The latest launch from Hermès Beauty has us flushed with excitement. Composed of eight blush shades, two application brushes, a leather blush case and three pink lip tints, the Rose Hermès collection comes a year after Hermès Beauty’s inaugural Rouge Hermès lipstick launch.
For Hermès Beauty’s creative director Jérôme Touron, cosmetics that enhance a natural, rosy flush were a logical progression after the bold lip-defining hues of the previous collection. ‘Rose Hermès initiates a subtle unveiling of the complexion,’ says Touron. ‘It is a palette of shades that sketches contours without fixing them, animating the face and giving it movement.’
‘Red is a confident signature, whereas pink expresses transience, the fresh bloom of sensation...it is a palette of shades that sketches contours without fixing them, animating the face and giving it movement. Evanescent, progressive, almost blurred, Rose Hermès lends itself to every transformation. It can be blended, shaded, intensified.’
To create the collection, Touron and his team scoured the Hermès archives, singling out shades of pink on a diverse range of items, from riding caps to parasols, which were then reimagined as cosmetic hues. Even the textures of the products are derived from the brand’s signature designs, with lip tints boasting a smooth finish similar to their beloved leather products, and blushes that are silky to the touch, recalling the feel of a Hermès scarf.
As Touron says, ‘there is an analogy of material between powder and silk. They offer the same delicacy, the same softness, the same radiance. This inspiration is further reflected on the surface of the powder, which is textured like the fine rib of silk twill.’
The line’s refillable packaging is designed by the brand’s creative director of shoe and fine jewellery collections, Pierre Hardy, and features a delicate scent created by in-house perfumer Christine Nagel. The result is a range of timeless objects that are, in Hardy’s words, both ‘desirable and discreet’. §
A version of this article first appeared in the April 2021 issue of Wallpaper* (W*264) – available to download here