"To me, reality lies in the world of ambiguity. In between the
innocent, beautiful dream world and the physical world. That is what I
want to express in my collection." – OB
Shu Uemura has once again selected a very captivating artist to collaborate with on a second spring 2013 collection. Known simply as OB, this young lady (born in 1992 – I feel so ancient!) attended the Kyoto City Dohda Senior High School of
Arts. Almost immediately after graduating she was signed to the prestigious gallery Kaikai Kiki. This gallery represents such notable artists as Takashi Murakami and Anselm Reyle (who you might remember from a Dior collaboration in early 2012). Murakami also serves as her mentor.
In honor of the collaboration, OB and Shu held an
exclusive exhibition entitled "Heavenly Creatures" from March 21 through April 17 at the Kaikai Kiki gallery. From Art in Asia: "Centered around 'Four Princesses,'
a motif born from her collaboration with the cosmetic brand shu uemura,
the paintings feature a new range of characters, emotions, and vivid
colors that evidence ob’s growth as an artist over the past two years. Emerging now from her tightly closed inner world, her narratives and images unfold freely and are imbued with youthful energy. The artist describes the collaboration and her new work as follows: 'They are ordinary girls but after using the Shu Uemura cleansing oil
before going to sleep, they become princesses in their dreams and each
must fulfill their own task. Whether summoning flower petals through dance or battling ominouse
storms, the princesses pray for the tranquility of our beautiful world.
At the same time, however, they are still young girls who use makeup on
occasion and become absorbed in their own flights of fancy. I hope
people will find something that touches with their own experience.'"
The princesses appear in the main work for the exhibition, In Between Reality and Dream:
For the Shu collection, the princesses each get their own cleansing oil bottles and UV Under-Base Mousse. Naturally I got all four oils. As with the Unmask collection, the green one wasn't available in the U.S. so I had to go through E-bay. Grrr.
The main Shu Uemura website (of course, not the U.S. one – they never feel the need to provide full artist or collection info, which drives me insane) has descriptions of each princess. Here we go!
"The Sakura [cherry blossom] princess slumbers peacefully through the seasons until spring. she works her magic on flowers that are still buds and enchants them into full bloom. When she slumbers, flowers wilt and are easily scattered by rain. This is
why she dances without rest or sleep. (of course, she feels no fatigue.) As spring draws to a close, she allows herself a bit of time to
frolic in the human world before retiring into slumber until the
following spring." I love the little bunny immediately to her right.
Next, we have the Moon Princess. "One day, the moon is destroyed by a missile, a weapon
in which humans take much pride. Although bewildered and overwhelmed at
the loss of her home, she feels sorry for the humans, who seem
devastated at being plunged into darkness each night. For their sake,
the kind princess vows to gather every piece of the moon and put it back together again. Since that day
she has traveled to countless stars in search of moon fragments."
The green cleansing oil is represented, fittingly, by the Forest Princess. "She romps through the trees on the fluff of the dandelion she holds in one hand. This gentle princess nurses wounded insects and animals back to health. Should a
human find himself lost in the woods, she kindly escorts him out again.
(The human, however, loses all memory of the encounter.) She and the
ocean princess are very close."
Finally, there's the Ocean Princess. "Dedicated to protecting all precious marine life, the Ocean Princess is a guardian of the sea. She is gentle by nature, but when faced with storms, she fights with courage and strength. In recent years, the sea has been beset with storms, troubling her greatly. She has begun making pearls and selling them to humans, using the money she has earned to clean her beloved ocean."
Be sure to watch this adorable video that captures the princesses in action.
While the Shu collection seems rather playful and sweet on the surface, lurking beneath there are some darker themes. OB is young, but all of her work to date explores the sadness and anxiety brought about by contemporary society. Her work in a previous show in Berlin suggests some of the more serious aspects expressed in the four princesses' stories. In an interview with Art Slant, she states, "When I paint I am
not particularly focused on the paint itself but how it can provide a
feeling of comfort when looking at it as a viewer. However, the concepts
for the paintings themselves are not really comforting in theme. They
are personal and somewhat dark. People are usually surprised once they
see them and learn the concepts and thoughts behind them. With this work
I am aiming at some type of transcendence and my wish would be that
people could find, through them, some type of release. Maybe people will
view the paintings and they too can be freed from their darker feelings
if they share similar thoughts. What I am painting is, yes, dark, but
making people sad is not my intention...My work addresses all those bad things that happen in life, stemming
from environmental pressures and events. For a lot of people my age in
Japan there are a lot of societal pressures and I often don’t know how
to respond in and to this type of environment. A lot of work
in this show in Berlin ended up being heavily related to the earthquake
that happened in Japan [referring to the series of devastating disasters
on March 11, 2011]. I didn’t intend on painting something on the
earthquake, but I feel as if has probably influenced my thinking
somewhat."
Indeed, the 2012 Berlin show focused on the challenges faced by Japanese youth and the emotions brought about by these challenges. From the gallery: "Culled from the chaos of Japan’s internet illustration
scene, where thousands of anonymous artists submit works on a daily basis
to social networking sites like pixiv.com, ob, JNTHED, and Haruka
Makita are primary representatives of the faceless generation who have
inherited a nation in the full throes of a political and social crisis.
Though there are few direct references in their works to the disasters
of March 2011, the nuclear accident at Fukushima, or the nation’s well
documented institutional breakdown, each artist addresses a keenly felt social anxiety and disassociation from reality that come to define their era. OB captures the turbulent emotions of today’s
youth as felt in real time. With her delicate color palette and soft,
feminine touch, her paintings evoke a gauze covered world of near
suffocating uncertainty where innocence is protected only by insecurity.
Despite this dark mood, there is also an air of
defiance, reflected in the artist’s own struggle for independence and
hope for the future."
There is definitely some of this angst and gravity in the Shu collection, princesses and flowers aside. Imaginary disasters like the moon exploding, along with real environmental issues like ocean pollution and the desire to keep forests intact and free of human intrusion, build on OB's previous themes. The efforts on the parts of the princesses to rebuild their worlds and reclaim natural resources also hint at Japan's ongoing attempts to alleviate the devastation caused by the 2011 tsunami.
Stylistically, her current paintings are also more or less the same than her earlier work. She says, "I like and have
always liked Western style painting, as opposed to the traditional
Japanese work. I believe that the inspiration for my colors, in
particular, comes from this type of Westernized style." Some examples:
What surprised me a bit is how well the delicacy of the rubbed pastel chalk and other pigments she uses translated to the cleansing oil boxes. Here's a closeup from the Sakura box:
In another interview,
she states the most important part of her work is "the initial visual
impact" and that she "strive[s] to create paintings that will catch
people's attention on first look…for instance, the large eyes." The gallery in Berlin that hosted the 2012 show adds, "Ob’s female characters seem at times to have evaporated, with form and
features melding with swirling psychologically charged landscapes,
leaving only their large, round, opaquely black eyes and tiny open
mouths discernible." Hence this motif appearing on the upper right corner of all products in the Shu collection.
As with the Mamechiyo collection, Shu went all out in terms of launching the collection's release. In addition to a live painting event at the flagship boutique in Tokyo, there was an amazing press party in the Phillipines. Look at this beautifully designed display.
I really hope whoever is in possession of this snow globe treasures it the way I would. Or, heaven forbid, hasn't thrown it away.
There was even a station with notepads where people could write down their aspirations and post them to the "Dream Board".
Overall I adored this collection. Shu has such a great track record for allowing talented artists to share their work with an audience that might not see it otherwise, and the selected artist's oeuvre always has tremendous visual appeal that also happens to work well on beauty packaging. I was really impressed this time not just with the artwork but with the artist herself. In the few interviews I've seen/read she seems to be quite mature for being so young, and very genuine, which is a rarity in the art world. Living so close to MICA (the Maryland Institute College of Art, for those of you outside of B'more), I see A LOT of pretty obnoxious-looking, phony poser art students regularly. I can't see OB traveling in their circles. I do worry that she'll get taken advantage of because she appears to be very down-to-earth and honest, and the art world can be brutal to nice people like that. But I think she'll ultimately be okay due to both Murakami's guidance and her own intelligence.
So what do you think of this collection? Which princess is your favorite? Obviously mine is the Ocean Princess since she is very close to a mermaid. 🙂
Last week I came across these wonderful illustrations by Korean artist Gobugi, a.k.a. Park Jung Eun, at Design Is Mine. I went to pin one of them to one of the boards at my non-Makeup-Museum Pinterest account and decided to check out the rest of her work, when this caught my eye:
I immediately said "oooh!" and frantically checked to see if this lovely drawing will be appearing or already appeared on any Clarins products. While my search did not turn up a collaboration with Clarins, it did reveal a cosmetic connection to the illustration: Allure's Green Campaign, an annual program launched in 2008 by the Korean version of this beauty magazine. The campaign aims to "increase public awareness of the importance of the environment." While I couldn't find much info for the 2013 campaign, I imagine it was similar to the one for 2012.
In 2012, ten illustrators contributed original drawings to be used on t-shirts, and Korean celebrities modeled their creations. All of the proceeds from the t-shirts went to an animal monitoring program run by Green Korea United that has the protection of mountain goats as one of its chief initiatives. Gobugi was one of the illustrators selected to create the designs that year as well. (You can see the other goat-tastic designs here and here). Nearly $25,000 was raised!
As far as I know the Green Campaign is a Korea-exclusive campaign, which strikes me as
very strange – it's a fantastic idea that Allure should implement in
other countries.
I'll leave you with this strange but still celebratory image Gobugi created for Allure Korea's 9th anniversary. If she thoroughly works her Allure connections, maybe we will see a Gobugi collaboration with an actual makeup line rather than magazine/t-shirt illustrations. While impressive in those formats, I would dearly love to see her designs on a palette.
What do you think of Gobugi's work? And do you think Allure's Green Campaign should be worldwide?
I spotted Les Tablettes de Bastet back in February at British Beauty Blogger and couldn't find it online anywhere. (As of this morning, however, it's available at the U.S. Dior website). Through my searching I came across Dior Beauty-Palazzo in Las Vegas, which advertised the palette on their Facebook page. Much as I hate Facebook, I was thrilled to see some mention of it at an actual boutique. My fingers couldn't dial the number fast enough!
Look how pretty they wrapped it for me.
The outer case is a sleek grey which beautifully compliments the heavy grey stone of the palette itself.
Insert:
Apparently only 1,450 were made. The edition number and Beaurin's signature are inscribed on the back.
The stone case is magnetized. I must say the two stone pieces clacking together made me nervous about the palette getting damaged.
Now that we've seen the pictures, I bet you're wondering what this palette is all about. Les Tablettes de Bastet was created by artist Vincent Beauin, who had previously taken part in Dior's "Lady Dior as seen by" project in which contemporary artists concocted their own interpretations of the iconic bag.
Dior Magazine (online) has a good summary of the inspiration for the palette. "Christian Dior loved artists; and when he himself was young, dreamt of
becoming an architect. From this childhood dream he would maintain an
overwhelming love for art and those who made it, becoming friends with
Jean Cocteau, Christian Bérard, Max Jacob and many more. The house of
Dior has continued to forge this direct link with the world of art,
regularly collaborating with numerous contemporary artists. Vincent
Beaurin, the French painter and sculptor, is the most recent to create
an original work for the house: 'Les Tablettes de Bastet', an eyeshadow
palette inspired by the Egyptian divinity Bastet, the goddess of music
and dance, of feasting and love, 'like a very ancient stone object that bears the traces of myth and ancestral practices,' according to the artist.
The palette is composed of two magnetized tablets in Trianon gray – one
of Christian Dior's favorite colors – of which one is punctuated with
three disks of natural pigments in shades of sapphire, saffron, and
silex. This artwork in the style of a devotional object expresses, for
Vincent Beaurin, the desire to place 'the practice of make-up in a much wider expanse of time than just a single season.' It's an ode to the color and sobriety, the purity and the
accessibility of art; a step into the core of the output of this French
artist's who, already in 2010, reinvented the Lady Dior as a green and red talisman made of polystyrene and quartz sand." Here is his take on the Lady Dior bag, if you're curious.
This palette is an extension of Beaurin's previous work. In 2011 and 2012 he made several sculptures based on the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Beaurin's take on this goddess: "In ancient Egypt, Bastet was the daughter of the sun-god Ra. In the form of a cat or a woman with a cat’s head, she’s the goddess of music, dancing and feasting. She has the magic power which stimulate love. Bastet is the guardian goddess of women. She has fearsome fits of anger, because something feline is always lurking in her. So she’s identified with the dreadful Sekhmet, sent to earth to punish men for their arrogance. Bastet is a multi-faceted goddess, incarnating gentleness and fierceness."
Beaurin is also known for his "Spots", series of colored circles made of polystyrene and quartz sand mounted to the gallery's walls. The color combinations lead to a soothing, almost hypnotic effect. We can see the influence of Triptyque Bleu (2011) in the Dior palette:
Now, how does all this relate to the Dior palette? While I couldn't find out exactly why Beaurin opted to reinterpret ancient statues of Bastet or any in-depth explanations of his fascination with the goddess, this four-page interview at Beaurin's website is chock full of details about the Dior piece. Some of the more notable quotes:
– Beaurin sees the house of Dior as aligning closely with Bastet. "Dior is also a hieroglyph, a very old story, and why not, a story about a goddess."
– Beaurin's choice of the word "tablet" stems from his perception of
the word, which he believes "establishes a link between writing, memory
and ancient objects, often made of schist, on which people crushed pigments to produce eye make-up."
– In addition to expanding on the "Spots" works, the round shape for the colors was chosen so that they would be better suited to use of the palette. "Each colour is a fullness in itself. In a way, each colour is a world, a planet. Similarly, our eyes are round. The circle is a full shape. It recurs often in my work, perhaps precisely because it involves abstraction, going beyond form. Something round also seems better adapted to the touch than something angular…A lot of people ask me if they can touch my pieces. This project is a way of answering them. You’ll notice that there’s no brush to take up the colour and apply it. Fingers are the sole tools, with the skin, here the eyelid, as the sole destination."
– The palette clearly expands on Beaurin's own work but also shows his
admiration for Jean Arp's biomorphic forms. "Through my project’s
simplicity, the weight of the tablets, the softness of the materials,
the warmth and intensity of the colours, by the involvement of a woman’s
body, her skin, mystery, the notion of space, and all the feelings
resulting from that, it has biomorphic echoes…eyelids are to female faces what wings are to butterflies."
– The most interesting part of the interview for me was the artist's explanation of the colors he chose. On making the palette consist of just three colors, he says, "Three colours are enough to create the interplay of a chromatic infinity, a whole complexity. Three monochrome disks on a grey ground make an abstract landscape." Indeed, this overview of Beaurin's work states that he creates abstract landscapes using the spots. The colors chosen by Beaurin – Saffron, Sapphire and Silex – are part of
his fascination with the shape of the letter S. And while Beaurin has
never been to Egypt, the colors function as a sort of "prism" – his
personal conception of Egypt is expressed through these particular hues. "The repetition of the S, the initial letter of the name of each colour, gives pace to the way the words are uttered, Saffron Sapphire Silex. This pace is part of the dynamics, of the relations occurring between the elements making up the landscape. I also like S for its design, two inverted spirals, an unfinished 8, and for its phonetics, the phonetics of silence…this object is also a vehicle, an instrument of sight and projection and–why not?—a sort of Egyptian prism." Additionally, the colors have "an atmospheric character" that show up best against the dark grey of the stone. Beaurin integrated the grey that Dior was so fond of, but also says he was influenced by Cezanne's love of working under grey skies as well as "the Ardennes sky, unchangingly grey, like slate roofs in the rain, turning ink-like or silver." He adds, [U]nder a grey sky or against a grey backdrop, colours come out unreservedly, without any tension. Grey helps to optimize the way we observe colours, their radiance, and their persistence when they disappear and their reactions when you put them together." Finally, Beaurin notes that while "Spots" typically combine two colors within each circle, the circles in the Dior palette are monochromatic. "The spots are part of a purely meditative and contemplative relationship…two colours are articulated. They meet each other and are mixed together in a zone of intense vibrations. The Bastet tablets are a sort of arrangement, where three disks of monochrome colour are in a way in orbit with each other. They are as if in mid-air and their encounter is waiting for desire and the intervention of the person whose eyelids will be the ideal surface for mixing them."
So there you have it. You can also check out this strange (and, like his Spots, quite hypnotic) video on the palette directed by Beaurin.
While I do love this piece, I think its appeal lies more with the art collector than the makeup fan. I honestly don't think a lot of beauty fiends would actually use it. Beaurin's color theories are intriguing and are implemented quite well in his artistic endeavors, but they don't necessarily translate to makeup – it's difficult to say how one would apply these colors, as they don't seem to be in harmony from a cosmetic standpoint. And while the magnetic closure is a sophisticated, artsy touch, I can tell you that without some sort of hinge to hold the two pieces of stone together, the palette would be a bit cumbersome to handle. Thus, unlike Dior's Anselm Reyle collaboration, this doesn't have a lot of mass appeal (but maybe it's not supposed to). Nevertheless I adore Les Tablettes de Bastet because it incorporates not only the two motifs ("Spots" and Bastet) that Beaurin is best known for, but also his entire artistic outlook.
What do you think?
Shu Uemura's cleansing oil was formulated in 1967 to remove all traces of makeup without irritating the skin. To celebrate the iconic product (one bottle is sold every seven seconds – fortunately, they're recyclable), the company collaborated with artist Tsuyoshi Hirano to create variations on the original bottle's "Unmask" design.
(image from facebook.com)
Aren't they gorgeous?
Here they are individually.
I also couldn't resist picking up the Unmask Green palette.
While the very knowledgeable Iris from Rouge Deluxe kindly pointed me to several sources on Hirano's work on my post containing the artist's previous collaboration with Shu on limited-edition cleansing oils and palettes for a travel-based collection, there was hardly anything in English, and what I copied into Google Translate made very little sense. So I will not be describing his aesthetic and oeuvre in detail. Instead, let's take a look at some vintage ads that express the idea of makeup as a mask. (Hence, cleansing oil as a way to "unmask".) I'm not going to debate whether perceiving or wearing makeup as a mask is a bad thing. I simply want to take a quick glance at the ways in which makeup-as-mask has been represented throughout beauty history.
There are several themes within the general topic of cosmetics as a mask: one, it's a way to hide imperfections that, when applied correctly, "defies detection" as the 1927 ad on the left shows – much the same way a masquerade-goer would be unidentifiable behind his or her mask. Makeup can also completely obfuscate one's face, as depicted in a Caron ad from 1937 presenting a porcelain mask as a "masque de beaute" (right).
This association between complete concealment and makeup is also expressed in this lithograph made for Revlon, where the woman's face is totally covered by a mask.
The second central theme is that makeup can add an air of mystery, as these ads for Guerlain's Masque Rouge (a lipstick based on their perfume of the same name) demonstrate.
Finally, this store display for Liquid Liptone, one of the first attempts at long-wearing lipstick, shows the artifice involved in applying makeup – the lips, once rouged, become part of an ostensibly false visage rather than a human face. (You can read the whole story behind the product and its creator "Princess Pat" here.)
What do you think of the Unmask collection? And do you like to "unmask" at night? I love applying my makeup, but I admit there's a great sense of relief when I take it off – it's like washing away all the responsibilities I associate with putting on my public face, and I can totally relax.
You may remember my excitement over the Yayoi Kusama/Lancôme collaboration a few years back. Little did I know the artist also created an even more gorgeous Juicy Tube collection called Awakening of Love late in 2011. (I stumbled across it while hunting down the Once Upon a Week Juicy Tubes on E-bay). From what I understand Awakening of Love was exclusive to Australia, and I was only able to get my hands on one of the six glosses in the collection.
This is Baba Jasmine.
Other shades in the lineup include Crazy Yuzu, Vigorous Fruit, Exotic Bomb, Yoga Vanilla and Peace and Flowers. Upon first glance the designs seem just plain cute, but they get increasingly fascinating the more you look at them. There's a multicolored purse and blue pump surrounded by floating eyes, and a pink bird stacked on top of a yellow chirping bird. The most unusual design to me appears on the gloss I was able to buy. A sunflower with an eye for its center is anchored by an exaggerated, floppy green leaf (which I originally thought was a shoe!) against a background of wavy tendrils that end in tiny buds. All three designs incorporate Kusama's signature polka dots.
About the collection, Lancôme states: "Today, reflecting the mood of her current artwork, Yayoi Kusama is
remodelling Juicy Tubes around the theme of love. She offers Lancôme’s
pop-princess gloss three unique designs that are as poetic as the most
sincere promises of eternal love." Fittingly, the title of the collection is after Kusama's 2010 work Awakening of Love.
The lines, disembodied eyes, random objects, dots and flowers seen in the Juicy Tube designs also appear in several works from 2009-2011, all of which have "love" in the title.
Look at the Gathering of Women in Search of Love, 2009:
All about My Love, and I Long to Eat a Dream of the Night, 2009:
Indeed, these works and the Juicy Tube designs have a strange hallucinatory quality about them, along with a more upbeat feel as compared to the more menacing tone these motifs took on in her earlier work. In an essay on Flowers that Bloom at Midnight from the Queensland Arts Gallery states, "[Kusama] has grouped four of these towering flowers into an artificial
grove, their shiny surfaces, polka-dotted petals and great, staring eyes
recalling animated alien flora of science fiction and fantasy tales…Flowers have long been an important component of Kusama’s oeuvre.
Their symbolism reflects many of the artist’s conceptual preoccupations
as well as her disregard for dichotomies: they connote life and death, celebration and mourning, masculinity and
femininity, while their complex forms — organic, fragile, finding
uniqueness through repetition — find echoes throughout Kusama’s
practice. In plentiful supply thanks to her family’s nursery business,
flowers flourished in Kusama’s first reported visions, consuming entire
rooms and communicating ominously with the artist…They would remain a staple motif in the painterly
experiments of her first decade as a professional artist. Like the polka
dots, they reappeared in her ‘happenings’ of the late 1960s, in the
sympathetic environment of the anti-war counterculture, as they fitted
neatly into the context of the ‘flower power’ movement of the time. Flowers that Bloom at Midnight finds direct precedence in a
series of outdoor sculptures Kusama has executed over the past decade.
Monumental in scale, these works consist of floral forms that are at
once simplified and fantastical, and finished in polka-dotted planes of
vivid colour. Their scale and alien appearance evokes a strange and
overwhelming power. With an air of uncanny sexuality, their comical
styling, pristine surfaces and exuberant tones are decidedly joyous,
contrasting strongly with the darker function flowers performed in her
earlier works." Additionally, I wonder whether Kusama had anything to do with the naming of the Lancôme glosses – Peace and Flowers is possibly a nod to her prolific anti-war activism in the '60s.
Anyway, I thought this collection design-wise was more interesting than the previous Juicy Tubes Kusama created. And I wish it wasn't Australia-exclusive! Lancôme seems to be withholding many of their limited-edition collections from the U.S., such as the aforementioned Once Upon a Week collection, along with the Corno collaboration from last summer.
What did you think of this? Do you prefer the older Yayoi Kusama Juicy Tube collection or this one?
As I was rummaging about in museum storage trying to make room for the newest batch of Shu Uemura cleansing oils (the Unmask spring 2013 collection – stay tuned!), I came across a previous collection and realized I hadn't yet posted about it.
As you may remember, Japanese artist Ai Yamaguchi had collaborated with Shu in 2004 to create a line of limited-edition cleansing oils. She teamed up again with the company in 2005 for another set. This time, the theme was "cycle of life", with each oil representing one of the four seasons.
We'll start with fall, represented by the orange "Enriched" oil. I love the leaves and stylized acorns swirling about.
Another interesting element is the origami crane that appears throughout the bottle and box.
Next up is the season of winter, represented by the "Regular" yellow oil that is adorned with snowflakes and wintry blooms.
After winter comes spring, as represented by the "Light" cleansing oil with fresh green and white flowers and clovers.
I very nearly missed the girl peeking out at the bottom of the bottle – she blends right into the flowers.
Rounding out the collection is summer, represented by the green "Premium" oil. Unfortunately it was an Asia-exclusive so I never got my hands on it (damn Shu and their refusal to bring whole collections to the States!) I really wish I had this in my collection if for no other reason than to see where the girl is hiding.
I have already discussed Yamaguchi's work in my post for the 2004 cleansing oils so I won't rehash it now. I will say that I like how you can tell these are different from the 2004 versions but still retain Yamaguchi's signature element, albeit less prominently: the girls inspired by both contemporary anime and woodblock prints of the Edo period.
Based only on aesthetics, I enjoy both the 2004 and 2005 Yamaguchi cleansing oils equally. But thematically, I prefer the 2005 versions since much like Makeup Museum exhibitions, they center on the four seasons.
Do you prefer the 2004 or 2005 collection? And which of the 2005 oils is your favorite? Mine would probably be summer since it's my favorite season – too bad I can't track it down!
About two weeks ago I was very disappointed to learn that Shu Uemura was selling Japan-exclusive cleansing oils and palettes designed by Tsuyoshi Hirano. Perhaps the company's spies noted my despair at not being able to get my hands on them, because a few days later the items were available at the Shu website! Well, only two of the three oils were for sale, but as Meatloaf sang, two out of three ain't bad.
Here's the Shanghai oil:
The Tokyo cleansing oil:
The Seoul cleansing oil was not available, but I consoled myself with one of the palettes.
With flash:
I couldn't find anything of note on Tsuyoshi Hirano – no interviews, no biography, nothing! Even stranger is that there is no mention of him at the Shu website.
If anyone can send me a link to information on the artist I would greatly appreciate it, especially since I will be posting on Shu's Unmask/Blossom Dream spring 2013 collection, which also includes Hirano's illustrations.
This collection caught my eye as I was browsing at Sephora, as I was immediately drawn to the graffiti typography. Sure enough, Smashbox's newest release is the result of a collaboration with artist Curtis Kulig. I picked up Be Legendary lipstick and Entice Me eye shadow palette.
I'm noticing a lot more companies designing the inside of the boxes as well (see previous examples here and here).
The plastic lettering lifts up so you can apply the shadow more easily.
With flash:
Here's the lipstick.
Raised in a family of artists in North Dakota, Curtis Kulig moved to L.A. when he was 19 and later relocated to New York, where he currently resides. Early sketches included animals and human faces, but soon developed into words. Of the "love me" tag, there was no formal decision to create it. He says, "I just did it. And I kept doing it. And it's just something that I continue to do. I've done it over and over so many times, obsessively, that this is what it's become." Indeed, examples abound in NYC.
I wanted to find out more about the collaboration, and fortunately, Smashbox provided some great information at their website. "As major as this collaboration is, as universal as
the concept is, it's sometimes hard to believe that it was literally
done over lunch. It took all of a minute to decide that Smashbox
Cosmetics and artist Curtis Kulig – with his famous 'Love Me' mark –
needed to work together. The message that Curtis spreads is amazing.
Love is universal. It's relatable to any human being, anywhere in the
world. But the thing that sets Curtis apart is that he treats that
message in such a fun, fresh way. There's an incredible energy around
it, and that's why it's so perfect for us. Our message and his message
have the exact same vibe. Everything about this collection is true to
Curtis, to his art. The red lipstick is a Pantone match of his
signature red. The eye liner looks like the paint pens he uses. The
design of the eye shadow palettes makes 'love me' the canvas."
The video on the collection, shot at Smashbox Studios in L.A., provides some background on the artist and sheds a bit more light on the evolution of Kulig's "love me" tag. He says, "Everyone either wants to be loved, and/or wants to love". He estimates he's written the two words half a million times. As for cosmetics, he has never applied them himself but sees the face as "another canvas".
Overall, I liked this collaboration. I thought Kulig's work was translated well onto the makeup, and Smashbox is a good match for his style. I also enjoy the ideas contained in Kulig's signature – it's a positive, universal message that's powerful and breathtakingly simple at the same time. As Kulig's friend Harry says, "It's not a bad thing, man."
What do you think?
I have no idea why I didn't know about Steamcream until years after it had been on the market – very much like how I missed cutting-edge nail polish line Laqa & Co. And also like Laqa & Co., Steamcream has a huge line of beautifully designed pieces, some of which are the result of artist collaborations.
What exactly is Steamcream? According to the website, it's an all-over moisturizer (meaning it can be used on the face as well as body). Natural ingredients like almond oil, orange flower water and cocoa butter are fused with steam. "It’s Steamcream’s unique steam process that makes our cream much more effective on the
skin. The force of the steam fuses the ingredients instantly – holding
them together in a very gentle and loose emulsion. When it touches your
skin, the naturally moisturising ingredients and pure, calming essential
oils are released from the light emulsion so they can sink past the
surface reaching the areas they are needed fast." Interesting concept, but what intrigues me most is the packaging. There are at least 50 designs in the line and I could see nearly every single one in a Museum exhibition, especially the holiday-themed ones (I did pick up two for the most recent holiday/winter exhibition).
Here are a few of my favorites.
Arles, inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and Gaudy, with a proud colorful peacock:
Amani Na Upendo, which was designed by African artist Mustapha, and Planetarium:
These Hawaii-themed tins are adorable as well:
Some of the newer ones include Shé, in honor of the Year of the Snake:
And two with the theme "fabric of Japan", based on traditional kimono designs.
(images from steamcream.co.uk)
That concludes this very brief overview of Steamcream, but I will be posting about individual tins as I continue collecting them. 🙂
Shu Uemura has a very exciting spring collection coming up in a few months. There will be five cleansing oils and several palettes featuring the work of artist Tsuyoshi Hirano. While I was digging around trying to find more information and a U.S. release date, I stumbled across these previously released super-exclusive beauties (only available at one Shu boutique in Tokyo), which are also by Hirano. I guess these were sort of a warm-up to his designs for the spring 2013 collection.
The "Peace Happy Love Smile" collection contains three cleansing oils with illustrations celebrating the cities of Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. There are three palettes with the same Tokyo Lights design as well. I couldn't find any information on the illustrations. I will say that the figures on the bottles, surrounded by stars and flowers, look the same as the ones in his other work.
And even peeking out to welcome you at his website:
(images from hirano5.com)
Since I still have no contacts in Japan and haven't been able to get these via ebay, I will have to add these oils to the Lisa Kohno one that I couldn't get either (I did manage to buy the Karl Lagerfeld Mon Shu girl oil – at least ebay came through on that!) Sigh. As for Hirano's aesthetic and previous work, I will be reporting in full on that once the spring 2013 cleansing oils get here. 🙂
