The Right Way to Wear Byredo's First Makeup Collection Is However You Want
Josh Wilks
Few fragrances are evocative as Byredo's collection of scents. The line includes as cult-favorites like Gypsy Water, Mojave Ghost, and Rose of No Man's Land, which each tell a different story.
To no surprise, storytelling through scent has always been a core principle for the brand, but now founder and creative director Ben Gorham wants Byredo to be a part of the visual narrative people tell through makeup, too.
On Oct. 1, Byredo is launching its first ever makeup collection, created in collaboration with British makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench. Together, the pair hope to challenge conventional ideals of beauty and redefine the approach to how makeup is both made and worn.
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"Isamaya brought me into her process in an interesting way, where everything started with a dialogue and most of it about how it made us feel," Gorham tells InStyle. "So, it's less about the practical, technical part of makeup to start. It was very much about creating a series of products that made people feel things."
The Colour Sticks come in 16 shades, which can be worn on the eyes, lips, or cheeks. Take smearing the metallic fuchsia shade around the eyes or swiping it on the lips, as one example.
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The collection also includes lip stick (16 shades in satin and matte finishes), lip balm, mascara, liquid eyeliner, and three five-shade eyeshadow palettes (launching in November). And since these products are technically multipurpose, there's no right or wrong way to wear them.
"Byredo, by nature, is democratic and when I launched Byredo, it didn’t make sense in my mind to create a fragrance for one or two individuals or to limit myself to thinking of a single interpretation," Gorham says. "Back then I didn’t understand why you would have separate fragrance for men and women, which was the industry norm at the time, and I think this also applies with color and makeup."
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Gorham and Ffrench merged nostalgia with the future while conceptualizing the products' packaging, creating designs that serve as curated objects in themselves.
"We were both really clear that we needed to design the packaging from scratch and that this wouldn't go into standard product lines," Gorham explains. "We also felt this idea of curated color needed to come into the packaging, individually designed to almost create a collection of curated objects in their own right. Then, in that combination of heritage and future, I think we referenced almost relics, ancient objects that are almost alien in nature and feel super contemporary and futuristic."
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Retailers including Sephora, Nordstrom, and Ulta are all getting rid of in-store testers.
Mission accomplished.
The Byredo makeup collection is available starting Oct. 1 at byredo.com, saksfifthavenue.com, and Byredo store locations.
