Editors’ Choice Award Winner: Cosmetics
Amber Nude Cosmetics
The Tom Ford/Estée Lauder Collection
by The Estée Lauder Companies
The Amber Nude limited-edition makeup collection represents over-the-top elegance and a flashback to the luxurious packaging symbolic of The Estée Lauder Companies. Every package looks like polished gold brass. Authentic 24-karat gold was even injected into some of the formulas in order to give skin a gilded glow. Tom Ford, who is among the most highly respected and successful fashion designers of the last decade, designed the collection.
“My goal was to take the glamour, the history, the quality, and the spirit that is Estée Lauder and to work within that to create a collection for today,” says Ford. “It also marks a turn away from disposable beauty and a return to the ritual of opening a slightly heavy compact and applying a high-quality product with a beautiful applicator. This reflects the intimate side of a woman at her most glamorous.”
The most prominent design feature is Ford’s reinterpretation of Estée Lauder’s signature gold fluting, which was first used on Lauder’s original Youth Dew fragrance bottle. Straighter, finer fluting is used throughout this collection.
Looking at the chic flatness of the round compacts, it becomes obvious that they were influenced by Ford’s own modern, minimalist style. Face Gloss, Bronzer, and Eye Gloss are packaged in three different-sized round compacts. The rim of each product well is inscribed with the words Tom Ford Estée Lauder. The compacts are paired with Italian leather pouches, and the outside of the setup boxes is lined with fabric. The pouches and boxes are supplied by MG New York.
The Lacquer nail polish bottle has a gold fluted cap. An opulent gold box, called a minaudiere, is being produced in limited numbers and contains The Face translucent powder and Lip Polish. An elegant applicator brush was designed to stand upright on its gold handle. The compacts and minaudieres all have closures that sparkle with an amber cabochon stone. The top of the fluted lipstick cap also glistens with a cabochon stone.
The square lipstick package is supplied by Crown Risdon. The cabochon components presented a few challenges. “The cap’s jeweled stones had to fit precisely to ensure functionality,” says Henry Renella, awards panelist and vice president of package development for The Estée Lauder Companies.
According to Renella, the most difficult part of packaging this collection was completing it within the scheduled time frame, which was just 14 weeks. Considering Lauder’s average lead time for a project requiring brand-new tooling is 18 months, meeting this deadline was a huge accomplishment. “Late-night conference calls were often held. Every day, people located all over the world had to be able to communicate without any confusion,” Renella says.
Awards panelist Maureen Kelly, founder of Tarte Cosmetics, says this collection reminds her of everything she loved about her grandmother’s makeup. “This collection has a very retro-glam look. I think it is a timeless design that is appealing to both younger and older consumers,” she says. “It looks classic, but at the same time it manages to convey that signature ‘Tom Ford’ sexiness.”