The new Lauder has landed
Estee Lauder, famed matriarch of the eponymous cosmetics giant, knew what made women tick. The glamour girl and Halston devotee captured the zeitgeist of the ‘70s when the label began rolling out cosmetics in what is now considered the Lauder signature, paneled gilded casing.
Aerin Lauder, corporate scion and head of the Lauder group, is following in her grandmother’s footsteps, taking the label’s iconic fluted lipstick case, introduced in 1984, and making it modern again. According to Anne Carullo, senior VP of corporate product innovation: “The fluting has been narrowed to yield a slimmer, sleeker version of the signature design. The lipstick bullet is also trimmer and twists up from a transparent cap rather than industry-standard white, creating a more sophisticated look. Even the way the cap form-fits to the case with precision closure suggests absolute luxury.”
“Women want many things from their lipstick — color projection without weight, shine with ample coverage, and moisture with great wear,” says Carullo. Estee Lauder tested their Signature Lipstick with women across the
Lip Lock
The results are in and Estee’s esteemed panel of chemists has formulated “a patent-pending, luxuriously creamy, comfortable formula, delivering hours of moisture and wear to lips in a return-to-classic shade range with a lustrous, high-shine finish.”
The latest revisions to the Signature Lipstick go deeper than simple hue alterations. Carullo and co. have modified the architecture of the actual product, beginning with the foundation of the lipstick — a natural wax, which can result in inconsistent runs, was replaced with a synthetic wax base, which provides a finer finish and cleaner baseline color — all the way to the addition of an emollient paste, a combination of oils native to lipgloss formulas, which provides high shine. “That’s an industry first,” adds Carullo. Finally, experts worked on making taste and scent practically invisible, a refreshing change from the heavily-scented tubes on the market today.
Starting Over
“We reviewed our own lineup, both in terms of packaging and shades, and realized that we were missing certain elements that a core group of customers were asking for,” claims Carullo. “We did not have a formula that offered all the color projection without weight, ultra-shine with ample coverage, and moisture and comfort with great wear. So we set out to create it, but it wasn’t so easy to achieve because each of these elements conflicted with the other. For this reason, it took us two years to achieve the final result.”
Estee Lauder has made headway over the past few years, beginning with capsule cosmetic collections by the inimitable Tom Ford, post-Gucci. Now the label is returning to form with the return of its classic packaging, only this time bigger, better and much glossier.
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Estee Lauder Signature Lipstick is available in universally wearable shades, categorized by four new color groupings, including pink-berry, mauve-plum, nude-brown and coral-red. The new color groupings are designed to ease customer selection at the counter by offering more shade levels and depths within her preferred color ranges; in short, more of something for everyone.
Estee Lauder Signature Lipstick retails for P1,150 and will be released starting Feb. 20 at Rustan’s and Marionnaud at SM Mall of Asia.
