Sofia Coppola undeniably embodies French girl chic — aka that insouciant, hard-to-put-your-finger-on, relaxed-but-beautifully-groomed thing that’s really damn hard to pull off. Unless you have precisely the right products to hand of course, ideally picked for you by a chic French girl.
Enter Coppola’s collaboration with the A-list favourite skincare brand Augustinus Bader, comprising three of the Tinted Balms in different hues: Dark Pink (mimicking Coppola’s ‘favourite discontinued lipstick I used to get at a drug store in Paris’), Red Coral (‘based on a colour I like when at the beach’) and Darker Plum (‘a deep colour that looks like a deeper tint of your lips’).
Coppola says it all came about very organically, beginning with her being a fan of the original Augustinus Bader Lip Balm because ‘it feels rich and hydrating, not too shiny, and the sleek packaging is chic and nice to pull out of your bag’.
That said, she was keen to fuse lipstick and balm because, y’know, that French ‘I didn’t try too hard’ thing. “I’m always searching for the perfect one that you can put on like a ChapStick and gives a hint of colour, that’s easy and gives a little lift and doesn’t look make-up-y.”
Once she realised the Augustinus Bader formula was bang on, the addition of coloured versions felt a natural progression, and Coppola reached out to the brand to start discussing the hues she had in mind.
Whichever of the resulting Tinted Balms you go for, pop it in your handbag and revel in that fact that you don’t need to labour over application; just whip it out, slip it on and channel that French je ne sais quoi.
Augustinus Bader x Sofia Coppola The Tinted Balm
Buy now £33.00, Space NK
