Just in time for music festival season, Make Up For Ever is announcing electropop singer-songwriter Charli XCX as the face of its latest launch, the Aqua XL Eye Pencil.
“We’ve partnered with [Charli] to try and convey the artistic exuberance of the product,” said Laure de Metz, the U.S. general manager for Make Up For Ever of the 23-year-old pop star, who is known for her collaborations with Icona Pop — “I Love It” — and Iggy Azaela — “Fancy” — and her 2014 breakout hit, “Boom Clap.” “She’s young, she loves to experiment, she loves to have fun [and] she’s not scared or frightened by color.”
Launching in May, the Aqua XL pencil is an enhanced version of the existing Make Up For Ever Aqua Eye Pencil, which is a part of the brand’s water-resistant franchise. The pencils come in a range of 20 vibrant hues, including various shades of blue, green, purple and pastels, along with traditional colors like black and brown. The pencils come in five finishes — Matte, Diamond, Satin, Iridescent and Metallic. An updated formula containing emollient oils and mango butter is said to make for a smoother application, and the pigment is more intensely saturated.
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“The whole spirit of Make Up For Ever is so bold and really has that attitude that I feel like is so integral to everything that I do, said Charli XCX, who is currently in the process of recording her third album. “Sometimes I’ll want to put on a full face of makeup, like a bold, loud exaggerated look, and other times I’ll want to keep it really simple [and] slicked-back.”
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De Metz noted that the Aqua XL launch was strategically planned to coincide with the summer music festival circuit. While Make Up For Ever is popular among professional makeup artists and its products are formulated to withstand performance conditions such as sweat, water and heat, she also said that the brand’s main customer base is typical consumers who are shopping in Sephora stores.
“Charli is so bold, we wanted to leverage that aspect of her personality,” said de Metz. “She’s unafraid and that is exactly what women want to look like when they go to a music festival.”
The campaign will be heavily focused on digital, with a 30-second video featuring Charli XCX performing while sporting a pastel yellow and aqua blue eye look created by her makeup artist Colby Smith using the Aqua XL pencils. The video will be pushed out to media outlets, and snippets of it will appear on the Make Up For Ever Instagram account. Charli XCX will promote the video through her channels as well.
The Aqua Eye pencils retail for $21 each. They will be available in all Sephora stores worldwide, on sephora.com and in all Make Up For Ever freestanding locations along with the brand’s Web site beginning in May.