Luxury Brands Are Expanding Their Product Offerings In Innovative Ways

In 2023, Prada announced that it would venture into skincare and color cosmetics. It wasn’t the first time that a luxury house specializing in garments and accessories entered the beauty market. Tom Ford’s fine fragrances and makeup lines have enjoyed significant success. It has also earned the respect of beauty insiders and enthusiasts. Heritage brands from Chanel to Hermès and Dior have carved out their names in the world of skincare, fragrances and makeup artistry.

Diversification is a sales and branding strategy that luxury houses have mastered throughout the many economic shifts across continents. By offering entry-level products like skincare, makeup or fragrances, a larger portion of the market gets access to the luxury dream. More to the point: only a select few have enough disposable income to buy current season garments or it bags from the top luxury houses. But they can stay updated by incorporating the newest scents or makeup palettes from these labels, and still experience that distinct sense of belonging to the luxury universe.

Along with expansion, especially when done at rapid speed, is the risk of diluting brand equity and identity. At its core, luxury products command high prices on the premise of exclusivity and rarity. In an era that upholds values of inclusivity, authenticity, and sustainability, the challenge now lies on sending the right message without losing brand essence.

Prada Presents A Physical, Digital and Environmental View On Beauty

For Prada, the key proposition is all about “rethinking beauty by bridging physical and digital.” The brand emphasizes a free-thinking, avant-garde approach to beauty that takes into consideration the two realms we now live in–IRL and URL. In developing its makeup line, the brand has opted to work with two talents in the beauty space–Global Creative Makeup Artist Lynsey Alexander and Global Creative E-Makeup Artist Ines Alpha. The press relations of Prada has shares: “The two phy-gital brand makeup artists play an integral part in color development, using their vision and expertise to reinforce brand uniqueness.”

The color range has brilliantly integrated brand codes in all its makeup products. The Prada Dimensions: Eyeshadow, for example, draws from the brand’s rich archives of patterns and color ways. Matte lipsticks, meanwhile, express the phy-gital duality of the range. Prada’s Monochrome Hyper Matte Durable Weightless Lipcolor offers high density, pigmented hues with black Saffiano as the base. Softer matte shades that draw from the lightness of the brand’s Re-Nylon fabric are created under Prada’s Monochrome Soft Matte Buildable Weightless Lipcolor line.

Apart from refillable packaging, Prada Skin zooms in on the environmental changes happening around us. It endeavors to reshape skincare’s role in helping customers adapt to shifts in our surrounding. Through a unique Adapto.gn Smart Technology, skincare products from cleanser to creams are formulated to “help skin adapt to its environment in real time.” I have yet to sample and see how much of this promise is realized by Prada’s skincare line. But as far as literature on messaging goes, patrons of the brand can expect a current, multidimensional, and relatable luxury experience. Prada Skin and Color is now available in the US.

Maison Francis Kurkdijan Turns Laundry Day Into A Luxury Experience

Perfume houses have been known to expand into bath and body, home scents, candles and other decorative accessories. At the beginning of 2024, French fragrance brand Maison Francis Kurkdijan announced its latest addition to its Art of Living category: Aqua Universalis Fabric Care Discovery Set. It was the first time that I heard of a premium laundry line–and as an avid collector of MFK’s fragrance wardrobe, I was thrilled.

The duo set brings the same luxurious notes of MFK’s emblematic fragrance to your garments–bergamot from Calabria, citron from Sicily, lily of the valley and mock orange leaves. It presents a new way of wearing the brand’s scents–either as an added layer of luxe or an alternative to buying the brand’s iconic perfumes. Maison Francis Kurkdijan’s playful and accessible approach to diversifying its product range is testament to how we can experience the art of living even in the most mundane everyday things.

Balmain Hair Couture Celebrates 50 Years With The Heritage 1947 Collection

The house of Balmain has built its heritage around Pierre Balmain’s revolutionary, empowering designs for women since 1947. Its expansion into the hair care category is by no means new. In 1974, Euro Hair was licensed under Balmain. The label was then specializing in hairpieces, which completed the looks the Pierre Balmain presented season after season.

The label has since expanded its product range to include hair care, couture-inspired accessories, and styling tools. It has also been rebranded as Balmain Hair. Throughout its history, the label has remained fairly under the radar, familiar only to a select and discerning clientele. Balmain Hair’s headbands, clips and barrettes are personal favorites that dress up any look. Like the mother brand’s couture designs, every hair accessory is impeccably made using top-quality materials. They are nothing like the usual offerings you find in department stores or novelty shops, which makes wearing Balmain Hair even more special.

To celebrate 50 years, Balmain Hair introduces the Heritage 1947 Collection. It features three new hair perfumes that echo the maison’s codes and values. Created by award winning perfumer Cécile Zarokian, Heritage 1947 is “designed to elevate your hair’s natural allure while delivering a captivating, long lasting aromatic experience.”

Ginger 1947 Hair Perfume is a lively blend of ginger, fir balsam, and white musk. It is an olfactory reimagination of the maison’s silhouette described as “elegant, opulent and structured.”

Cardamom 1947 Hair Perfume brings together notes of cardamom, lemon, and black currant to create an uplifting fragrance for hair. Balmain Hair’s team expounds, “[It] is a powerful fragrance that makes you feel strong , which is the feeling you get when wearing a Balmain blazer.”

Vetiver 1947 Hair Perfume invigorates senses with its blend of grapefruit, florals, vetiver, cedarwood and balsams. This fragrance was created to represent that brand’s core values: empowerment, refinement, and knack for the unexpected.