Launching today, Louis Vuitton’s first foray into beauty is a carefully curated collection of colour cosmetics headed up by Pat McGrath
For Louis Vuitton’s debut beauty collection, La Beauté, each lipstick, balm and palette is heavy with gold-coloured metal and studded with the brand’s synonymous logos. The slick, refillable packaging was designed by renowned German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic – known for his geometric furniture pieces including the monobloc stackable Bell chair – whose job was to transform these often throwaway products into objets d’art. The collection, though vast in shades, only features three key products: LV Rouge (a lipstick), LV Baume (a balm), and LV Ombres (an eyeshadow quad). The lipsticks come in 55 hues (“LV” translates to 55 in Roman numerals) and two finishes – satin and matte – of mostly reds, with a few nudes and pinks thrown in. There are ten LV Baumes designed to cushion lips with a creamy, just-bitten tint. Each bullet is soft and velvety, smoothly imparting pigment without drag, and cloaking lips in non-sticky moisture. The eight eyeshadow palettes are butter-soft, each featuring a cohesive colour story – with a light shade, a dark shade, and two supporting shades all based around one hue. Cosmic Dreams, for example, is a study in purple. A light lilac accompanies violet and mauve, and a dark, purply brown completes the quad – an entire eye look in just one compact.
“We worked with ingredients like shea butter and hyaluronic acid to ensure the formulas care for the lips and skin as much as they beautify,” McGrath tells AnOther. “The upcycled flower wax, the fragrances – these details are not just functional, they are emotional. Make-up should be a sensorial ritual.” To this end, the lipsticks carry a subtle scent of mimosa, jasmine and rose, while each baume smells like mint and raspberry.
A special Vanity Trunk marks the occasion: an entire make-up station paying homage to Louis Vuitton’s early 20th-century bespoke beauty commissions and McGrath’s modern-day backstage workspace. There’s also a dedicated line of small leather goods to accompany La Beauté, starring Lipstick Pouches and Nice Beauty Cases for brushes and blotting papers.
La Beauté is available from August 29 online and in-stores.
