It was in the 1870s, during the dark Franco-Prussian war period, that the creator of Guerlain, Pierre-François Guerlain himself, first presented the invention that would launch makeup into the modern era: the first tube of lipstick, a pushable and rechargeable stick of colored wax. This first lipstick would bear a name destined to traverse the eras and anchor itself in hearts and minds everywhere: “Ne m’oubliez pas”, French for “Don’t forget me”.
This modern lipstick designed by Guerlain was able to be placed and admired upon the lips of any woman, meant to be unsheathed with one hand in between two activities like a new kind of weapon. Its case was designed like a bullet to better act as a springboard for femininity in action. The brand, conveying an image of French elegance and refinement, quickly seduced women the world over. Guerlain became the perfumer of various royal courts of Europe, like that of Queen Victoria and Queen Isabella of Spain. The years of success that the lipstick enjoyed were little altered by the political and economic upheavals of the day. On the contrary, in 1945, when the second world war was coming to a close, American soldiers lined up outside Guerlain’s boutique on the Champs Élysées in the hopes of bringing back their fiancées one of the innovative lipstick tubes and subsequently a small piece of Parisian modernity and femininity.
More recently, the brand has taken it upon themselves to preserve the spirit of their very first lipstick in a triptych that is every bit as memorable with famous inclusions like “Vega”, “Nouveau Rouge”, and “Rouge Automatique”. Mainstays of the brand, created by Jacques Guerlain in the 30s, they reuse the innovative design of the brand’s first lipstick with the push mechanism. Today, only “Rouge Automatique” remains and is now adorned with a gold lacquered case, sporting the brand’s insignia on the slider and available in numerous shades, paying homage to past perfumes of the brand, from a grayish red named “Vol de Nuit” to a fuchsia pink called “Shalimar”. For their Spring/Summer 2014 collection, the brand is honoring its history by rereleasing its emblematic “Rouge Automatique” lipstick with a catchy new name: “Après l’Ondée”. This new color is presented as an ambassador of the famous lipstick amidst an array of other powdery, sorbet-colored shades, all while preserving the atypical design who’s history can be read on many a lip.
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