Artistes en Beauté

Fashion designer Tsumori Chisato created Shu Uemura’s limited edition 2009 Christmas cosmetic collection.

A prestige beauty packaging trend finds brands teaming up with professional artists for gallery-worthy bottles and jars.

By Nica Lewis, head consultant, Mintel Beauty Innovation and a member of Beauty Packaging’s Board of Advisors

Following the collaboration trend between designer and high street fashion brands (such as H&M and the late Alexander McQueen, Sonia Rykiel and Jimmy Choo; Uniqlo and Jil Sander; JC Penney and Charlotte Ronson; Gap and Stella McCartney), beauty brands are also teaming up with creative professionals.As tracked by Mintel Beauty Innovation, recent prestige beauty launches show various interpretations of this trend.On a two-dimensional level, decoration is used to increase visual appeal.It can reinforce a story or concept of femininity, beauty or romance.Or, in the case of limited edition launches, distinctive new labels or shapes can also promote collectability.On a conceptual level, some brands reach out to designers in an attempt to break traditional graphic codes while others partner with well-known global designers to create breakthrough innovation.Finally, some brands go further and foster cultural exchanges to develop future talent.

An example of visual romance comes from Rouge Bunny Rouge. This design-led cosmetic brand is based on an enchanted Victorian fairy tale.The Seas of Illumination Highlighting Liquid (£45) comes in black cardboard outer packaging covered in pretty black-stenciled flowers, butterflies and rabbits.The clear glass bottle continues the theme of the flowers.Like Tim Burton’s remake of “Alice in Wonderland,” this trend has appeal across all ages through its themes of nostalgia and escape.

New Zealand brand Snowberry looked to London artist Rob Ryan, a “romantic realist” to decorate the packaging of its range.He was selected for his original style involving intense, yet sentimental storytelling paper cut art.The Intensive Renewal Face Serum (£197) features playful multicolored silhouettes of trees, people, flowers and birds on outer packaging and flacons.

L’Oréal-owned Shu Uemura returned to its Japanese roots with two recent artistic collaborations.Fashion designer Tsumori Chisato created the brand’s limited edition 2009 Christmas cosmetic collection.The Rouge Unlimited Wish Upon a Star Lipstick ($38) features the designer’s favorite Japanese icons“Twinkle Star” and “Lucky Cat” in yellow, beige and black on a white background.Shu Uemura repackaged its cleansing oils with bright colors and Tokyo Kamon Girls, five Japanese dolls created by Moyoco Anno, a famous mangaka (manga artist) and fashion writer.

Here in the U.S., Urban Decay chose to partner with L.A. artist/fashion designer Kime Buzzelli for its Christmas 2009 collection. The Show Pony Shadow Box ($30) features Buzzelli’s signature paintings with “wickedly fashionable women” and brightly colored makeup.

Shu Uemura repackaged its cleansing oils with bright colors and Japanese dolls created by Moyoco Anno, an artist and fashion writer.

Fragrance bottles were some of the original collectible items.And today, brands are partnering with artists to experiment with the category’s usual packaging codes. Kenzo commissioned Ron Arad to design a bottle to create a vehicle for fragrance that breaks with traditional industry codes and evokes sensuality when in contact with the skin.The Unidentified Fragrance Object Eau de Parfum ($188) comes in a twisted elliptically shaped metallic bottle with sinuous grooves.It is designed to nestle in the hollow of a woman’s hand, and also features an etched thumbprint.The perfume itself breaks codes, too, as it is not defined by the traditional olfactory pyramid.Its structure is a balance between a powerful heart, a marble accord, and four natural raw ingredients that add facets to the note.Both NY’s MoMa and Paris’ Centre Pompidou organized retrospectives of this industrial designer, artist and architect known for his curiosity about technology and materials.

In a twist on the Extreme Ethical trend, Kiehl’s created a limited edition holiday collection designed to support RxArt, an organization that fosters art appreciation by engaging patients in pediatric hospitals through contemporary art.The KAWS Crème De Corps ($27) features label artwork by KAWS, the NYC-based graffiti artist also known as Brian Donnelly.The label’s mix of color planes and cartoony-gloved hands marked with an “X” is representative of KAWS’ more recent paintings, which deconstruct his graphic signatures and trademark characters.KAWS has also collaborated with fashion designers and musicians before.The brand claims KAWS is an avid Kiehl’s user since moving to New York City in 1996.

Collaborations to Continue

The BBC series “What is Beauty?” explored the concept of beauty in art, yet this subject can also be viewed in the reverse— art/culture in beauty.The nature of creativity and innovation are such that artistic analogies are common in beauty—whether creating a canvas for applying cosmetics or sculpting curves for a hairstyle.The Artistes en Beauté trend is a newer iteration of the quest to create packaging that wants to be held and beheld.