Guerlain’s Iconic Rouge G Line Just Got a Major Makeover

Violette Serrat, creative director of makeup for Guerlain, on the transformative power of lipstick and the brand’s relaunch of an icon.

FASHION X Guerlain

By FASHION staff

Date July 29, 2024

“For Parisians, lipstick is like water — we need it to survive,” laughs Violette Serrat over a video call from New York City. Given that she was born and raised in the French capital, there was no better person than the beloved makeup artist to relaunch one of the brand’s most iconic products: Rouge G lipstick. Fifteen years after the Rouge G line’s release, Guerlain, under Violette’s guidance, has reinvented it. It now features 40 stunning shades in both velvet-matte and satin finishes, a new 89 per cent skincare-based formula made with natural waxes and nine new jewel cases that can be customized and refilled. Even the iconic mirrored cases (now gold instead of silver) got an overhaul; they’re 19 per cent lighter than before, allowing for a 30 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Violette says that when she joined Guerlain in 2021, her goal was to “look at the whole lineup and do a very honest review of everything — a deep dive into all of the products.” Rouge G had just been reformulated, and “it was in a very good place,” she recalls. “It was just gorgeous. So I thought to myself, ‘It’ll take a few years to make this even better.’” After all, gorgeous isn’t perfect, and perfection is the name of Violette’s game. “I wanted to redo the colours and start from scratch, because it’s so rare that you get to redesign 40 colours at the same time,” she says. “To me, it’s an ideal situation, because then everything is totally thought through. And the execution can be perfect.” (Told you.)

Guerlain’s new Rouge G formula was developed with natural-origin waxes, including lily oleo extract. Created with lily flowers and paired with sweet almond oil, this complex has smoothing, hydrating and plumping properties and improves the quality of your lips with prolonged wear. “And we’re going to continue working on it,” says Violette. “The goal is to constantly improve.” Of course, when it came to shades, she was just as thorough. “I wanted to cover everything,” she says. “There are nudes, corals, berries and pinks.” And naturally, considering the French brand’s lipstick lineup was audited by a French makeup artist, there are reds — 14 of them, to be exact. “That honestly was my minimum number,” she laughs. “There’s a cool red, a blue red, a dark red, a warm red and more. If we’re going to have a lipstick lineup, it has to be complete. There are no faux pas in this lineup.”

The makeup artist leaned into her Parisian sensibilities when designing the Rouge G offerings. “I think people are able to identify the French aesthetic because it’s so precise and so engraved in the culture,” she says. Back when she was still creating YouTube makeup tutorials — at the request of fans who wanted to learn to emulate her style as well as discover new makeup techniques — she had an eye-opening moment. “At the time, I’d never worn anything other than a smoky eye or red lipstick,” she says. “I’d do other looks in magazine editorials, of course, but never on myself. So when I was filming these YouTube videos, I discovered that there were so many looks that suited me, but I had no idea. It was a real moment of personal growth for me.” Today, Violette still approaches makeup in a French way but with more flexibility.

And that’s the beauty of Guerlain’s new Rouge G lineup, too: It allows its wearers to reach for classic, tried-and-true shades but provides plenty of room for play and experimentation. “I’m starting to see a shift,” says Violette. “Now I’ll see girls wearing their French uniform but with a little glitter on their eyes or some blue liner. It’s opening up, and I’m so glad. You can still have that Parisian aesthetic but with a bit of creativity. That’s the power of makeup — it invites you to rediscover yourself.”

Check out more from the Guerlain Rouge G 2024 collection below.