Two years ago, Byredo Founder and Creative Director Ben Gorham started working on what would become Byredo Makeup. “We wanted makeup — both wearing and making — to be instinctive,” – now its finally arrived.
Together with renowned makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, Gorham started with colour, weaving a narrative around an idea they called the “open beauty system.” The idea was to take traditional makeup products and give them a multipurpose lease on life, giving the choice of self-expression back to the wearer. “I do not want to tell people how to wear cosmetics, but to inspire them,” explains Ffrench. “Our first products are simply sticks of colour – colours that are universally beautiful and to be worn in whichever way you like.”
The ensuing Colour Stick, arriving in 16 shades, launches beside lipstick (in 7 satin and 8 matte shades), mascara, eyeliner and lip balm. Though the latter products aren’t multipurpose, Gorham and Ffrench would instead position subjectivity in the weight of the colours and names. “As in Byredo’s scents, it’s about translating an emotional connection, this time through colour and language; there is a nostalgic, specific, sensorial attachment through both the colours and the names,” Ffrench says.
Imagine, without seeing, what a “Red and Blue” or “Divorce” red lipstick might look like. Then imagine the product in your hand — the curvilinear, anthracite metal-cased lip balm or curved red mascara container — hear the click of the lipstick’s gliding magnetic closure. Physical objects ground each product narrative, in a matter of form follows function, and wholly still representative of its own totemic quality.
Byredo Makeup will be available on October 1 in Byredo stores in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Stockholm, Singapore, Dubai, Seoul and Taiwan, and online at Byredo.com. The October launch will include the Colour Stick ($30 USD), Lipstick ($42 USD), Mascara ($45 USD), Eyeliner ($40 USD) and Lip Balm ($42 USD) while the 5-Colour Eyeshadow ($70 USD) will release in November.
