What Is It About Celine Beauty?
News of the luxury house expanding into cosmetics had fashion and beauty lovers buzzing about the latest extension of Hedi Slimane’s expanding universe.
“Have you seen any of the product?” “Bring all the comps tomorrow,” “Who is doing the PR?” The comments on The Business of Beauty’s social media pages were equally fervent.
At a time when nearly every fashion business is hoping to launch a beauty enterprise of their own — Dolce & Gabbana, Kering, Richemont — or partner with a licensing company for a makeup or skincare collection — Prada, Miu Miu, Marni, Etro — I wondered why the response for Celine’s offering was so … enthusiastic.
First off, it seems as though Celine is taking more of the curated Hermès route with coordinated, pulsed collections than launching everything at once. The house is starting with a single red lipstick, Rouge Triomphe, this autumn before offering a complete, 15-piece lineup of satin lipsticks in January 2025. Each season that follows will be dedicated to a category from lip balms and mascaras to loose powders and eye pencils, and will tie back to runway collections.
That last bit is critical to why people are so excited. The runway connection ensures each drop will evoke Slimane. Since he became artistic, creative and image director at the French house, the designer has launched menswear (2018) and fragrances (2019), filling out the Celine universe. And it has become a megabrand in the making. According to sources, Celine is closing in on €3 billion ($3.27 billion) in annual revenue. Beauty is an extension of that, and we can already see touches of the fashion line, including Celine’s interlocked Cs, imprinted on the upcoming Rouge Triomphe lipstick and eye pencil caps.
That approach will draw a distinction between Celine’s beauty offerings and lines from rival fashion brands, as products from licensing partners often lack cohesion. Prada’s new and improved Prada Beauty line with L’Oréal looks almost as clinical as L’Oréal Paris’ products versus the covetable collections that Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons present on the runway. Meanwhile, since Alessandro Michele left Gucci, Gucci’s makeup line, which was created with Coty, feels dated and disjointed from Sabato De Sarno’s designs.
But that doesn’t mean every fashion label can successfully pull off their own in-house beauty brand.
L’Oréal, Coty, Interparfums and the like are experts at beauty — they have decades of product development experience and marketing knowhow. No matter how much fashion executives want to say beauty and fashion are the same, selling a lipstick is far different from selling a bag or a couture dress. Fashion labels that are entering beauty on their own must assemble the right team, with the right experience and, crucially, the right amount of investment.
That’s why sources have told me Kering is taking its time putting its infrastructure in place to better incubate its own beauty labels, and why its first move in the space was an acquisition (Creed) versus an in-house line.
Celine is intent on creating a world for its customers across fashion, fragrance and now cosmetics. So far, Slimane’s vision across the house is working. And LVMH has plenty of beauty expertise, with learnings from Dior Beauty, Benefit and Sephora right at its fingertips. The luxury group also has a new secret weapon in beauty as former L’Oréal USA chief executive Stéphane Rinderknech was named chairman and CEO of the beauty division at LVMH last year.
Here’s betting a rush for Rouge Triomphe come September.