“Beauty is a living art”: Lancôme and Louvre launch sculpture-inspired cosmetic collections

29 Aug 2023 --- The Musée du Louvre and Lancôme have partnered to debut a skin care and makeup collection inspired by nine sculptures and the lights and colors of the museum.

The launch campaign was shot at the Louvre, Paris, France, featuring the brand’s “faces” Zendaya, Aya Nakamura, Amanda Seyfried and He Cong. The women were chosen because they “embrace and incarnate the stylistic codes and myths of certain iconic sculptures.”

“Pop culture – the culture of moving images, advertising, social media and our daily lives – is often inspired by these timeless images and representations, sometimes very scholarly, sometimes very ancient,” says Laurence des Cars, president and director of the Musée du Louvre. 

“The Musée du Louvre collections are surprising and captivating in their ability to provide a reading and an understanding of how these canons transform, how they can be interpreted and how they evolve. With this collaboration, the Louvre as a modern-day artistic space contributes to rewriting beauty in the present.”

Makeup inspired by art
Louvre says it is a living museum and an “endless source of inspiration for all creators, as the history of art continues to enlighten our era in a wide range of fields.”

“This debut collaboration with Lancôme highlights with incredible talent the diversity of forms of beauty found in the Louvre collections – a dialogue between cultures and civilizations that transcends time and geography,” continues des Cars.

Lancôme and Musée du Louvre create a makeup line inspired by art.Lancôme drew inspiration from the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Corinne, the Diana of Gabii, the Nymph with a Scorpion, Echo, Hygeia, the Venus of Arles and the Sleeping Hermaphrodite. Each of the sculptures, the story and the myth it represents inspired Lisa Eldridge, Lancôme Makeup’s global creative director, to create the makeup collection.

“Campaign ambassadresses like the Venus de Milo, the Nymph with a Scorpion and the Diana of Gabii are an opportunity for us to transport iconic and inspiring classical images and to compare and contrast them with contemporary images and canons. The history of art and beauty, the ‘making’ of beauty and the quest for beauty, are intimately linked,” says des Cars.

Françoise Lehmann, Lancôme global brand president, says that beauty, as a personal ritual, is a means of expressing and distinguishing oneself through constantly evolving or no codes.

“This unprecedented creative partnership with the Louvre is the cultural reflection of this conviction and our mission for beauty at Lancôme. By pursuing the dialogue between our French brand, with a history spanning some 90 years and the most iconic temple of art, we want to continue to draw on our artistic heritage to open new beauty horizons for women today and celebrate the fact that beauty is in perpetual motion,” explains Lehmann.

Lancôme developments
Lancôme recently appointed Emma Chamberlain, the American Gen-Zer, fashion icon and entrepreneur, as the brand’s new face. Chamberlain rapidly grew to fame after launching her YouTube channel at 16. Due to her authentic and relaxed presence, she has become an icon of relatability and comfort to her fans. Chamberlain spreads the brand’s positive beauty values to new generations.

In related news, L’Oréal expanded access to beauty expression by leveraging AR and AI. The beauty giant launched Hapta – a handheld, ultra-precise computerized makeup applicator designed to advance the beauty needs of people with limited hand and arm mobility.

Hapta’s leveling device will be piloted with L’Oréal-owned Lancôme in 2023, first with a lipstick applicator, followed by additional makeup applications in the future. “Beauty tech has enabled us to fulfill this mission in an even more powerful way, revolutionizing how we develop beauty products and services and enabling greater personalization,” said Françoise Lehmann, global brand president at Lancôme.

By Sabine Waldeck