It’s golden hour in Los Angeles and the Lovell House is, quite literally, lit. The iconic modernist home, designed in the late 1920s by famed architect Richard Neureta for health guru Phillip Lovell (consider him the Goop of his time) is all windows, and sunlight is streaming in. It’s a fitting setting for the launch of La Prairie’s latest innovation, White Caviar Eye Extraordinaire, an illuminating eye cream, which builds on the luxury Swiss skincare brand’s understanding of how youthful-looking skin reflects light. Because despite society’s collective obsession with smoothing lines, wrinkles aren’t the sole signifier of tired, aging skin.

According to Jacqueline Hill, Ph.D., director of strategic innovation and science at La Prairie, luminosity comes down to two things: smooth and even-toned skin, which create the best conditions to reflect light. (It’s a look we’ve intuitively been trying to recreate with highlighter for years.) The eye area, however, is slightly different than the rest of the face because of its hollow shape.

Facial skin can have four different colour irregularities, says Hill: “Grey, as the result of pollution particles depositing on the surface of the skin, brown, due to accumulation of the melanin in age spots in the epidermis, yellow, due to accumulation of glycated collagen fibres in the dermis, and red, as a result of blood capillaries dilated by chronic silent inflammation.”

SHOP

Unlike the rest of the face, the eye area can also look blue-violet (the result of deoxygenated blood), as those of us with dark under-eye circles are well aware. The eye area is particularly prone to showing red and violet/blue colours because that’s where skin is thinnest. White Caviar Eye Extraordinaire works to even out all of the above hues, thanks, in part, to lumidose, a potent, patented molecule exclusive to La Prairie that slows the enzyme tyrosinase, which is responsible for synthesizing melanin, the brown pigment in age spots.

Then there’s the smoothness factor. “Our skin is made up of two light-reflecting surfaces: the epidermis, or surface of the skin, and the network of collagen fibres in the dermis,” explains Hill. A proprietary caviar extract in the formula smoothes the epidermis and densifies collagen fibres, which increases the overall reflection of light — ergo, glowing skin.

Put your highlighters on notice.

READ MORE:

How to Properly Recycle Beauty Product Packaging

DIY Beauty Recipes From ELLE Editors Around the World

Everything To Know About The Connection Between Good Sleep and Good Skin