High-end Makeup Brand Research

Today I went into town and gathered some primary research on high-end makeup brands, I visited John Lewis as nearly all of the brands there are high-end and that they have section in the store for makeup and skin care which meant I was able to gather a good amount of research. The brands that I focused on were Mac, Tom Ford, Chanel, NailsInc, Estee Lauder, Nars and YSL.

Mac and Nars:

• Consistent packaging on all of the products (mainly just black and silver packaging)
• The arrangement goes from the lighter shades to the darker shades gradually
• Matte black with metallic silver- I like how this creates contrast whilst still looking professional
• Logo is on every product and is often the main/only piece of design work on the packaging- consider this on my packaging designs, minimalism is key

Tom Ford:

• Gold detailing on every product- I love this as it creates consistency and the gold also looks extremely rich and luxurious
• Use of different colour for the different perfume bottles, whilst using the gold on every bottle within the same designs. The colours reflect on the scents- colour and scents could be something to consider and make interesting
• Sans Serif in capitals
• Testing card is extremely minimal- purely just uses the logo embossed in gold foil on the card

Chanel:

• Extremely luxurious and clean packaging
• Sans serif typeface- the use of different type weights to add emphasis on certain bits of information, this is important as it also makes the packaging labels easy to understand
• Gold used on packaging throughout
• Logo used on every product
• Ribbon is used on boxes, the ribbon uses the logo- satin ribbon might be interesting to use subtly on my box packages, satin gives a more luxurious look than cotton maybe

NailsInc:

• Logo used on everything
• Different lids for the different nail polish collections- this is effective, however it does create a little bit of inconsistency and doesn't look as professional as overall branding. I think the silver lids work better than than the coloured lids
• Gold foiling on box packaging
• Sans serif typeface

YSL:

• YSL logo is Sans serif with nuances- very on the verge of being a Serif typeface- this works as it makes the YSL logo unique and recognisable 
• Gold used on every packaging 
• Lip products use rectangle shaped packaging, the sprays use and creams use curvier packaging shapes
• Contrasts of metallic and matte on some of the packaging
• Logo used on every packaging- in the biggest scale compared to the other bits of information used

Estee Lauder:

• Heavy use of gold
• Use of Sans serif and Serif typeface- creates a bit of inconsistency, the Sans serif works much better
• Logo used on everything
• Different colours packaging for different scents and collections