Fa La La La La Bouche Rouge 'Tis the Season for Sustainability with Nicolas Gerlier
As a French beauty veteran and president of the only French sustainable luxury brand, Nicolas Gerlier of La Bouche Rouge is setting the standard for environmental accountability.
What do you get when you mix a posh red pout with a passion for saving the planet? La Bouche Rouge.
Nicolas Gerlier co-founded the brand to prove that sustainability doesn’t have come at the cost of luxury. The result? An affordable yet artisanal lipstick in an opulent, plastic-free refillable case. Instead of cycling through product after product, the modern woman can now get her chic red fill from a timeless luxury object.
As a French beauty veteran and president of the only French sustainable luxury brand, Nicolas is setting the standard for environmental accountability. After all, who needs plastic when all you need is a classic bold red lip? Read below to follow Nicolas along La Bouche Rouge’s sustainable journey and check out our Instagram for the live interview.
For those who are discovering your brand, what is La Bouche Rouge?
La Bouche Rouge is a revolutionary French clean beauty Maison – the first of its kind. As a brand, we embody a new, holistic vision: Blue Beauty. While the 20th century introduced the Green Beauty movement and clean formulas, the launch of our complete makeup collection advocates for the Blue Beauty movement. We create products that are good for you, the planet and the people that produce them.
By merging traditional French craftsmanship with pure makeup formulas and an unwavering commitment to sustainability, we are transforming the realm of beauty. Our collection utilizes clean formulas that are good for your skin and recyclable packaging that are free from plastic. Handcrafted in France and designed to last, our products are reinventing the rules of beauty. Paving the way towards a more sustainable future, La Bouche Rouge stands for “beauty for you and the planet.”
What makes La Bouche Rouge a unique player in its field?
We were the first brand to commit to eliminating plastics at each possible step. In fact, we are plastic-free from formulation to manufacturing, packaging and sales. Our formulas, created in our laboratory in France, are pure and microplastic-free. Our cases, handcrafted by artisans following traditional French savoir-faire, are refillable and plastic-free. Today, we are still the only French sustainable luxury brand. It’s surprising but true!
What was the turning point since you created your business?
I have been working in this industry for over 10 years. Over this period of time, I have seen it evolve, transform and fluctuate. Eventually, I felt there was an overwhelming number of fake claims about the plastic pollution in this industry. Plastic was everywhere! You could find it in formulation, production, packaging, the supply chain and even in the point of sale.
As a result, I decided to create my own model. As such, I adhered to a single conviction: to reconcile luxury and sustainability.
You mentioned in an interview that your brand acts as a ‘Positive Revolution’ (révolte positive). Can you tell us more about this?
La Bouche Rouge strives to be an agent for change. We go beyond selling our products. In fact, our goal is to create a positive impact for people and the planet. As such, it was a natural decision for us to partner with Eau Vive Internationale. Through this collaboration, we donated 100L of safe drinking water to impoverished areas in Togo for each lipstick sold.
Your prices are attractive for a luxury brand, tell us more about the concept created with refills.
By providing refillable creations, we design objects that can last a lifetime. It is highly convenient, and you can refill in just a click. As a result, we can establish a very affordable price for a luxury product. Once you purchase a case, you simply refill the lipstick inside. It helps eliminate unnecessary waste, thereby making it better for you and the planet.
In your everyday life what are the other ‘efforts’ you make to create less pollution?
As a father of three, I know how challenging it can be to live in the eco-friendliest manner possible. However, I believe it’s essential that we integrate these practices in our daily lives. We personally shop for local, seasonal fruits and vegetables, only making exceptions for birthdays and special occasions.
Additionally, we only eat meat once a week and avoid purchasing any processed foods. We’re now living in the countryside where we cultivate our own garden and compost. In fact, we are hoping to be fully self-sufficient in terms of fruits and perhaps even vegetables by next year. It’s a challenge, notably because of the difficulty when it comes to packaging. But, it’s worth the challenge to provide permanent benefits for my family’s health, as well as the planet.
For BWB readers La Bouche Rouge will offer the personalization of your products, use code BWBxLBR. Orders placed this week will arrive on time for December 24th!
Teresa Deely is a graduate from Columbia University with majors in English and Creative Writing. She is a freelance writer and marketing assistant working for clients in the wellness, jewelry, creative, and sports industries. She believes that one’s skin is yet another canvas and vehicle for art, and has loved styling her hair and applying makeup from a young age. Spending much of her time in educating youth and leading enrichment programs for children, she is highly motivated in discovering new ways to care for herself and sharing them with others.
Paving the way towards a more sustainable future, La Bouche Rouge stands for beauty for you and the planet.
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