Photographer duo Mert & Marcus launches a make-up collection with Lancôme

In the mid-1990s, Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott met and decided to work together. Since then they became two of the most interested and influential contemporary photographers. During their career, the duo has made editorials and projects for the most important magazines and brands and captured music and movie stars such as Madonna, Kate Moss, Rihanna and Lady Gaga. Their success is due to an aesthetic influenced by Guy Bordin and pioneer in the use of digital manipulation within the fashion photography industry, characterized by a hyper-realistic style, made of saturated colours, intense contrasts of light and tone, super shiny images. This sophisticated and powerful photography is the inspiration behind Mert & Marcus first make-up collection for Lancôme.

We were never really interested in beauty in its original form. Somehow, what excited us over the past 26 years, was transforming and creating characters with light, make-up and stories, and this is what we tried to achieve with this collection.

The creative couple told and added:

From Debbie Harry to Grace Jones, Kate Moss and our moms, we thought about all these incredible women who impressed us. They all have in common a vintage sensuality, sparkling audacity and unlimited strength. That's what we wanted to translate into each of the pieces in this collection. That's why we saturated certain colors or increased the size of the sequins, to arrive at unreal, almost magical formulas!

The capsule is called After Dark and is designed for the most dramatic looks, to be worn in the night. The daring colours of Mert & Marcus meet the characteristic new generation formulas of Lancôme, giving life to innovative products such as liquid eye shadow with a changing texture ranging from matt to iridescent or Duo Color Red, lipstick kit composed of dark and light shades, for shaded lips with a perfect finish. The offer also includes an eye kit; an eye shadow palette with 10 colours in brilliant pearlescent, matt or iridescent finishes; Teint Idole Ultra Duo Stick, a pair of highlighter and blur; three shades of the iconic L'Absolu Rouge lipstick. 

The limited-edition Mert & Marcus x Lancôme collection will be released in Europe in February and in the United States in March.