INTRODUCING CONTRAPPOSTO
The beauty house dedicated to the art of enhancement.
Written by LENA RAFF
Photography by ADAM KREMER
Contrapposto (n.): In art, especially sculpture: A stance in which a human figure is posed with the weight borne chiefly on one leg, causing a corresponding tilt of the hips and shoulders and a gentle twist through the torso; employed from classical antiquity onward to create a more relaxed, naturalistic, and lifelike effect.
The Contrapposto house—named for the sculptural principle of natural counterbalance most famously embodied in Michelangelo’s David—was founded by Nick and Casey Axelrod-Welk on a simple conviction: to enhance what is inherently individual and create beauty designed to endure. Nick, an industry giant and co-founder of Nécessaire, Homecourt, and Into The Gloss, and Casey, an Aesthetics Nurse Practitioner, began their partnership with a clinical practice in West Hollywood, California. But, theirs is not your average med-spa. “Rather than developing a series of protocols,” Nick explains, “the modalities and therapies are deployed with an artist’s touch. We’re informed by anatomy, guided by restraint, and shaped by an ongoing relationship with each patient over time.”
While fragrance may not be the intuitive next offering from an established aesthetics practice, for those involved, it made perfect sense. The debut trio of creamy, alluring scents, created in collaboration with master perfumers, is a continuing exploration of Contrapposto’s founding philosophy of enhancement. Nick expounds, "Each fragrance is engineered at a molecular level to interact with the chemistry of the wearer's skin—not to mask, but to melt in."
Of his work on Melting Flowers, perfumer Frank Voelkl (Le Labo Santal 33 and Thé Noir 29, Glossier You) effuses, “One of the most interesting aspects of this collaboration was translating the language of skin enhancement and aesthetic dermatology into something emotional and olfactive. Rather than creating a fragrance that masks or transforms, we spoke a lot about luminosity, texture, radiance, softness—the idea of revealing and enhancing what is already there. That was very inspiring to me as a perfumer because it shifted the focus away from spectacle and toward sensuality and intimacy.”
