It’s a Beautiful Lifestyle

Today’s most innovative beauty brands are focusing on building an image around discovery and individuality—and meeting consumers outside their expected boundaries.

By Jonathan Ford, Pearlfisher

Lifestyle branding has typically been about the replication of a very defined style or aesthetic that has had little room to develop further. But I think we are finally starting to see a shift. A new generation of brands—and new offers from existing brands—is encouraging a re-focus of aspiration around “real life” life-styles and an exploration of individual needs. Rather than prescribing lifestyle on a mass scale, we are moving to a new evolution and design of what we are defining as “living brands.”

Cookie-Cutter Cosmetics

The lifestyle beauty brand gurus have been traditionally presented by a well-defined image underpinned with a strong philosophy, set of values and ownable aesthetic style. And if we look back to the lifestyle pioneers in this category, it is probably the glossy ad campaigns for Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein fragrances, that we best recall.

Beauty brands have faced competition not only from one another, but from other sectors as well, from brands that realize that personal care is an integral part of the overall lifestyle package. As a result, lifestyle brands from other sectors continue to beat a path to the beauty door.

Quicksilver relies purely on its logo.

Quiksilver’s new fragrance for men, notably called Quiksilver, has recently launched in the U.S. The surf apparel brand has steadily extended its offer under the iconic umbrella, moving the brand from wetsuits and boards to clothing and eyewear. As you would expect, the blurb talks about a fragrance with notes of “marine” and, if you dig deeper, you’ll find that the brand has worked with respected perfumers. But, unfortunately, the packaging tells us little about its pedigree; it’s just trading on the heritage of the Quiksilver logo with the name in large print. First impressions are not that impressive unless you are already a die-hard Quiksilver aficionado just looking for the logo.

Cath Kidston is a relatively new—but immensely successful—lifestyle guru. The brand sums up the ultimate in vintage lifestyle and retro chic for the home, but has steadily extended its offer into soaps and body lotions, adding fragrance for Autumn ’09. Cath Kidston understands the importance of relevant brand extension and is sticking to a limited range of traditional scents such as lavender, geranium and rose. All are housed in a variety of old-fashioned dispensers such as metal tubes, “shoe-polish” type tins and glass bottles with atomizers. Cath Kidston, unlike Quiksilver, already has a credible design heritage and translates these designs into its packaging. If it’s your cup of tea, then it’s great, but there is no room for maneuvering. It is proprietary and prescriptive, and targets only a certain demographic that wants this cookie-cutter lifestyle. As the brand continues to expand, with an inevitable style overload, it in no way mirrors the way that most of us tend to live our lives now as we mix up, for example, vintage chic with modern technology; rose hand cream with Revitalift.

What we also need to remember is that while we still look to lifestyle brands to be aspirational, the more lines and, ergo, codes and cues that are added, the more difficult we find it to live up to (and with) the “too perfect” image. There can be too much brand ego on display and the specialness, the character and the wistfulness are replaced by a tight-laced formula that is about anything but a more relaxed and desirable lifestyle and, ironically, then weakens and waters down the offer.

Makeup or Merchandise?

When does makeup become just another item on the list of brand merchandise? Just another opportunity to buy into a branded lifestyle that actually has little relevance to us?

For cosmetics, in particular, cosmetic credentials and heritage are important. Teens may not care that their “High School Musical” makeup is not from a known cosmetic brand but, by and large, we are not just gullibly swallowing up any branded merchandise or new lifestyle gimmick thrown our way.

Yes, we want brands to create new beauty experiences for us, but we want them to reflect how we are living our lives today on a personal rather than mass level. This experience does need to start with the brand in the hand. It’s about the products, how they look, what they do for us and more importantly, what they and their effects now mean to us. This is most definitely not about prescribing a look, but tapping into a more personal and emotive connection through the design and the packaging as the key consumer touch point.

Make Me Pretty, Happy, Confident

We tend to see more gift sets at this time of year, but the collections on shelf at the moment are not obviously targeting the festive buyer. Rather, we are seeing boxed groups of products—such as mascaras and lipglosses—in sample sizes or providing a whole color palette as a way of giving choice, tapping into different moods or for a certain occasion…and, in some cases, going one step further.

Bare Escentuals new nine-piece set contains the mood-boosting “Happybelle” complex.

The new Bare Escentuals bareMinerals Happiness Collection is a nine-piece set infused with new mood-boosting “Happybelle” complex: a natural plant extract believed to mimic the effect of endorphins to induce a sense of happiness. Each of the products now has the name extended with a descriptor. For example, “Glee Radiance All-Over Face Color inspired with Happybelle.” At first glance, you presume that the Happiness element is due to having a collection of products in a chic—but fun—bright red clutch. However, it is only after further exploration into the products and reading the label—“gives you the glow of pure happiness coming for your skin—think yoga for your face”—that makes you realize what this collection is trying to achieve. It is chic and elegant and novel but, again, somewhat prescriptive and sadly lacking in any design attention.

Another collection that has just hit the shelves is the D&G fragrance collection. The lineup of five fragrances essentially targets a unisex audience and is “inspired by the art of self-expression.” The range is being positioned as a fragrance wardrobe, allowing you to change and mix and match your fragrance depending on time of day, mood, etc. The fragrances have names such as La Lune (hynotizing, delicate, mysterious) and L’Imperatrice (confident, successful and charismatic). The products look premium, with each having a different name and color. They work well aesthetically as individuals or as the full collection. It is a very different and stylish expression for this category, but it is still hard to understand the overall brand message, and the nature of each fragrance, without the descriptors. The message is reinforced by a glossy ad featuring naked supermodels rather than through potentially more effective design messaging, but it is nevertheless a timely example of what being a living brand means today.

Urban Decay’s logo and bold, purple-hued colorway work to successfully tie new collections Hall of Fame and Book of Shadows Vol. 11 together.

A Living Beauty

The new brand offers are broader and are trying to provide a more eclectic branded experience. Like D&G, they are focusing on building an image around discovery and individuality and meeting different expressions, and interests, of our characters outside of their expected boundaries.

The new living brands need to embody an ethos that is emotive rather than “branded” and corporate to fit with the personal style of individual handbags—and homes. Rather than imposing an aesthetic, the logos and design need to be more collaborative and adaptable to allow the brand and, ergo, the products and packaging, to exist in a more fluid and natural way.

Urban Decay promotes—and prides itself on—the message that it is targeting each and every lifestyle rather than a demographic. And no one can argue that each and every one of its offers is different. Newcomer collections Hall of Fame and Book of Shadows Vol. 11 are worlds apart in terms of the bold and brash graffiti of Hall of Fame versus the glossy green and purple peacock feathers and subtle illustrated design of Book of Shadows. The logo—from the products to the packaging—goes through many incarnations, but is relevant to what’s on offer and the bold signature purple and lilac colorway holds everything together and leaves you no doubt that both offers are from the Urban Decay family.

Today’s most innovative beauty brands are starting to realize that it’s not just about indulgent and stereotypical visual messaging, but about creating a more fluid and flowing aesthetic. And, yes, it may create more of a struggle to be everything to everyone, but brands need to approach lifestyle as individual and personal. They need to inspire and identify with their customers by offering a unique mix of product and values, and evolving a genuine and personal—and sometimes simpler—design approach to help them build their own interpretation of modern living.