A legend tells that a beautiful nymph named Peonia was so adored and cherished by the gods that a jealous goddess turned her into a flower with a thousand petals, a peony. This flower then turned to be a symbol of beauty and femininity in the Mediterranean area.

In order to better understand the secrets of this flower and transpose them into the world of make-up, L’Occitane consulted French peony expert and lover Jean-Luc Rivière, who comes from a rich family history of having cultivated and studied the flower for 160 years.

A nursery of colours

The extraordinary range colour palette of peonies grown by the Rivière family, inspired a make-up line with fresh and natural colours, reflecting the variety of the flowers and bearing their names,” says L’Occitane in a release.

For each product, L’Occitane created an original decoration inspired from a specific flower, and the products are sold in a kind of “seed sachet”, with an image of a specific family of peony flower that best captures that product’s shade.

For the development of the cardboard primary packaging, L’Occitane called upon HCT’s know-how who had to deal with several challenges:

 a textured and laminated paper was proposed to give the cardboard range a specific touch, as specified by L’Occitane’s marketing team,
 the development and harmonisation in a short time of 17 different decorations, each of them highlighting a specific type of peony.

In order to reduce the environmental impact of the products, all the sachets and packaging are printed on paper from sustainable forests.

Natural formulations

For the formulation of this make-up line, L’Occitane has prioritized naturalness without abandoning the rationale for the make-up: the variety of colours, the pleasure during the application and product performance.

All the products in the collection contain an exclusive natural peony extract with softening properties and a mica coated with mimosa from Provence that brings smoothness to the formulations and adds comfort during the application,” the company said.

All products are paraben free and L’Occitane claims that the use of synthetic pigments was restricted to 2% of the formula and that of silicone to 5%.

The makeup range features eye, cheek and face colours, as well as a bronzer, lip colours and gloss.