It is not a luxury to have the plastic removed but an absolute necessity. I have always associated luxury with a dream and I have a hard time dreaming of beautiful objects and the pleasure of having them if I know that they are taking part in the disaster of tomorrow, for my children, my relatives and simply the community.

UM    Can you introduce yourself and your career?

NG     My name is Nicolas Gerlier, I’m 37 years old and I decided to create La Bouche Rouge a year and a half ago. I have studied both finance and art history. I started at L’Oréal in the luxury division where I spent more than ten years. Ten beautiful years where I learned a lot, grew enormously and developed a certain finesse in the field of cosmetics. I have also seen this market evolve gradually, change, and fluctuate which made me want to create a more personal and alternative product. I seriously started to think about this project and I was convinced, two years ago in a fundamental period of today’s economy, that old elements can be replaced by new elements without investing a lot of money. This not being the case before. On the other hand, to keep organizations from the past afloat, you have to put in a lot of money while sometimes being uncertain of the outcome. Today, the speed of execution by digital and networking allows us to go very fast, very far and have a global impact, especially with advantages like Instagram. I then told myself that I was going to start now because it was the right time, the right product and the right way. Especially since there is a fundamental period between the media, the digital and the development of e-commerce that is very particular.

UM    What was the basic concept of launching La Bouche Rouge, where did you get the idea and how did you come to create your own brand of lipstick?

NG     I had the idea of La Bouche Rouge in mind for some time but it also came to me from my personal life. I’m originally from Brittany and I participated a few years ago in cleaning the beaches with one of my children. I was shocked by the amount of plastic to pick up. In every industry, no one is really intrigued by the appearance of plastic. For my part, I widened this topic and realized that today plastic pollution may be the threat of tomorrow because currently 83% of the world’s water is polluted by microplastics. It is not a luxury to have the plastic removed but an absolute necessity. I have always associated luxury with a dream and I have a hard time dreaming of beautiful objects and the pleasure of having them if I know that they are taking part in the disaster of tomorrow, for my children, my relatives and simply the community. This was the starting point of my reflection on plastic because we have a lot in our daily lives but no one has really questioned how to completely remove it. Parley.tv supports this project and invites designers of all categories to develop projects without plastic. “Kiss for life,” supported by Parley.tv, is an important project for our Maison and aims to avoid, to intercept, to re-design but also to rethink as much as possible without plastic. The other project is to build wells in villages in Togo. I had already set it up at Armani a long time ago and I wanted to keep it. It’s great to revolutionize the world of beauty but it’s even better to build it with a project that changes the world a little bit, with slightly more important issues.

ANNA FERGUSON translation
ELÉONORE ZEKRI transcription
LÉONARD MÉCHINEAU photography

It is not a luxury to have the plastic removed but an absolute necessity. I have always associated luxury with a dream and I have a hard time dreaming of beautiful objects and the pleasure of having them if I know that they are taking part in the disaster of tomorrow, for my children, my relatives and simply the community.

UM    Can you introduce yourself and your career?

NG     My name is Nicolas Gerlier, I’m 37 years old and I decided to create La Bouche Rouge a year and a half ago. I have studied both finance and art history. I started at L’Oréal in the luxury division where I spent more than ten years. Ten beautiful years where I learned a lot, grew enormously and developed a certain finesse in the field of cosmetics. I have also seen this market evolve gradually, change, and fluctuate which made me want to create a more personal and alternative product. I seriously started to think about this project and I was convinced, two years ago in a fundamental period of today’s economy, that old elements can be replaced by new elements without investing a lot of money. This not being the case before. On the other hand, to keep organizations from the past afloat, you have to put in a lot of money while sometimes being uncertain of the outcome. Today, the speed of execution by digital and networking allows us to go very fast, very far and have a global impact, especially with advantages like Instagram. I then told myself that I was going to start now because it was the right time, the right product and the right way. Especially since there is a fundamental period between the media, the digital and the development of e-commerce that is very particular.

UM    What was the basic concept of launching La Bouche Rouge, where did you get the idea and how did you come to create your own brand of lipstick?

NG     I had the idea of La Bouche Rouge in mind for some time but it also came to me from my personal life. I’m originally from Brittany and I participated a few years ago in cleaning the beaches with one of my children. I was shocked by the amount of plastic to pick up. In every industry, no one is really intrigued by the appearance of plastic. For my part, I widened this topic and realized that today plastic pollution may be the threat of tomorrow because currently 83% of the world’s water is polluted by microplastics. It is not a luxury to have the plastic removed but an absolute necessity. I have always associated luxury with a dream and I have a hard time dreaming of beautiful objects and the pleasure of having them if I know that they are taking part in the disaster of tomorrow, for my children, my relatives and simply the community. This was the starting point of my reflection on plastic because we have a lot in our daily lives but no one has really questioned how to completely remove it. Parley.tv supports this project and invites designers of all categories to develop projects without plastic. “Kiss for life,” supported by Parley.tv, is an important project for our Maison and aims to avoid, to intercept, to re-design but also to rethink as much as possible without plastic. The other project is to build wells in villages in Togo. I had already set it up at Armani a long time ago and I wanted to keep it. It’s great to revolutionize the world of beauty but it’s even better to build it with a project that changes the world a little bit, with slightly more important issues.