A Leather Skincare Case, and the Decisions Behind It

Skincare is, for a great many people, the most considered category they buy. Formulas are chosen slowly, kept properly, replaced deliberately. The object that carries them tends to be decided in an afternoon.

We designed one the other way around, beginning from how the products are used rather than from how a case is usually shaped. What follows is the specification and the reasoning behind each part of it.

The height was decided first

Serums, oils and full-size creams are meant to be stored upright. That is how they are formulated to sit, how their pumps and droppers are designed to work, and how they behave on a shelf at home.

So the interior height was set at eighteen centimetres before anything else about the proportions was drawn, so that a full-size bottle stands against the back wall rather than lying on its side. Width and depth followed from it. It is an unusual order in which to design an object, and it is the reason the Vega is the shape it is.

A structured frame

Skincare at this level is packaged in glass. Glass keeps its position when the object around it does, so the case is built over a structured frame that holds its own shape and takes an impact itself rather than passing it inward.

It also means the case is packed once. The arrangement inside stays as it was set, journey after journey, rather than being rebuilt each morning.

The interior is lined in leather

Throughout, rather than in coated fabric. Leather is wiped rather than soaked, ages rather than degrades, and holds its appearance at the folds where a coating would eventually open.

It is also the better surface for the second life almost every owner discovers. Rings and earrings rest on leather far more kindly than on any textile, which is why several customers bought the case for skincare and use it for jewellery, and one bought a second rather than choose.

Four brass feet, set into the base

A case of this kind spends much of its life on marble, and a bathroom counter is wet more often than it appears. The feet hold the leather clear of the surface entirely. They will mark before the leather does, and that is their purpose.

A padlock, with two keys

A bathroom is frequently shared and a hotel room is not private in the way a home is. The lock is there for that, and it is understood as a deterrent rather than as a safe. Two keys are supplied, one of which is best left at home, and the case is not locked inside checked baggage, where a lock that cannot be opened may be cut.

The parts that decide the tenth year

• Base corners reinforced in leather. Corners take the wear on a case that travels, and they are the first place a construction shows its intentions.
• A two-way zip. It opens from either side and spreads the wear along the track rather than gathering it at one end.
• A stitched and reinforced handle. The handle carries the load; the lid does not, and is not asked to.
• Solid brass hardware, plated in 18-karat gold. Brass carries weight in the hand, ages honestly, and can be re-plated decades from now.
• Dollaro grained calf. Firmer and more resilient than the nappa we use elsewhere in the house, because a case opened several times a day is handled differently from a bag that is carried. It resists marking, holds its structure, and may be conditioned once or twice a year.

No fixed dividers

Moulded compartments decide in advance what their owner may keep. A routine changes over years; a tray sized for four bottles does not.

The interior is left open, which asks for a method rather than supplying one. Ours works from the base upward: glass and weight standing upright at the back, tallest at the centre; jars and tubes laid flat in the middle with the heavier ones toward the centre, so the weight sits over the feet; and only flat and light items against the inner face of the lid, which carries whatever is placed there every time it is opened.

At home as well as away

An object used four times a year is doing very little. With a leather-lined interior and a lid that holds its position, the case does at home what it does travelling, and works as a jewellery case on a dressing table between journeys.

Each piece is best given its own soft pouch, since jewellery marks jewellery before it marks anything else. Skincare and jewellery are not kept together: acids, retinoids and fragrance dull plated finishes and tarnish silver through the air alone, without any direct contact.

What it looks like is part of the specification

This is usually left unstated, as though function were the only respectable argument for an object. It is not the way we think about any of our work.

The case is opened twice a day, in rooms that are not yours, at the beginning and the end of every journey. Fifteen years of ownership are made of those mornings. An object handled that often is entitled to be worth looking at, and the grained calf, the gold-plated hardware and the proportions were decided with the same seriousness as the height.

What it should not do is announce. The object is an extension of the person carrying it rather than a statement about her, and the moment it competes with her we have misunderstood our own name.

The specification in full

• Dollaro grained calf over a structured frame
• Lined entirely in leather
• Solid brass hardware plated in 18-karat gold
• Two-way zip and padlock, supplied with two keys
• Four brass feet set into the base
• Leather-reinforced base corners
• Rolled leather handle and leather luggage tag
• 24 × 18 × 15 cm, the eighteen-centimetre height taking full-size bottles upright
• Five shades, made in Italy for Venus Atelier
• Dust bag and numbered certificate of authenticity

It may be returned to us at any point in its life for a zip, a lock, a handle, a re-plating of the hardware, or a return to condition after long use.

Common questions

What height should a travel skincare case be?

Tall enough for a full-size serum or cream to stand upright, which in practice means an interior height of around eighteen centimetres. It is the specification that determines whether the case works, and the one we set before all the others.

Why line the interior in leather?

It is wiped rather than absorbed into, it holds its appearance at the folds over years of opening, and it is a better surface for jewellery than any textile.

Can the case hold both skincare and jewellery?

It is designed for both, though not at the same time. Acids, retinoids and fragrance tarnish silver and dull plating through the air alone.

Why does it have feet?

Because it is set down on wet marble daily. The feet keep the leather clear of the surface and take that wear themselves.

May grained calf be conditioned?

Yes, once or twice a year with a neutral conditioner suited to smooth calf, applied sparingly and buffed, tested on the base first. It is firmer and more resilient than the unprotected lambskin used elsewhere in the house, which is never conditioned.

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The Vega is made in five shades: Amarone di Notte, Caffè Rosso, Rosso Solare, Sol di Venere and Noir Vault.

The Vega case · Care and use · Our materials