The lipstick revolution: how pretty packaging is making smiles more sustainable
Brands are offering customised ‘keeper’ cases that can double as jewellery, and hopefully help reduce the billion lipsticks that we throw away each year
Something is going on with lipstick these days, an industry-wide conspiracy to have you upgrade your lip products from handy handbag companions to blingy status symbols.
You can probably blame Christian Louboutin for this. A few years ago, the shoemaker launched an HK$800 lipstick with packaging so ornate, the brand decided users would want to wear it as a necklace, adding a little loop on the lid to facilitate accessorising. Fashionistas stuck to wearing Louboutins on their feet, but the beauty industry had discovered a new avenue to get more money from its customers.
Guerlain, one of the first brands to introduce the covetable case, is also reminding customers that looks matter. The brand launched a customisation service for its double-mirror lipstick cases that allows customers to choose from an array of cases launched this month, including multicoloured croc and python (HK$260 for the lipstick, HK$165 for the topper, which fits over refill lipsticks).
Some brands argue that by upgrading the packaging, they’re encouraging reuse, and thus saving the planet. Consider La Bouche Rouge, a French label that’s launching at Lane Crawford this month. The brand espouses clean living by offering a refillable lipstick case, one forged of fine calfskin that’s been double vegetable-tanned in a family tannery. “An object we love never ends up as waste,” according to the website, and it has a monogramming service (for a slight extra cost). You’d better keep it – refills retail for US$41, but the cases, while beautiful, will take the price tag up to US$164.
Eco-minded Hourglass Cosmetics launched a fancy refillable Confessions lipstick last year to match its fancy refillable Curator mascara, both of which are decorated with a gold spike that, some have discovered, makes for a sensual sight when reapplying your lipstick at the lunch table but becomes a bit of a liability when you’re going through airport customs. That said, the case costs only an extra HK$120 above the HK$200 refill price.