Thursday 23 October 2008

Aube Couture

As reported earlier, the Aube brand will be discontinued and revamped as Aube Couture on 6 December in Japan. In response to common complaints by ladies that it is difficult to know how to apply eyeshadow, find a flattering lipstick shade or draw their own brows, Aube Couture has designed its products to be very easy to use and to bring out the individual beauty of each lady. The addition of the word "Couture" to the brand name is to give the image of makeup products that are tailored to each individual's needs.



The Designing Eyes palettes have an easy-to-understand layout to help user know at one glance which shade should be applied on which part of the eye.



By selecting shades that are very similar in terms of tone and illuminance, the new palettes help to create a more natural gradational effect as shown in the picture on the left, compared to the picture on the right in which the gradational effect is more artificial.



The Designing Rouge lipsticks have been chosen such that they are flattering on most skintones, to take the guesswork out of trying to pick the most suitable shade. The lipsticks are formulated with a "Harmonious Pearl Gold" that is said to be especially flattering and natural on Japanese skintones.

The picture on the left features the Aube Couture lipstick with Harmonious Pearl as compared to another Aube lipstick without the Harmonious Pearl on the right.



This shows the contrast between a model wearing an unflattering shade (on the left) versus her wearing a more flattering and natural shade (on the right).



The spokesmodels are actresses Kanno Miho and Aibu Saki. The packaging is a soft metallic pink and carbon silver.



The product line-up is as follows:

1. Designing Rouge lipstick (16 shades, 3360yen)
2. Designing Eyes (5 palettes, 3885yen)
3. Designing Cheeks (4 shades, 2310yen)
4. Designing Cheeks case (1050yen)
5. Designing Double Mascara (2 shades, 3150yen)
6. Designing Eyeliner (2 shades, 3150yen)
7. Designing Eyeliner Pencil Cartridge (1050yen)
8. Designing Eyebrow (3 shades, 3150yen)
9. Designing Eyebrow Pencil Cartridge (3 shades, 1050yen)
10. Designing Eyebrow Powder Cartridge (3 shades, 1365yen)
11. Perfect Point Makeup Remover (1575yen)

The mascara bristles are designed with a hook shaped tip to catch each eyelash and lift them firmly as liquid is applied on the lash roots.



While I think it's great that Aube has designed its products to be even more easy to use, the packaging looks boring and not appealing to me at all. Maybe that is supposed to go with the brand image of being simple and functional, but I like my makeup products to be fun, glamorous and feminine, not boring and safe! Aube Couture looks like the staid older sister of Aube, as epitomised by its choice of spokesmodels, neither of whom look particularly glamorous.

6 comments:

Pink Sith said...

Wow. Seems pretty "idiot proof" (as they say here in the States) I wish our MU came with such detail in application. I like that pink designing eyes palette...but I think it's only because of the taupe e/s. LOL

Anonymous said...

the stuff looks good !
bbut models are kinda safe looking.
will miss rinka so much !!

Anonymous said...

Wow, THANKS for sharing! This sounds very interesting, I hope that they will have unique shades in the palettes. Aube is not known for color playoff consistency in their palettes ... I will be keen to check it out when it's launched!

Haru said...

Hey Michelle,

I wouldn't get my hopes up that this brand will have interesting shades as they are going for a safe, easy to use brand image so it looks like very standard gradational pastel shades will be the norm, like the palette in the pic above.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Jules here again.

Just one question... The Designing Rouge lipsticks, you mention the pic on the left is the one with Harmonious Pearl, but below the pic, u mentioned that the model is wearing an unflattering shade on the left. Does that mean that the Harmonoious Pearl makes the lipsticks unflattering?

Confused..... but I love your blog! Don't stop.

Haru said...

Hi Jules,

my comment below the pic is referring to another picture, that of the model wearing the deep red lipstick (where you can see her face) which is not as flattering as the light shade of lipstick that she wears in the pic on the right. Hope that clarifies!