Beauty gets in the pink with Rose Hermès
After the best-selling Rouge Hermès, the exclusive lipstick capsule launched by Hermès to mark its inaugural foray into the beauty universe last year, it is following up the success with a sophomore effort that is just as covetable and winning for Spring/Summer 2021.
With the unveiling of Rose Hermès, it certainly looks like the French maison is steadily shaping up its beauty vision with the same signature approach employed in the creation process across its wide-ranging categories. “The result of a collective effort, Rose Hermès initiates a subtle unveiling of the complexion, a natural next step in the expression of beauty, according to Hermès,” artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas describes.
This time around the pièce de résistance of the Rose Hermès collection is the blusher. The capsule comprises eight shades of Rose Hermès Silky Blush, alongside two brushes, a Pommette blush case and three rosy lip enhancers. While Rouge Hermès is centred on colour contained within a distinct line, Rose Hermès sets itself apart with the hue of a sensitive and radiant sensibility. It encapsulates a nuanced narrative of all the renditions of pinks the house has created since its origins—candid, tender, sensual, fresh, muted, intense and electric—in connection to Hermès objects that are housed in the Émile Hermès museum.
Interestingly in the Hermès lexicon, these pink interpretations are inspired from the likes of caressing pink silk that lined the interior of a model of a Romantic-era carriage to the parasol whip of French Empress Eugénie and a child’s saddle in oiled buffalo leather gifted to nine-year-old Miss W. in Pennsylvania. But it was the Azalée woollen suit which gave birth to Hermès pink in the spring of 1961, followed by the intense pinks that embellished Hermès scarves, from La Fabrique des Rubans to Théâtre d’ombres, in the ’80s. Through Mexico’s Las Coloradas magentas and Bengal’s feisty pinks, the famous shade gained a nomadic characteristic before it now returns in 2021 to perpetuate an evolving storyline, reiterating itself as the very essence of Hermès, and heart and soul of the latest Hermès Beauty edition.
From silk to blusher
Compared to red, Hermès Beauty creative director Jérôme Touron describes pink as blissful and emotional—more diffuse and transient with the fresh bloom of sensation. A pink palette animates the face and gives it movement by sketching rather than fixing facial contours. Zooming into the sensual surface of the blusher, it is reminiscent of the twill weave of Hermès scarves, and its ethereal and compact texture unfolds in a swathe of light where the fine and velvety powder tints the skin with translucent colour.
The eight shades—orange pink Rose Abricot, coral pink Rose Blush, delicate misty Rose Plume, bright radiant Rose Pommette, celestial peony Rose Ombré, warm tropical Rose Tan, deep pink Rose Nuit, spicy pink Rose Poivré—transform gesture into colour, and beauty into an everyday expression of radiance. Formulated with mineral powder for sheerness and Vitamin E for anti-oxidant properties, it gives the perfect finish with buildable coverage from natural to sophisticated. Colour and scent intertwine in the Rose Hermès Silky Blush with arnica and sandalwood notes and hints of green tea to cap off its new Christine Nagel-created scent.
When blended, shaded or intensified, the blusher delivers with a silken touch, coming alive to animate the aura of the complexion and accentuate the features, and to reveal emotions and the personality. Apply in circular motions to highlight cheekbones, sweep from cheekbones to the temples for a sculpted effect or brush on in light touches for a healthy glow.
The Rose Hermès Silky Blush is housed in an unconventional and light round case with a wide, off-centre mirror. Designed by Pierre Hardy, the disc of white and gold light in satin-finish permabrass, marked with the concave ex-libris created by Émile Hermès in 1923, is transformed into an everyday yet pure Hermès object. It is packaged in an orange box with a recycled paper outer sleeve with added sustainability embodied by a refillable or replaceable powder pan.
Partners in radiance
To accompany the Rose Hermès Silky Blush repertoire are a line-up of accessories. First in line are two brushes, both exceptional objects: a blush brush with a lacquered wooden handle, brushed metal ferrule and goat bristle fibres hand-assembled by a French brush-maker; and a travel blush brush with a metal handle with two finishes—white lacquer and brushed gold—with easy-to-clean synthetic fibres and a generous, slanted shape to follow the contours of the face and release just the right amount of sheer colour.
Next is a Pommette blush case with a Rose Extrême Madame calfskin interior and exterior, specifically designed for Rose Hermès Silky Blush and the travel blush brush, which can be worn on the shoulder with an adjustable strap.
Last but not least is the Rosy Lip Enhancer, presented in a trio from light to dark: Rose d’Été, Rose Tan and Rose Abricoté. The golden cylinder features a band of matte pink lacquer, packaged in an orange box with a recycled paper outer sleeve and natural canvas drawstring pouch. The refillable Rose Hermès Rose à lèvres—enriched with an exclusive white mulberry extract, raspberry seed oil, sesamin-based nutrients, and a soft scent of sandalwood, arnica and angelica—enhances and hydrates the lips with a sheer, translucent and matte luminous effect. Its candle wax texture is inspired by the smooth, voluptuous feel of Butler calfskin, developed by Hermès in 2012, while also echoing warm beeswax used by leather artisans for an overall benevolent sensation to complete Hermès Beauty’s pink tour de force.
As Bali Barret, Hermès former artistic director of the women's product universe, once said pink is a hue that conjures optimism, femininity, extreme gentleness or absolute intensity depending on the shade. It is now rightfully channelled into the enchanting and evocative watercolours of the Rose Hermès Silky Blush and its accoutrements to express a state of mind, as if drawing a face that evokes the freshness and pure, unadulterated natural beauty of every era.
The Rose Hermès collection will be exclusively available at the Hermes Pavilion boutique, the brand’s first in-house beauty counter in Malaysia, as well as the Hermès Beauty counter at Parkson Elite Pavilion from 15 April 2021.
