₱9,500 for a lipstick.
It’s an amount that makes even seasoned beauty editors pause. Yes, I could afford it. But would I? That hesitation—the tension between desire and restraint—feels deliberate. With the launch of La Beaute Louis Vuitton, its first-ever makeup line, the French maison isn’t just introducing a product. It’s posing a question: How far can beauty stretch as luxury?
Louis Vuitton has always been about reframing the ordinary. In 1854, it reinvented travel by turning luggage into an emblem of style and status. Decades later, its monogram became more than a canvas print—it became a cultural symbol. Now, with beauty, Vuitton is attempting a similar transformation: to take the humble lipstick and elevate it into an heirloom.
A Beauty Line 170 Years in the Making
What sets this debut apart is not its size but its intent. Rather than flooding the market with a lot of SKUs on first drop, Vuitton begins with a deliberate trio: LV Rouge lipsticks (55 shades), LV Baume tinted balms (10 shades), and LV Ombres eyeshadow palettes (8 harmonies). The numbers themselves tell a story—55 shades for LV, in Roman numerals (L = 50, V = 5). Each product has been positioned not just as makeup, but as objets d’art to be displayed, refilled, and cherished.
At the helm is Dame Pat McGrath, arguably the most influential makeup artist of her generation. Her artistry has defined decades of fashion, from runway to editorial. Her fingerprints are all over this collection: pigments that feel painterly, shades that echo Vuitton’s archives, formulas that blur the line between makeup and skincare.
“Luxury in makeup is about performance, craftsmanship, and sensoriality,” McGrath says. “True luxury is when every detail is considered—from the way pigment melts into the skin to the way a lipstick feels in your hand.”
This, then, is not just Vuitton’s makeup debut. It is McGrath’s manifesto for beauty as art.
When Formula Becomes Ritual
Vuitton’s lipsticks don’t read like conventional cosmetics. They are 85 percent skincare base, enriched with shea butter and hyaluronic acid for moisture, and waxes upcycled from rose, jasmine, and mimosa—flowers emblematic of the house. The lip balms are designed for hydration that lasts 48 hours, blurring the line between treatment and tint.
And then there are the eyeshadows. The LV Ombres palettes, retailing at ₱15,000 in the Philippines, extend this idea of luxury ritual to the eyes. Each compact holds four shades: three versatile, everyday tones balanced with one bold, unexpected accent. Formulas are infused with plant-derived squalane and camelina oil extract for a creamy, second-skin texture. Vuitton even developed a proprietary Light-Up Pigment Technology, where shimmer particles are encased in a transparent gel, maximizing shine while eliminating fallout.
Like the lipsticks and balms, the palettes are refillable, housed in brass-and-aluminum cases designed by Konstantin Grcic. They are meant to be kept on the vanity, treasured long after the pans have been replaced.
In Vuitton’s debut, every detail—down to the scent, the feel, the weight in the hand—has been considered. These aren’t products to be used up and discarded; they are designed as rituals, as objects of beauty in every sense.
Design Worth Displaying
The objects themselves have been entrusted to Konstantin Grcic, the German industrial designer better known for minimalist furniture than beauty packaging. His brief was not to create something trendy, but something enduring. The result: brass and aluminum cases engineered with the precision of Vuitton trunks. They click shut with satisfying weight, they are refillable by design, and they are meant to be kept on display.
“Wherever possible, we designed the products to be refillable rather than disposable,” Grcic says. “These are pieces meant to live with you, to be kept, treasured, and used again and again.”
In the Vuitton lexicon, makeup is not just functional—it’s architectural, collectible, meant to live alongside handbags, trunks, and fragrance flaçons.
Beauty in Vuitton’s DNA
If this feels like a leap for Vuitton, it’s worth remembering: Beauty has always been part of its story. By the 1920s, Vuitton was producing vanity trunks, tortoiseshell brushes, and carved ivory mirrors for the era’s elite. Beauty was not an afterthought, but a category quietly built into its heritage.
La Beaute revives that lineage. The maison has even created modern vanity trunks and lipstick pouches for the launch, echoing those early commissions. McGrath puts it plainly: “Makeup is more than product: it’s performance, obsession, emotion.”
Lipsticks and the Price Spectrum
And yet, the conversation circles back to price. At ₱9,500 in the Philippines, Vuitton’s lipsticks and balms sit in the rarefied heights of luxury beauty.
For context, most designer lipsticks live comfortably in the ₱2,000–₱3,000 range (Chanel, Dior, YSL). Guerlain’s customizable Rouge G raised that bar with cases as jewelry, hovering around ₱4,500–₱5,000. Hermès made headlines in 2020 when it launched Rouge Hermes at more of less ₱4,500, considered audacious at the time. Cle de Peau Beaute’s The Precious Lipstick—a diamond-faceted, skincare-infused bullet—sells for ₱6,000. And Chanel’s 31 Le Rouge, housed in faceted glass, tops them all at ₱10,200.
Louis Vuitton enters just below Chanel, above Cle de Peau, and well beyond Hermès and Guerlain. But crucially: It isn’t releasing a limited edition, a couture capsule, or a once-a-year collector’s piece. It is pricing its entire debut line at this threshold.
This is not lipstick as consumable. It is lipstick as collectible. Vuitton is setting a new ceiling, not testing the waters.
The Bigger Picture: Beauty as Growth Engine
Why here, why now?
Because luxury beauty is booming.
The global luxury lipstick market, valued at USD 3.8 billion in 2024, is projected to reach USD 5.5 billion by 2033. Premium cosmetics overall are also forecasted to climb steadily, reflecting beauty’s resilience as a category.
Even in downturns, beauty tends to hold steady—the phenomenon often described as the “lipstick index.” The logic is simple: when larger luxuries feel out of reach, smaller ones—like lipsticks—become symbolic indulgences.
Lipsticks, in particular, have become modern status symbols: small, portable, instantly recognizable. As The Guardian recently observed, lip products now function as “a form of advertising”—a way to signal identity in an image-driven culture.
Louis Vuitton understands this. For aspirational shoppers who may not splurge on a ₱200,000 handbag, a ₱9,500 lipstick offers a way into the Vuitton universe. For loyal Vuitton clients, it extends the brand into another daily ritual. Either way, the maison wins.
The Price of Exclusivity
Still, the question lingers: I could afford it, but will I buy it?
That hesitation is part of the allure. Vuitton knows its pricing provokes debate. And in doing so, it elevates the conversation around beauty itself. What are we paying for—the pigment? The prestige? Or the idea that, like a Vuitton trunk, a lipstick can be heirloom-worthy?
Luxury has always thrived on that fine line between accessibility and aspiration. Vuitton’s move suggests that beauty, too, can live on that edge—not disposable, but designed, debated, desired.
A New Standard in Beauty
La Beaute Louis Vuitton launches globally on August 29, 2025, including at the Louis Vuitton Greenbelt 3 flagship in Manila and on louisvuitton.com.
The maison calls it “redefining beauty as a lifestyle, as an experience, and as a dedicated art form.”
At ₱9,500, it may be less a launch than a litmus test. Vuitton is not just entering beauty—it is attempting to redraw its boundaries. Whether consumers embrace it or hesitate, the conversation itself signals success.
Because in the end, Louis Vuitton has already won: We’re all talking about the lipstick.
