PARIS — “I’m obsessive about beauty. It’s almost like an extension of myself,” said Olivier Rousteing, whose office at Balmain is strewn with scented candles and whose bathroom at house is well-stocked with makeup, Tom Ford’s Black Orchid scent and Chanel No.22 perfume. 

No wonder he’s so enthusiastic about Balmain’s latest beauty license with the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. 

Rousteing is getting some immersive training at a famous Paris perfumery school, and is plotting an approach to cosmetics that can offer protection and nourishment, as much as color and glamour. 

“I feel like everyone’s wearing numerous makeup, but I believe it’s vital to also care for your skin,” he said. “I’m super proud to work with Estée Lauder because its products are of such top quality.” 

Rousteing and Lauder executive Guillaume Jesel confirmed the collaboration in exclusive interviews with WWD. 

The long-term, global licensing agreement for Balmain Beauty includes collaboratively developing, producing and distributing luxury beauty products, the primary of which for the road are expected to be launched in the autumn of 2024.

“We’ve been talking to them for nearly a 12 months. It’s been a really natural conversation between the 2 corporations,” said Jesel, whose newly expanded position is president, global brands, Tom Ford Beauty, Balmain Beauty and luxury business development, effective immediately.

He noted that Balmain and the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. were created almost concurrently, in 1945 and 1946, respectively.

“We shared a standard interest between staying true to our heritage [and] at the identical time seeing into the long run,” Jesel explained. “We in a short time realized that…we were on the identical wavelength with our vision of luxury, in addition to our vision for brand-building with a long-term view.”

Each corporations were rooted in heritage, “but we were also not letting or not it’s an anchor,” he continued. “We were free to attach the past with the current, and likewise the long run.”

Rousteing made it clear he plans to attract on the wonder legacy of founder Pierre Balmain, just as he often references the home heritage in fashion, most notably by reprising a Labyrinth monogram from the ‘70s and turning it into a complete fashion and accessories franchise under the 1945 moniker.  

He noted that his grandmother religiously wore Ivoire de Balmain, created in 1979. 

Other notable fragrances over the history of Balmain include Vent Vert, launched in 1947; Monsieur Balmain, introduced in 1964; Ambre Gris, from 2008, and Carbone, which hit the market in 2010.

Lauder executives and Rousteing opened a box together from the Balmain archives.

“After I take a look at the archives of Pierre Balmain, it’s incredible the range of fragrances that he created, each totally different from the opposite, but still a mirrored image of the home,” Rousteing said in a phone interview. “So I’m really enthusiastic about creating fragrances that is perhaps completely different from all of them — with the fierceness and unique feeling and emotion of Balmain today. 

“We’re going to try to specific what’s the DNA of Balmain in beauty…but with the modernity that speaks to my generation and future generations,” he added. 

“We wish to proceed to attract upon this very authentic heritage of the Balmain brand, but additionally be true to the vision of Olivier Rousteing, who brought a contemporary view to the Balmain brand, a contemporary view of luxury,” Jesel said during a Zoom call. He added that vision is thru a prism that’s each Parisian and global, inclusive and with a “fearless confidence.”

Balmain adds one other high-luxury name to Lauder’s stable, which along with Tom Ford Beauty includes Michael Kors.

“We take a look at luxury as a segment that has been growing ahead of the market and that has very strong growth perspectives around the globe,” said Jesel. “Luxury is a dimension that we were looking for to enhance, and that may be a strategic step that is actually vital.”

He said that in Lauder’s luxury portfolio, Balmain “does add a unique tonality within the sense that it is a French brand.”

The Balmain beauty business has been mostly dormant since 2017, when the French house and Interparfums SA mutually agreed to an early termination of their licensing agreement, initially signed for 12 years, ranging from January 2012. The Balmain Hair Couture brand is run individually.

This provides something of a clean slate for Balmain and Estée Lauder. 

“We shall be working with [Olivier] directly, very closely,” said Jesel, explaining this could possibly be on anything from product development to the creative and design processes.

Rousteing cited three values of Balmain he plans to instill in future beauty products for the home. Initially is diversity. 

“Talking to each skin tone of the world is something really vital for me,” he stressed. 

Jesel recalled Rousteing as saying: “I would like to represent all of the beauties of the world — no exceptions.”

One other is the couture roots of Balmain, which Rousteing upholds by creating exceptional, one-of-a-kind dresses that retail within the five figures. For fragrances, he envisions sourcing rare flowers that convey the identical “sense of uniquness” of a couture dress. 

Lastly, Rousteing said sustainability and mostly natural ingredients shall be one other priority in the wonder products. 

“We’re very much aligned in our relationship — that we would like to look into the long run of luxury, and with Balmain Beauty, we’re committed to proceed advocating for those values,” said Jesel.

To be certain, Rousteing has been an enthusiastic user of fragrances since he was a teen. He expressed his early passion for Jean Paul Gaultier’s groundbreaking Le Male fragrance last July, when he did a one-off collection for the couture house, transposing the bottle design and packaging into high fashions. 

But today, Rousteing doesn’t imagine in assigning any gender to any fragrance. “A smell is for everybody,” he shrugged. 

To date from his scent studies, he’s learned that individuals can cull ideas for fragrances from music or colours — and he pertains to each intensely. 

Rousteing also wears makeup, and it took on more importance following a hearth explosion two years ago that burnt and scarred his face and torso. He explained that he relied on a number of pharmaceutical products for his rehabilitation and on makeup to cover disfigurements. 

Consequently, “I’m really pondering of makeup as protection and never simply to be beautiful,” Rousteing said. “It should help make your skin higher.” 

The designer said he’s long been “obsessed” by the wonder looks in iconic campaigns by Guy Bourdin, by Tom Ford within the early 2000s, not forgetting the videos of Beyoncé and the contouring made popular by his friend Kim Kardashian. 

Rousteing is slated to unveil Balmain’s spring 2023 collection on Wednesday during Paris Fashion Week.