Both lips and inclusivity have been making a comeback in the beauty scene as of late, and Dior got the memo. With the launch of its all-new Dior Addict Stellar Shine collection, the luxury brand gave us 24 new hues that put pink at the forefront — along with feminism, and a celebration of the many facets there are to a woman’s persona. Through the new line of luscious, glossy lips, creative and image director Peter Philips takes pink — a colour oft brushed aside as “girly”, or “sweet” — and uses it to show us how women, like the hue, should not be pigeonholed.
The result is a wide range of pinks that advocate the philosophy of empowering women to embrace every side of themselves. Truly created for every woman, the shades range from fun corals like Clair D Lune, to sensually dark shades like Bohémienne, and full-on bold reds. From the wide gradient range, to the strapline “Be Dior. Be Pink”, and Aerosmith’s ‘Pink’ as the campaign song, this is a collection that reminds us how pink can be both feminine and masculine — and that above all, you can be yourself. Celebrating the launch of Dior Addict Stellar Shine, Dior Beauty Thailand’s representative Bella Ranee Campen flew to Seoul for an exclusive launch party, and to meet the new face of Dior Beauty — Cara Delevingne. We sat down with the stunning Bella Ranee Campen to hear her thoughts on the new collection, finding the right lipstick, and why pink is about more than pretty. Here are her views.
On going pink:
“It feels quite good actually,” Bella Ranee Campen tells us with a lighthearted laugh, when asked about how she feels pulling off a pink lip. Known for wearing bold, darker colours — especially with her recent drama Krong Kam, in which she plays the cunning and beautiful Reynu — we thought the abrupt jump to sweet, feminine pink would be a big change for her, but she surprises us by disagreeing.
“When we think of pink, we usually think it has be very feminine and sweet,” she explains, “but with Dior’s new collection there are 24 different shades to choose from, and each pink has a completely different vibe to it.” She takes her own lips — lusciously swathed in Dior Addict Stellar Shine — as a prime example. “Today I’m wearing Be Dior, which is sort of the signature colour of the collection, and I don’t feel like I’m pulling off a sweet look. I feel like I’m expressing myself as a Dior girl, in my own way.”
On lip essentials:
“I’m usually a one lipstick kind of girl” Bella says matter-of-factly. “Sometimes I might have with me what I call a Doraemon bag,” she explains, and we chuckle at her reference of the Japanese animated character and his pitless four-dimensional pocket. “In that bag I would carry a bunch of lipsticks, sometimes four to five, but if it’s an SOS bag that sticks with me all day, I’ll just have one. I would know from the start of the day what shade I want to have on, and I would just carry that one shade with me.”
On a starter lip shade for young girls:
“When I was younger, my very first lipstick was a sort of lip gloss that slightly changed the shade of your lips.” According to Bella, these subtle gloss-like products are ideal for young girls looking to venture into the world of makeup and beauty. “I think products like the Dior lip glow are good. When you put them on, they don’t really make a visible difference, but after a while you can see a bit of colour coming through. You end up with a very light, healthy-looking pink, so in a way it doesn’t look too much like a lipstick, but more like a product that brings out the best of your natural lip shade.”
On her first ever Dior lip product:
In fact, Bella recalls her very first lip product from Dior to be the lip glow she recommended as a starter lip. “It was one of the pink shades,” she explains, “they usually sell the orange and pink shades together on airplanes, and I couldn’t decide on which colour I preferred so I just went with both. The pink was quite subtle, but the orange would have this slightly fun twist to it.”
On the most daring shade she’s ever pulled off:
While she started down the subtle, lip glow route, what about the most bold lip she’s ever worn? According to Bella, she thinks it was somewhere along the lines of very dark burgundy. “During photoshoots I’ve crossed into purple territories,” she says with a laugh, “and once when I was much younger I think I even tried green.” Seeing our shock, she quickly adds, “it was actually quit fun — you might think, ‘wow, are we going with green lips now?’ but really when you actually wear it, the colour looks quite nice. Our lips naturally have this pink pigment in them, and the green brings out a punk rocker vibe which can be quite cool.”
On embracing the shiny lip trend:
The matte lip trend has remained rather constant in the past, until the sudden popularity in glowing, luscious products that emerged this year. When asked for her thoughts on this, Bella thinks there are pros from both sides, though she prefers the fresh, healthy look that comes from glossier textures like Dior Addict Stellar Shine. “You see it especially in photos,” she tells us, “the lips really pop with their colour and life, and what’s great about Dior Addict Stellar Shine in particular is that the products feel really comfortable on the lips. You don’t have to worry if the shine will lesson the colour — these shades are richly pigmented and vibrant, so they definitely stand out, and they last impressively long too.”
As for how to pull off the glowy look for those more accustomed to matte, Bella recommends thinking of the face as a whole. “You don’t want everything to shine all at once,” she explains, “if you’re going for very glossy, luscious lips, you might want to lessen the highlights on your face and only focus on key areas, just so everything balances out.”
On caring for your lips:
From her stories, it’s clear that Bella has been having fun with lipsticks from a young age. When asked how she managed to keep them healthy, she responds that lip care is in fact not difficult at all, so long as you are aware of what you are putting on your lips. “I think the key is to choose products that don’t harm your lips, especially if, like me, you use them everyday,” she says. “Not just with lipsticks, but even with lip balms and everything that you apply on them, I find it important to choose products that are good for your lips.”
This is another one of the reasons she proudly represents Dior. “I’ve known the brand well for over a year now, so I am quite confident in their quality. I feel really happy to be coming back as a Dior girl again this year.”
On finding the ‘right lipstick’:
When asked what she considers to be her shade of pink, Bella replies by saying there isn’t necessarily such a shade. “I think I can go with any shade — it really depends on how I dress, what look I’m going with that day, and what kind of mood I want to set. The lipstick is what complements that and finishes the look.”
She encourages others to have fun exploring different lip shades. “Actually, women can pull off every look. It isn’t like you have to be sweet, or cool, or sassy — I feel like thats limiting ourselves too much, and we can change daily. Even during the day — in the afternoon, we might want to go for a formal office look, but at night when we join our friends at a party we have the freedom to change our tone totally. It’s all up to us, and the lip shade is what helps us get there.”
Dior Addict Stellar Shine is now available at Dior beauty counters at THB1,490 for a lipstick. TO find out more, visit dior.com.