After much anticipation, L’Occitane has gotten into the make-up business (just in time to coincide with the launch of their listing on the Honk Kong stock exchange, where the French brand anticipates raising as much as $710 million through an initial public offering). The peony-inspired L’Occitane collection was a collaborative effort between the heralded skin and body care brand and French horticulturist Jean-Luc Rivière, whose family has been cultivating peonies for 160 years. Peonies boast a diverse palette of shades given their wide variety of iteration, and that has translated into a slew of fresh and natural make-up colors, each of which reflects the real variety after which it was named.
The collection includes lipsticks, glosses, cheek and eye shades, lip balm, illuminating powder, and face bronzer, and products are formulated with natural peony extract, an exclusive ingredient to the range that has softening properties. As for the packaging, each product comes in a unique, natural, eco-friendly cardboard casing inspired by the nursery packs in which you would find seeds. Fittingly, each packet displays the name of the peony flower that inspired the product shade. I’m loving the originality of the packaging and the feminine, light pink hues are perfect for Spring/Summer.
Giving the range some added competition will be Burberry when, in July, the brand launches their 96-product makeup line. Burberry chief creative officer Christopher Bailey said that he was looking to give the Burberry customer “sheer products for the face to create a natural glow, and eye, cheek, and lip items that enhance women’s features. “ The packaging looks sleek and streamlined, and Bailey’s description is in keeping with the English label’s aesthetic, so I look forward to checking out the pieces when they hit counters. It’s truly hard to believe that, with everyone from Kat Von D to Lauren Hutton in the make-up game, it took these two power players this long.
