Dear Shaded Viewers,
Since launching his makeup line, Dries Van Noten has treated lipstick as an object of desire: a distinctive, refillable case conceived to last and to converse with his fashion collections. This vision now expands into a new collection of tinted lip balms, joined by a graphic lipstick case and an artisanal porcelain lip treatment pot that turn everyday beauty into a couture ritual.
At the heart of the collection, the tinted balms translate the house’s best‑selling formula into a convenient stick format, easy to slip into a bag or a coat pocket. Their texture, poised between matte and shine, lays down a light veil of colour that amplifies the lips’ natural tone without overwhelming it, inviting you to build intensity gesture by gesture.
The formula, enriched with rosehip oil and pomegranate seed oil, treats care and colour as inseparable. It delivers lasting hydration and a soft, cushioned feel, leaving lips smoother, nourished and naturally luminous from morning to night.
The palette is tight yet incisive, spanning five contemporary shades: Frosted Blue, Sepia Mocha, Natural Blush, Poppy Red and Electric Pink, each one a small chromatic shock to tap on with fingertips. These pigments work just as well on cheeks as on lips, for a satiny, healthy‑glow effect that can be worn alone, layered together or paired with the existing clear balm from Dries Van Noten Beauty.
Each stick functions as a refill, in line with the brand’s commitment to reusable objects, and is compatible with the house’s signature cases. Beyond the formula itself, it is a whole language of gestures – refilling, layering, repurposing – that sketches out another idea of makeup: freer, more playful, and more enduring.
This sense of ritual culminates in the porcelain lip treatment pot, crafted by hand in Limoges by Carpenet, a family‑run manufactory founded in 1963. Each piece, in fine porcelain, speaks to a high level of craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail, elevating lip care to the centre of the beauty routine.
Inside, a rich, creamy formula offers intense nourishment and instant comfort, conceived as a three‑in‑one gesture: a daily balm, a priming base for lipstick, or a generous overnight mask. The object itself belongs to a distinctly European tradition of beautiful necessities, where the cream jar becomes both intimate companion and small totem on the dressing table.
Completing the story, a new case, Tiger Ink, joins the collection, its design fusing a vivid tiger print with sharp black‑and‑white stripes. It feels like a miniature manifesto of Dries Van Noten’s vocabulary: a dialogue between exuberance and discipline, the wild and the tailored, designed to host any refill from the line.
The tinted balms, the Tiger Ink case and the porcelain pot come together as an invitation to rethink lip colour and care as a choreography of small, precise pleasures – less about the quick swipe of a product, more about the quiet luxury of a considered gesture.
Later,
Diane
