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Add it to the never-ending East Coast versus West Coast rivalry: Apparently, Americans who live on different sides of the country do not view “nude” lips the same way. At least, that s what Peter Philips, Dior s creative and image director, discovered while doing research for the reinvention of Rouge Dior lipstick, out today.
“An ‘American nude’ has much more of a beige shade overall,” Philips tells Vogue exclusively of Dior s findings. The beauty house spoke to over 400 women across the United States, asking each what they considered a nude lipstick, analyzing their natural lip shade, and their favorite lip colors and finishes. “On the East Coast, women tended to pick shades that were a bit more greige in color, and on the West Coast they gravitated toward something pinker.” Even the finish of lipstick between the two was different—“more matte for the East Coast, glowy and luminous for the West Coast,” Philips says. Seems right.
Expanding outward to the rest of the world was when the idea of “nude” truly imploded. (Philips had a hunch this would happen, telling me “It s an old-school perspective to believe that nude is simply a single beige color. That s something you know after doing makeup for over 30 years.”)
After taking the same research method to other continents, here s what Philips learned: “A contemporary nude has a much broader definition than just ‘matching your lips’ or ‘matching your skin tone.’ Instead, it s what a woman feels most confident in—and yes, sometimes that is a red or a bordeaux.”
It was with these findings that the new Rouge Dior collection was built. You won t find shades of shocking pink or acid-bright coral here, but instead 70 different shades that all fall within the “natural” realm and were frequently referenced within the bell curve of Dior s global research. Many of the shades are refillable (the brand also found that it s actually more eco-friendly to only create refills for the best-selling shades) and come in two different finishes, satin and velvet.
And the number 70 isn t just coincidence or simply the shade rage that the statistical data provided: It s been 70 years since Dior launched their first collection of lipsticks launched in 1953.
“The lipsticks began as a gift from Monsieur Dior for those attending a fashion show,” Frederic Bourdelier, the director of culture and heritage at Dior, shares while we (oh-so-gently) flip through some of Christian s first sketches. “It created quite a buzz. Two years later he released the first collection, which was eight shades of lipstick, in a refillable obelisk case designed by Baccarat. It s all very Parisian.”
Holding the original collection in my white-gloved hand, it all feels quite contemporary (minus the fact that the solid crystal tube is heavy, rivaling my laptop). Naturally, there are shades that compare to the modern Rouge Dior collection, like 9 and 99, which have morphed into Dior s 999. In 1953, the bright red likely would have been considered a statement lip, but in 2023, it s now so seamless it s could be considered a nude.
“Different cultures and then the women in that culture approach the idea of nude individually,” Philips shares. “Now, we have a nude for everybody.”
