Don’t think the collaborations were just left to the fashion industry — collections between beauty brands and creative visionaries are now popping up left, right and centre. Twin rounds up our favourite new arrivals in the cosmetics world…

M.A.C Illustrated

These days, the exterior appearance of your bag is just as, if not more important, than what’s inside. So why resort to flinging your favourite lipstick, mascara and eyeshadow into a dingy, dirty and outdated old case? In a bid to rescue us from boring cosmetics carriers, M.A.C teamed up with illustrators Julie Verhoeven, Francois Berthoud and Nikki Farquharsson for a range of bags bearing each artist’s signature stylings, be it art deco, graphic or abstract. Mission accomplished.

maccosmetics.com

Karl Lagerfeld X Shu Uemura

In the past, Lagerfeld has been known to use Shu Uemura’s eyeshadows to colour in his fashion sketches. Now, unstoppable Karl teamed up with the Japanese brand for a 17-piece collection of make-up, false eylashes and of course, the brand’s trademark, an eyelash curler. All emblazoned with the Karl-ified mascot donning a Rei Kawakubo-esque haircut and the Uncle’s signature high collar and tie, its a kooky take on Uemura’s high-quality products.

shuuemura.com

NARS X Andy Warhol

NARS took Warhol’s love of glitz, glamour and decadence as a starting point for a Swinging Sixties bright cosmetics collection. The brand even extended their love for all things Andy to a recreation of his self-portraits and flower paintings in their eyeshadow palettes. Instead of simply slapping a name onto their products, NARS clearly made a genuine dedication to the artist with this project. The ode may solely consist of shimmer sparkles and neon brights, but Warhol wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

narscosmetics.com

M.A.C X Carine Roitfeld

The former editor of Vogue always had her laid-in smokey eye makeup down to pat, so a collaboration between the stylish image maker and a company renowned for their high-quality eye shadows was only a stone’s throw away anyhow. Expect shadow and blush palettes to recreate smouldering Roitfeld eyes and defined cheekbones, vampy red nail varnishes and to top it all off with a seductive French pout, barely-there nude lipsticks.

maccosmetics.com

Tags: Andy Warhol, Carine Roitfeld, cosmetics, Karl Lagerfeld, MAC, NARS, Shu Uemura

Since shooting her first cover for Chinese avant-garde style magazine, Vision, Man’s work has gained increasing recognition. Having worked with brands such as Adidas and Nike, she’s most recently collaborated with MAC cosmetics. The Chen Man range, subtitled Love & Water, is described as a ‘bold, sensual and lyrical colour collection’, based around her fascination for love and water, represented by pink and blue.

The ascendancy of Man’s star coincides with China’s own  as a burgeoning economic powerhouse. In forging her own path, Man’s bold, innovative style has been credited with inspiring a visual revolution in China.

For her first UK solo exhibition, Man‘s photography collates modern Chinese city landscapes with ancient architecture, which provide a backdrop to explore the assorted themes of science fiction, consumerism and popular culture.

Despite the complex and myriad layers of post-production employed to control and manipulate the finished product, the natural beauty and poise of her models forces its way through her art. Otherworldly and eccentric Man’s imagery reflects an obsession with perfection and the impossibility of many beauty aesthetics.

The Chen Man exhibition is showing at the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester until 7th April

chinese-arts-centre.org

Words by Dawn Daniels

Tags: Chen Man, Chinese Arts Centre, Love & Water, MAC

The celebrity beauty juggernaut show no signs of slowing down: the latest additions being Dita Von Teese perfume, Kate Moss lipsticks, Rachel Zoe lipsticks (in the US) and the rumour of a Coty created Madonna perfume.

Trust MAC to subvert it all by co-opting haute-eccentric-heiress and couture-buyer-extraordinaire Daphne Guinness to dream up some pre-Christmas make up products for them. Gaga perfume is apparently arriving next year and I can’t help wondering if she will live up to her image and make something along the lines of Commes Des Garcons Odeur 53 (the smell of dust and metal and glass) or if she will go for the bubblegum synthetic pop of her music (which I personally dislike in general) and fashion something saccharine and obvious.

Of the other new launches around I’m particularly enamoured of Biba make up – great palettes, bright colours – I’m a sucker for a dinky little box. What’s more it’s reasonably priced and I’m so over obscenely priced beauty products. Frankly I’d rather spend the money in Cos‘ new online store.

It’s actually the third time Biba have launched their make up. The first time, in the early seventies it was only available in the store and they were famously the first brand to provide testers – and they did wonderfully weird shades such as black lipstick. The brand made a brief reappearance in the mid Nineties – prompted by the seventies fetishism of that decade – but sadly fizzled out. And now it’s back again, accompanying the revived fashion line.

I do hope it survives but in all honesty I’m not sure what the identity of Biba is any more. I know what it stood for in the early Seventies, but I fear it has been so diluted and corrupted there’s not much of the original spirit left in terms of fashion or beauty.

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: Bethan Cole, Biba, Commes Des Garcons Odeur 53, Daphne Guinness, Dita Von Teese Perfume, kate moss, MAC, Rachel Zoe

After high profile fashion pairings such as Lanvin for H&M and Valentino for Gap, perhaps it was only natural that beauty companies too should want a piece of the collaborative action. Cult and cultured Aussie beauty brand Aesop were one of the first – teaming up with clothing brand A.P.C to create a special hand washing detergent earlier in 2010. Then came Marchesa and Le Metier De Beaute who produced a capsule collection of palettes and lipglosses; subtle and subliminal, the perfect accompaniment to a Marchesa evening gown.

Now, there’s Marcel Wanders for MAC, a capsule collection, only available online (maccosmetics.co.uk) that takes make up packaging design to the next level. The beautiful baroque curvilinear packaging stands in marked contrast to the minimalist Nineties design of regular MAC products. These items look like glossy black chess pieces rather than an aesthetes’ make up arsenal.

Wanders claims he was inspired by Vermeer and, Girl With a Pearl Earring and as a result some of the colours are curiously naturalistic. For example there are light gold and golden nude lipglosses that add very lucent party season sparkle to your face. “Designing beauty packaging immediately made me think of the painterly connection,” says Wanders of his work. Indeed the suitably artistic brush roll (£60) is one of the standout items.

Whilst we love Wanders for MAC – it’s doing something truly innovative with product design, more collaborations are on their way. February 1st sees Milly for Clinique hit counters (a palette designed by the cutesy floral NYC brand), and later in spring there’s Tibi for Bobbi Brown, another niche fashion brand allied to a beauty monolith. For now, December, it’s all about Marcel Wanders for us.

Words by Bethan Cole

Tags: Aesop, Bethan Cole, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, MAC, make up, Marcel Wanders