Hermès is getting in the beauty game for the first time ever.
The luxury brand announced via WSJ magazine that it’s venturing into uncharted territory for the first time in its 183-year history with a collection of 24 lipsticks called Rouge Hermès.
Inspired by fashion house’s archive of 75,000 silk swatches and 900 leather shades, the new cosmetics range has been in the works for two years (and on artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas’s mind for more than two decades). True to the brand’s reputation for craftsmanship, the packaging for each lipstick will be made from the same metal that Hermès uses as its handbag hardware. Accordingly, the lip colors will run on the expensive side at $67 each. However, in an effort toward sustainability, the brand will offer refills for $42, so beauty aficionados won’t have to toss coveted Hermès tubes once they're used up.
Hermès’s creative director of jewelry and shoes, Pierre Hardy, designed the packaging and told WSJ, “We wanted to do refillable so we could use more luxurious materials that had their own value. The idea is a form that’s both simple and playful enough to allow it to be done and redone ad infinitum. It’s rare for an artistic director to think about packaging over a long period of time and not just a one-off.”
