The Kelly Rutherford questionnaire
Going natural as a time-tested, efficacy-measured intervention.
In this send:
Agent Nateur, VRéserve, Veronique Gabai, creative visualization, “The Fat Flush Plan,” glutathione, Abraham-Hicks, cherry juice, margaritas, The Fairmont, Gwyneth Paltrow, Dr. Ellen Manos, Lanserhof, Ava Inness…
Welcome back to High Touch. I first met Kelly Rutherford at a dinner in Paris. I invited her to be in this newsletter while she was in New York, then we spoke over Google Meet a few days later when she was back home in Monaco. She sent me the selfie below from Cannes. To me, Kelly is the ultimate what does she know that I don’t person. How does she do it? In our inaugural High Touch Questionnaire—as comprehensive a survey as I was able to dream up, running through bullet points from sleep hygiene and substance use to plastic surgeons and smart-home devices—I got my answer to those top-level questions, in a fastidious and specific fashion.
Kelly is a bit of a granola mom, albeit impressively disciplined and fully leveraged within that framework considering the demands of her job. She’ll tell you as much herself below, plus things like who her facialist in London is and the functional medicine doctor she shares with Gwyneth Paltrow. You can even watch our full call in the video at the very end of this page. (Kelly’s on-screen grace! My weird lighting!) But first, a few things seen, heard, spotted since our last send:
A touch of High Touch
Eli Lilly’s Retatrutide (new gen “Ozempic” with more appetite suppression and energy expenditure pathways) just proved as effective as bariatric surgery in its phase 3 trial, with 30% weight loss at the top dose. It’s not FDA-approved yet, but bio-nauts claiming to be self-experimenting with gray market “reta” have been extolling its pound-shedding properties over semaglutide and tirzepatide for months—r/Retatrutide has 192k weekly visitors.
Yunara Life is a new health-lifestyle program that rewards members for improving their biometric markers with cosmetic treatments. Launching with an app + Gramercy Park clinic (opening in June), it directs users to take a longevity assessment (behavioral intake form, blood tests, VO₂ max, etc), build them a personalized protocol (AI + clinician), and rewards them for health improvements (lowered bio age score, completing advanced screenings) with points they can use towards aesthetic interventions like Botox, exosome microneedling, stem cell facials…it’s a membership program positioned as preventative health, “gamified.”
Atmosphera, a first-of-its-kind skincare line out of Canada that formulates product assortments based on (North American) climates: humid/coastal, dry/alpine, and temperate/seasonal.
I just reupped on low-effort protein for the house…I am unfortunately a regular David bar eater, but am trying to pivot more into being an Epic stick snacker (short ingredient lists and the salmon jerky isn’t too fishy-smelly to eat in public). Also ordered some Jacobs; I hear good things and will report back.
And thank you to everyone who reached out after yesterday’s bleph send—I heard from fellow Dr. Schwarcz patients, my surgery sisterwives, who are also thrilled with their results, as well as from those currently weighing the surgery for various reasons (Latisse periorbital fat loss, sudden autoimmune triggers). Our eyes are at the center of how we see ourselves, and I’m glad to hear my story came before those who found it relevant to their own journey.
At-Home Products
Skincare
I’ve always felt that the closer you stay to nature, the better. Keep things as simple as possible. Certainly in today’s world, where we’re being marketed every single possible thing. I see it with my daughter. It’s a different time to grow up. She has TikTok and she knows everything about every product. I guess I’ve just found the balance of wanting to keep things simple, feel good, and look good.
I’ve always been on the natural side. I’ve always loved it. I remember my mother cleaning the house with certain products. I just thought, “How is this possible? This can’t be good for you.” When I was a kid, I thought, “Oh, I can’t wait to have my own home and use natural products and things.” I’ve always felt that way, even with perfume—I just did a perfume—I couldn’t wear a lot of them. All of these things can be done in a way that’s a bit more natural.
I love to try things and I’m sent things, or my friends will do a line [of products]. There’s always something to try, but I end up with pieces of the puzzle—finding things from each brand that work for me. I tend to like simple things like Agent Nateur. She has one called the Holi Trinity which is vitamin C, an oil, and a hyaluronic spray. Living Libations, really natural good stuff. I like the rose thing that they do: a rose cleanser, a rose emollient serum, a COQ10 serum, and a face spray. Then this line my friend who has bees is making, it’s called VRéserve. I like the Weleda products, the Skin Food is obviously really good. Another one that’s lovely is out of the UK. It’s called Sweet Bee Organics.
Haircare + scalp health
Hair care is more about the brushes. I love the Jäneke brushes and combs. I don't use that much on my hair. I use David Mallet shampoo and conditioner, they’re so good and his salon is so great.
Bodycare
For my body, I love coconut oil.
Hands / feet / nails
I love magnesium cream for feet, or Skin Food. Lately I've gone natural with my nails. This summer I'm going to have to do something. There's a Chanel ballet pink and that really dark, beautiful red that they do, Rouge Noir. Hermès has a nice hand cream, Chanel too. I use a gua sha. I use it mainly if my jaw is tight, or even my neck if it's sore. I use it more as a little massage tool.
Oral health
I like Curaprox toothbrushes, the ones that are different colors. For toothpaste, sometimes I make my own with coconut oil, oregano oil, stuff like that. When I'm traveling, Living Libations makes really good natural toothpastes. Weleda makes a good salt toothpaste.
Fragrance
I recently did a perfume with Veronique Gabai. [Laura note: Kelly also just collaborated with Cayumas on a line of Friulane slippers.] I wanted something rose, and I partnered with a friend of mine who I've known for 15 years who worked at Estée Lauder and did all the perfumes for the brands. And she comes from Antibes, not far from where I'm living. I told her I wanted to be as natural as humanly possible, she already kind of does that anyway with her brand. It's called Rose Première. I'm really excited about it. People are really liking it, so I'm super happy.