.: January 2015

Founded and named after legendary japanese make-up artist and beauty pioneer, Shu Uemura, the brand breaks all boundaries in beauty creation.

inspired by an aesthetic and professional spirit of the artisan, the Shu Uemura brand was developed on the founder’s holistic philosophy that beautiful make-up starts with beautiful skin. believing that quality of skincare is essential in creating beautiful make-up, the most advanced skincare formulas using powerful phyto-ingredients are used as the first step to revealing every woman’s unique beauty.

blending nature, science, and art together with brand’s pioneer spirit combine to create cutting-edge make-up, innovative high performing skincare and elegantly crafted professional quality tools that fuse simplicity and elegance.

the extraordinary spectrum of colors and textures found within Shu Uemura’s atelier enables every user to become a true artist, liberated to freely experiment with infinite expression and make-up designs.

explore the world of Shu Uemura and find your own unique beauty.

Above is an extract from the Shu Uemura website, and is a brief introduction to the brand, and the heritage behind it. I have decided to focus on Shu Uemura, as I feel as a company they have the perfect balance between having artistic license that is exciting and exotic, and products that can be translated into anybodies day to day look. The Japanese are infamous for doing things differently, and Shu Uemura are no exception to that. They have this unbelievable subtlety when it comes to expressing colour, and the delicate hints of pigment are what I believe separate this brand from all the others out there.

I have been exploring the fascinating world of Shu Uemura's ad campaigns and I have found that they are in fact quite distinctive. There is a gentle softness to all of the makeup looks, despite the theme or colours that are being used. Shu Uemura in particular is a brand that I believe is heavily influenced and inspired by Japanese heritage and popular culture. This is evident through the collection I'm about to show you, and from the second I seen it, it blew my mind it was so purrfect.

To the unknown, at a first glimpse this collection is undeniably adorable. A beautiful model wearing cat ears, holding a white persian kitty, whats not to like? However, on the contrary, the model in this campaign is the accessory and the cat is no other than Karl Lagerfeld's beloved pet and muse Choupette. Its bizarre fashion endeavours like this, that restore my faith in the world. The way this collaboration has been executed is genius, from the clever play on words with the collection name 'Shu-pette', to the illustration on the packaging, its the perfect balance between cute and cooky.

I believe that this collection says a lot about the brand and in particular, the audience that it appeals to. Typically, Japanese pop culture is predominately focused around all things cute and fun. I'm not sure this collaboration would have had the same appeal or charm if NARS or Dior for example, had done it.

Here are a few other collections and campaigns that I thought were as beautiful in form as they were in function. Shu Uemura focus on the tiny details of their branding and packaging and this is something that separates them from a lot of other high end brands on the market. This is also something that makes for a fabulous gift.

'Mika for Shu'

Shu Uemura & Aya Takano

This is a miniature art exhibition, created to display the collection in the main Shu Uemura shop in Japan. I think this is such an unbelievably creative and unusual way of advertising a collaboration.

Takashi Murakami Collection

This is from a collaboration with Viktor&Rolf, the packaging is so beautiful, I love this.

Shu Uemura shops + counters;

It's apparent from the images above, how versatile the Shu Uemura counter style is, especially pending on the collection at the time. Despite the clinical use of white, the uniform is far from boring. There is a futuristic element with the curves and shapes, and over all I think the counters are really effective and striking.

I love the 'Tokyo Lash Bar' addition, as I think its a fun way of displaying the infamous lash collection at Shu Uemura.

The team behind the brand;