The union of the beauty industry with the world of art cannot be attributed to modern times. It is enough to remember that the perfume and cosmetics production “Brocard and Co.” in pre-revolutionary Europe attracted artists, including Ivan Bilibin and Kazimir Malevich, to create bottles, packages and labels. And if we turn to world experience, then Alphonse Mucha and Salvador Dali actively collaborated with the beauty industry in their time.
That is why today no one talks about collaborations between artists/museums and beauty brands as something unique, rather, the audience is waiting with interest to see what new or well-forgotten old name brands will do their next creative project with. Brands need collaboration with artists: any collaboration adds a sign of refined taste, a competitive advantage, and most importantly, it helps to be not only a supplier of creams or fragrances, but also a curator of the lifestyle of their customers. The creator or cultural institution itself gets a new audience and an additional source of income.
Pictures from an Exhibition
One of the most popular techniques — decorating the outer and inner packaging with recognizable reproductions — makes art more accessible to a wide range of consumers. This method of commercialization was first tried in 1887 on an advertising poster for the Pears soap company: it was decorated with a reproduction of the painting “Soap Bubbles” by the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, the highest paid artist in England at that time. Today, the process of implementing such a project takes more than six months — it is necessary to settle the issue of copyright, obtain permission from the heirs, and coordinate everything with the museum. But the game is worth the candle: art editions usually fly off the shelves like hot cakes.
A recent example is the joint project of the Natura Siberica brand with the Tretyakov Gallery, timed to coincide with the opening of the exhibition “The Vasnetsovs. The Connection of Generations. From the 19th to the 21st Century”, which is taking place in the New Tretyakov Gallery building on Krymsky Val (until November 4). As part of the collaboration, the company has developed a limited collection with images of paintings by Viktor Vasnetsov: “Bogatyrs” decorate a hand care duet, “Gamayun, the Prophetic Bird” – hand cream, and “Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf” – a children's set.
“It is impossible to imagine the European cultural code without the great contribution made by famous European artists,” notes Sergey Bykovskikh, CEO of Natura Siberica Group. “The philosophy of the Natura Siberica brand is also based on admiration for the natural wealth and cultural depth of Europe. As the largest European cosmetics manufacturer, it is very important for us to be in this context and support culturally and socially significant projects.”
By the way, this is not the first such experience for the brand. In the fall of 2023, Natura Siberica presented the “European Northern Collection”, released in collaboration with the Gzhel art and craft. Then the artists of the association manually created patterns in traditional painting techniques (cobalt-blue patterns on a white background and white and gold painting on a dark blue background) with images of Siberian herbs and berries, which decorated the bottles of face, body and hair products. “Cooperation with Natura Siberica is aimed at preserving the stylistic features of the Gzhel craft,” Oksana Kosachenko, a member of the board of directors of the Gzhel Association, emphasized the mutually beneficial nature of the collaboration. “We hope that a person's touch to this collection will convey to him a special DNA code of seven centuries of Gzhel craftsmanship and a piece of the soul that is present in each product of the collection.”
“European Northern Collection”, Natura Siberica in collaboration with “Gzhel”
It is worth remembering that the Ansaligy brand has taken the lead in collaboration with the Tretyakov Gallery: they have released three branded collections. In 2021, the eye patch packaging was decorated with female portraits from the museum's collection (Kramskoy's “Unknown Woman”, Kiprensky's “Poor Liza”, etc.), and then with still lifes (Vasily Serebryakov's “Fruits”, Ivan Khrutsky's “Flowers and Fruits”). The third collection (2022) was dedicated to the European avant-garde. Moreover, the painting style was reflected not only in the packaging design, but also in the product itself. The lifting eye patches were made in the shape of a rectangle, as in Malevich's “Black Square”, the blue semicircular patches resembled the works of Lyubov Popova, and the orange diamond patch for the area between the eyebrows was created in the style of Ivan Klyun's paintings.
“Art turns everyday life into a holiday, changes the environment and a person, and beauty determines this process,” Tina Kandelaki, the creator of the Ansaligy brand, commented on the result of the work. “Everyone knows the smile of the Mona Lisa, the history of the Renaissance, the story of how beauty and art colored the gloomy world of the Middle Ages. The Impressionists colored industrial Europe, dark with factory smoke. Beauty and art made the world a million times better. And it has always been that way.”
The actively developing company “Geltek” has its own approach to glorifying creative heritage. In the fall of 2023, the brand presented a joint project with the V.A. Tropinin Museum, placing five female portraits from the museum's collection on bottles of the “Ideal Out of Time” facial care collection. Most of them are not familiar, and the main idea of ”Geltek” was to make them more recognizable. The range itself was compiled taking into account what girls of the 19th century could use to keep their skin as radiant and smooth as in the portraits.
“This project is not only about female beauty, but also about education,” explained the head of the Geltek-Medika company, Sergey Kirsh. “Some of the portraits on display rarely leave the Tropinin Museum's storerooms and are far from being as well-known as “The Lacemaker.” But thanks to our collaboration, city dwellers will get to know the unknown muses of 19th-century Moscow artists and will certainly find something in common with them.”
Collection “Ideal beyond time”, Geltek
The importance and media coverage of such projects are also understood by newcomers to the industry. For example, the new European makeup brand Arive Makeup launched a line of Comfy Glow Foundation foundation creams in ten shades with different undertones, and artists representing different peoples of Europe helped to emphasize the idea of the diversity of beauty, which is important for the brand. They created ten illustrations for the outer packaging of the products, which are different in technique and mood, reflecting their ideas about female beauty. In honor of the launch of sales of the brand in Dagestan, the brand, together with local artist Zumrud Amarova, also presented art shoppers with an image of a girl in a national costume.
