EXCLUSIVE: Paris Hilton Wants to Create the Future of Self Tanning
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Paris Hilton — the self-identified queen of self-tanning — has taken on a familiar category for her latest beauty collaboration.
The multihyphenate has teamed up with Tan-Luxe on a self tanner for body, called The Future, which debuts Sunday at Ulta Beauty and on the retail giant’s website for $49.
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The Future includes Tan-Luxe’s new Triple Tan+ technology — a blend of glycerin and erythrulose, which boasts a claim of lasting at least 10 days from a single application — in addition to a peptide complex and a blend of humectants. It also includes a scent Hilton developed, called Pink Sands, which has notes of cassis, violet and white leather.
Though she was an early adopter of the spray tan, Hilton insisted that sparking the trend didn’t happen intentionally. “So many trends I started were done in an organic, real way. They were just things I loved,” she said in an interview with WWD. “My mom always taught me to stay out of the sun, and that’s why I discovered spray tans. Now, we have a product that has such a beautiful color, really works and is like putting on skin care that makes you tan.”
Hilton said she had used Tan-Luxe products for a few years before being approached for a collaboration.
“I’m an expert on getting tanned, but Tan-Luxe are the experts in tanning products,” she said. “We put our creative minds together to come up with what we think is the future of tanning.”
Hilton was nodding to the product’s myriad benefits, from its lasting power to hydration and collagen stimulation. “It’s very different from any other product lines out there for tanning,” she said.
It was her expertise in the category that attracted Tan-Luxe. “We asked Paris what her dream product would be, because she loves the category and has been tanning for 20 years,” said Marc Elrick, Tan-Luxe’s chief executive officer and founder. “Now, she’s a busy mom and would love to do something once a week instead of twice. She’s always been ahead of the curve, whether it be inventing the selfie in the early 2000s or trailblazing in the metaverse.”
Elrick added that it’s Tan-Luxe’s first celebrity collaboration, and that he expects it to double the brand’s size. “Two thirds of our sales come from our self-tanning Face Drops, and we think we can revolutionize body tanning in the same way we revolutionized facial tanning with this product. With the research, development and innovation that’s gone into it, we haven’t done innovation at this level since we launched facial tanning.”
The product is housed in a pink canister, accompanied by a pink tanning mit, “my signature color,” Hilton said. That carries over to the campaign, which Hilton’s company 11:11 Media, worked on with the brand.
“I am the queen of marketing, and this commercial is so iconic,” Hilton said. “There are three different versions of me: AI, present and future in a room together. And on set, because the name of the fragrance is Pink Sands, they built this desert of pink sand with a gorgeous sunset background.”
Elrick added that the approach will be digital-first, in conjunction with a robust influencer strategy and a launch party in Los Angeles. “We’ve created a campaign that is iconic, a product that is iconic and with Paris Hilton, who is an icon,” he said.
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