A lipstick star is reborn
This Dior classic has upped its game for a new generation of pouts
Most often, talk of classic styles being re-invented centres around fashion. But the beauty world can also do a great job of tweaking icons. And Dior has achieved just that with the latest redressing of its Rouge Dior lipstick.
It was first created in 1953, seven years after the brand’s founder Christian Dior had started his own couture house. He was already a bit of a beauty visionary, having launched a perfume, Miss Dior, at the same time as his haute couture maison in 1947. Back then, this was still a relatively new concept, whereas fragrance is now the cash cow for many a fashion brand. But when he brought out Dior Rouge, he didn’t just create a bit of lip colour, he created an event. It launched as a kit featuring an ‘obelisque’ case, inspired by Place de la Concorde in Paris and intended as an object for a dressing table, plus a gold, handbag-friendly case, and a set of refills. For, as many readers will know, beauty generally wasn’t as disposable then. You had your compact or your lipstick case and you refilled them time after time.
Rouge Dior has been changed often over the years. But this latest incarnation sees Peter Philips, creative director of Christian Dior make-up, going back to the archives and returning the lipstick to its roots. While the packaging is not how it was almost 70 years ago – it’s now housed in a dark case with a silver trim that looks like a little belt – it is, once again, fully refillable, a step I find exciting.
Of course, some brands such as Hourglass and Charlotte Tilbury already have refillable lipsticks. But for a brand as big as Dior to be offering this service and making this environmental change means other major brands will likely feel the pressure to follow suit. Peter tells me: ‘It’s a small change but the impact is a quarter less plastic use and one third less waste.’
Of course, what’s inside the packaging also has to be good. And it is. Better than before, in fact. The lipstick’s formula has been tweaked to be as natural as possible and to include nourishing ingredients such as pomegranate flower extract and shea butter. Shades have been tweaked, too – there are now 75 (though six of those will launch at a later date). There are also new finishes, so as well as satin and matt there is luscious velvet matt and metallic, too.
Among those new shades are the glamorous reds you might expect but also, interestingly, a lot of nudes – for which there is an increasing demand right now. Nude lipsticks are the new foundation of beauty: they need to be numerous in shade options to be properly inclusive. For as
Peter points out, ‘We have to educate ourselves that nude is not beige.’ Though there is a most recognisable nude option which, he says, is between a beige and a yellow undertone. It’s called Nude Look, a play on words, of course, on Dior’s famous New Look silhouette. The Rouge Dior lipsticks cost €35.91, refills €29 brownthomas.com. @edwinaingschambers
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