Chanel blends luxury with sustainability via 31 Le Rouge launch

The days when a new beauty product from a big name was just a run of the mill launch are long gone and that’s especially the case with Chanel.

The French-but-London-headquartered mega-brand has just unveiled its latest lipstick line, 31 Le Rouge. And it taps into a basket of trends, taking in advanced tech, a direct link to the brand’s heritage, ultra-luxury, skincare properties, and a more sustainability-focused approach than we’re used to from the make-up sector.

Four years in the making, it’s being marketed as a “lipstick for life” in which the owner can simply purchase refills and pass on the item itself “like an heirloom”.

The 12 satin-finish shades “draw from the house’s heritage”. How so? Well, Rouge 2.55, for instance, is the colour of the lining of the 2.55 handbag; Rouge Fétiche is the colour of the flannel ribbons that Chanel wore around her ankles as a good luck charm when releasing a new collection; and Rouge Beige is a natural beige, a colour Chanel embraced in her collections. 

As for the formulas, the house flower — camellia — is in there, along with maracuja oil and other skincaring ingredients. The company claims that “immediately upon application, lips look defined for up to 8 hours. After four weeks, they have a more sculpted shape. Lips are also left firmer, smoother, plumper, and more beautiful”.

Meanwhile, the all-important glass lipstick case is inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s mirrored staircase at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris. And it’s actually the first Chanel lipstick to feature glass packaging with the glass faceted to resemble that staircase. 

In fact, the case is why the product had such a long lead time with it taking four years to turn the “seemingly fragile case into a sturdy one, a true technical feat that was achieved without compromising on aesthetics”.

Chanel worked with a master glassmaker from Japan to carve it and said glass also replaces other more standard materials in this case, a first for this type of design. 

As well as being refillable, further sustainability elements come through given that the packaging contains no plastic. 

That also adds to the luxury feel, as do the price tags. The lipstick retails at £140 with refills costing a pricey £65 and kits coming in at £315.