<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpFirst">Look at them:
cute, white, round and playful. Just about the last beauty company
you'd think was behind the make-up on this page would be Estée
Lauder. No heavy, square compacts, no subtle colour palettes and
strictly no navy and gold. Yet this 12-piece collection is a
collaboration between Lauder and the French fashion house Courrèges
- and it couldn't be more of a statement from a beauty company set
on modernisation. (Two days before the launch, Estée Lauder, whose
"grown-up" spokesmodels have included Elizabeth Hurley, Gwyneth
Paltrow and Carolyn Murphy, added 17-year-old Kendall Jenner - and,
by implication, her 30 million social-media followers - to its
roster, with more "surprising" names to follow.)
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpMiddle">The good news for
Lauder is that the Courrèges collection, while radical, is also
brilliant: glosses in solid compacts with squeezable centres (the
Lip Visors); a clever gloss dispenser with a lipstick-shaped
applicator (Super Gloss); and - Estée Lauder firsts - false lashes
and hair mascara. (Sarah Creal, who spearheaded the collaboration
for Estée Lauder, admits that "somewhere between the lashes and the
hair mascara, I thought I was going to get fired.")
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpMiddle">
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpMiddle">And Courrèges,
bought three years ago by a French duo intent on restoring the
brand to the powerhouse of the Eighties it once was, is an inspired
choice of partner. Its design cues - reflective finishes, a Sixties
influence and lots of pink - are pretty much the hallmarks of all
the most flattering make-up, too. (The universally complimentary
Super Gloss in this collection is actually in the Courrèges Pink of
the house's logo.)
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpMiddle">The only omission
seemed to be nail polishes - until it was explained that "in nearly
all the Courrèges archive shots, the models were wearing white
gloves - so we didn't need to worry about nails". If - as Creal
admits - the mission was for women "to walk up to the Estée Lauder
counter and say, 'What is that?' and then be captivated by the
results," it's a resounding success. Let's not forget that another
Lauder collaboration was with a certain Mr Tom Ford - which
resulted in a world-beating stand-alone beauty business of its own.
I'd bet my blusher brush that Courrèges might just follow suit.
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpLast">Available
exclusively at Esteelauder.co.uk and Selfridges, London. More
on the March 2015 issue of Vogue here.
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpLast">
Read more: Kendall On Being Estée Lauder's New Girl
<p style="text-align: left;"
class="CaslonbodycopyCaslonBodyDropcapCxSpLast">
Read more: Joan Smalls Launches Beauty Collection
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