The New Dior Addict Lip Glow

Whether patted on in an early morning rush or meticulously applied with a painterly hand, makeup is so idiosyncratic. To some it’s essential, and to others it's an experiment. We’ve grown up watching our mothers apply their lipsticks and soon enough we forge our own rituals. But today, more than ever, it’s the troupe of makeup artists behind the shoots, the shows and the tutorials that are having the biggest influence on which lipstick you’ll be wearing this Spring. You’ve probably seen the viral Dior Lip Glow Oil doing the rounds on social media, as have we, so we jumped at the chance of asking maquillage mastermind behind the product, creative director of Dior beauty and industry legend, Peter Philips for his top tips. Hosted at a glossy, pink Dior-ified bowling alley in the West End last week, Peter launched the new Dior Addict Lip Glow shades in a new suite of the most sumptuous warming tones with a nourishing formula. Discussing theatricality versus wearability and the charm of makeup “mistakes”, we got Peter to share all the juicy details on the new Lip Glow and how to elevate your beauty routine.

Fashion shows are theatrical by nature, but beauty often has to translate to the real world. How do you balance artistry with wearability?
Style wise, if you look at the streets now, there's a lot of experimenting going on, and people express themselves through styling of their clothing at whatever level they want. So I think the difference between a catwalk and street is less obvious than maybe 10 years ago or 20 years ago, and I think that's a great step forward. But in a way, from my point of view, I use our classic Dior line and transform it into a catwalk. So in a way, that's already a way to build a bridge. 

As someone who’s constantly innovating, what excites you most about where beauty is headed?

I think it's amazing how in the last few years, the beauty industry and the way people live with beauty can be very much democratized due to social media. There's so many platforms for beauty, so much communication about beauty. Whatever you want to find, whatever question you have about beauty, you can find something on the internet. And I think that changed the industry. It made beauty product makers much more alert, because everything we bring out will be judged if it's good or if it's bad. So all your claims have to be justified, all your products have to deliver. And that's the way the beauty industry has evolved in the last few years, and I hope it continues to go in that direction, offering more awareness about recycling materials and premium ingredients. I don’t think [it is] in my position that we create trends. We create good products that will seduce people to buy. I remember when I started, the trends were created by whatever a designer put on the catwalk, or whatever a beauty editor would write about in the magazine. And that was almost like a dictation of trends. Nowadays, it's totally turned around. The trends are made by the people who wear it.

For example, we did the lip glow oil that we launched about five years ago. We just wanted to make a good product, [with] plumping and glowing effects, hydrating with premium ingredients and just a beautiful Dior product. People loved it, and they started talking about it, and that's what made it viral. And it still is one of our top products. So, our job is to make sure that people are seduced by the product and you can only do that by creating true products, good ingredients with claims that are true and exciting products but also products that are not intimidating because you don't want to scare people away.

Talking about not intimidating, how does this new Dior addict lip glow fit into this future of great product?

The great thing about this product is that it has been in our collection for 20 years. It's a classic. It's become a household product. Bizarrely, the product became viral before we even knew what viral was. At some international sports event, I think it was a tennis player or a skater, during a break the camera was on her, on live TV, and she took out her bag, she took a sip of water, and she took the Lip Glow, and she applied it. And it was worldwide, and suddenly everybody wanted to have the product, because it was not a bought advertisement. It was a true Dior makeup lover who used the product in daily life. So it became viral. I think it's because it's an attractive product. It's not a complicated product. It's has cute packaging. It stands out. It also has this uniqueness about the pH reaction, so it kind of becomes your individual color booster. Our laboratories have been working for years trying to crack the code to do warmer AOC's, and we finally managed. This gave us the opportunity to really reinvent the product, ready for our next generation. We launched a beautiful range of shades, 21 shades worldwide, some of them in warm undertones, some of them in cold undertones. It's really a fun collection. If you see the collection on its own, it looks like candy. It's very yummy. It's very pleasant. It's very young. But we won't disappoint the people who've been using it for 20 years, because it's an even more fine tuned version of what they already know.

What's so funny is that the 1980s was all about what color palette you are - what “season” were you Fall or Summer tones. And now Dior is going old school, bringing back the idea of “warm” and “cool” tones. Do you think a new generation gets this idea? 

It's really funny, because it's been coming up since the last six, seven months. And I was like, this brings back memories. I remember the scarves [that were used to determine your seasonal colouring] and the winter and summer tones and everything. I was like, oh my god, it's coming back. And the funny thing was, well, here we talk about winter types, fall types and summer types. I was just in Japan, where they talk about a blue type and a yellow type. Totally different association, but the same principle. And I think it's a very fun way to maybe guide people who are new with makeup, or want to experiment with makeup to analyze and play. Sometimes you can go tone and tone. If you're a warm type, you will do warm. But I've also seen quite a lot of people like to bring a twist in the makeup. So if you are a warm type, maybe you'll do a cold lip, because the tension of the two tones makes you look maybe more interesting. So again, another way to play with makeup and to have fun with it and to experiment. 

So what's your top tip when it comes to creating an impactful look, but with the lightest touch? 

I strongly believe in the calculated mistake. A calculated mistake is something like an unexpected twist. Maybe it's not a big statement.  Maybe this can be an example (Peter Gestures to himself in a navy suit). I'm very boring, in blue. But like a little lollipop here, it's an old man's pop of colour. I like little things like that in makeup. Also, imagine everything is glowing nice, maybe do something matte to contrast it, or it's just a little twist somewhere, which is unexpected, going against what you normally do. I think that's a nice way to make something interesting and I call it the calculated mistake.

Beauty today is so much about innovation. We’re curious how Dior addict lip glow reflects this balance between science and artistry? 

It's such an easy product. You can't really do big statements with it. It's an easy to wear all day product. The artistry, for me, is really in the research with it, and the creativity that the lab people did because that's also a very unique way of playing with the artistry. It's 20 years old, well 20 years young. We fine tuned it, it evolved, the packaging evolved. Everything kind of grew and in a very creative way. It's a very slow, steady creative process, and we keep on working on it. And I think that's the essence. The artistry is in the product, and what you do with it, because every woman is their own artist.