice to Dr Inna and she may let be borrow that book .

For a 10% discount, use JN10 at http://libi.com/discount.

Glaze Daze
The summer of ’22 was the start of the ‘glazed donut craze’ – skin that has skin looking juicy, glassy, luminous and super-healthy mostly for selfies. Now Chanukah is long gone, though you may still be carrying those few extra pounds, but looking like a donut is back again for summer. So you will be needing………

A deeply moisturising layer provide by Embryolisse Lait-Crème Concentré (£8 Amazon), which feeds the skin with water and nutrients to look plumped, soothed and satin.

Then pick up Glossier’s Futuredew Solid (£20 http://glossier.com) melts into skin giving instant glaze – it’s about layering the doughnut

Glow Hub Hy Glaze Face Frosting Serum Drops– they are hydrating serum drops add instant sheen (£16 http://lookfantastic.com) are a nice addition , then it is time to call a relative in the states or hit eBay because Purifect’s The Glazed Donut Skin Set is a USA complete multi-step glow kit if you want to look glazed with a filter when the sun arrives.