Simply Beautiful

From the way they cook to way they look, Italians have a thing for simplicity. It’s how five fresh ingredients make a perfect margherita pizza or how Armani turns a few staples into a stunning ensemble. It’s the same approach TC hair mogul Rocco Altobelli took with his new line of “cosmeceuticals.”

Altobelli has spent years working with dermatologists and chemists to create a formula for a new skin-care system for different ages. “People in their teens need something different than I do at sixty-two years old,” he says. The resulting twelve products, plus bath and body products, are displayed on clean shelves “like a shoe store, not a drug store,” says Altobelli, at his new home spa store, (h2t)—shorthand for head-to-toe. Hoping to eliminate the confusion of pharmacies, the all-white boutique has a postmodern, minimalist design and a sink in the center for sampling.

From the store’s clean design to the promise that you don’t need a hundred products, Altobelli takes a “less is more” approach. The skin-care line provides the essentials to cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize, and protect, plus any specifics for your skin’s life stage: teen, adult, or antiaging. Products ($16 to $70) can be mixed and matched so customers can get benzoyl peroxide for break-outs, wrinkle cream for the eyes, and pumpkin-and-fruit peel that smells much more dolce than dermatology.

717 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., 612-332-8005