Why Hermès Is Betting Bigger On Beauty

The French luxury house builds on its success in beauty—a growth category for the company—with new expansion in color cosmetics

Hermès’s makeup. Available at Hermes​.com

Viral beauty trends such as “latte makeup" and “tomato girl summer" have blasted across TikTok this season—and soon there might be “Hermès-box orange" to add to the list.

The hue of Hermès’s signature packaging will become an eyeshadow this month as the French luxury house expands its color cosmetics, significantly broadening its beauty line after a three-year ramp-up. Six eyeshadow palettes, six mascaras and several tools hit the market October 15 as Le Regard, the latest step in completing the brand’s makeup line.

Since launching with lipstick in 2020, Hermès has released new offerings each year—nail polish, then blush and, in 2022, a series of complexion-focused products called Plein Air. Hermès can now compete with other luxury beauty brands across all categories.

Le Regard also represents the first complete offering from the brand’s creative director for beauty, Greek makeup artist Gregoris Pyrpylis, who was named to the post last year. He is one of the 13 creative directors who oversee the métiers, as Hermès calls its product categories, including women’s ready-to-wear, perfume, home and the famed silk scarves. All are overseen by artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas and CEO Axel Dumas—cousins and descendants of the brand’s founder, Thierry Hermès.

Growth in beauty has helped lift the brand to record revenues, including over 20 percent growth in 2022 and the first half of 2023.

“Our goal is to elevate inner beauty through self-expression and empowerment," says Pyrpylis, who says he dislikes the homogeneity of makeup trends. “This has the tendency to erase the personality of the person," he adds, seated on a sofa in the new Hermès headquarters in Paris’s tony 8th arrondissement.

Spread out before him are the eyeshadow palettes, an array of mascaras and accompanying tools, including an eyelash curler and four brightly lacquered brushes, hand-assembled by an expert French maker. The six color compositions, comprising four colors each, appear like miniature paint palettes—an arresting array of muted, iridescent and bold hues set in a graphic pattern of circles and squares.
The geometric, Bauhaus-inspired composition was conceived by Pierre Hardy, the creative director for Hermès shoes and jewelry. Hardy has designed all the Hermès Beauty objects to date, starting with the refillable lipstick cases that became handcrafted keepsakes.

“It’s not just about playful composition—it is functional," Pyrpylis says of the eye-catching design of the palette, which is also refillable and features two square-shaped base shades, with a complementary iridescent hue in one of the circles. The second circle pops with a bold, unexpected accent, what Pyrpylis calls “the surprise color": This might be a vivid cobalt blue or a deep turquoise green.

“Every shade can be worn in a very natural way, but there are many women out there who are more audacious," says Pyrpylis, dipping the tip of his finger into Orange Boîte, the dazzling box-inspired color. When lightly applied, it takes on soft sunset hues, but becomes stronger when layered.
The iconic orange is incarnated elsewhere as a lipstick and nail polish, as is another emblematic shade called Rouge H—a Bordeaux red introduced in the 1920s for leather goods.
“If you want to wear blue eyeshadow and orange lipstick, you can," says Pyrpylis. “We are not here to impose."