ARTDECO, a refill-native make-up brand?

Founded in 1985 by Helmut Baurecht in Munich, the German family-run make-up brand, ARTDECO had always included refillable palettes in its product portfolio. From the inception of the affordable luxury colour brand offered consumers the opportunity to tailor their make-up palettes.

The brand offers premium makeup at affordable prices, making luxurious products accessible to people everywhere for an affordable luxury.

With more than 800 employees the exclusive makeup range is sold in 65 countries around the world, in around 7,500 makeup stores and spas, as well as 7,500 perfume boutiques and 300 leading department stores.

ARTDECO developed from the very beginning a customised system. A palette called “ Beauty Box” for eye shadow and other colour products. Consumers add the option of purchasing a small or large box offering more colour pans.

Founder, Helmut Baurecht was a visionary, and estimated that women needed more flexibility in their make-up choices. The idea was centred around “individuality” and was part of the DNA of the brand.

Today, ARTDECO is the market leader in the prestige market where it is present like Germany or Eastern Europe. Currently the eye shadow is available in more than 100 colours.

The customisable palette didn’t necessarily work for other brands it didn’t work. The key to Artdeco success resides in the playful aspect and to offer a high variety of choice “ explains Anna Blasco, VP marketing at Artdeco. 

“ Every year, we link the collection to fashion, and develop specific colours related to current fashion trends. We also release special editions of the Beauty Box, and sometimes collaborate with artists, like the winter collection in 2023 for instance ” reveals Anna Blasco.

They release “special editions” to keep the box running with different collections working with artists for instance. They launch a new box twice a year, with new eye shadow colours released as well. In the future, they want to make their boxes even more premium to offer a collectable element to their customers. 

The brand has developed a specific magnetic system for the palette. The magnet is placed at the bottom of the box, and colour pans can be added at will, and will just stick to the compact.

From eye shadow, the brand extended into blush, brows and face products. They launched the first “camouflage” for a powder yet creamy long lasting and covering make-up. For the face the range includes mineral foundation, face powder and bronzing powder.

The palette can be bought already built, or empty for custom fill. Since its inception it has remained refillable. Customers are loyal thanks to the quality which gives them access to an affordable luxury. The brand codes are aligned with luxury with a shining black colour base.

In September 2023, Artdeco launched a refillable lipstick, creating an empty lipstick case available with 16 colours. Customers can also purchase a lipstick box with 3 or 4 refills for an easy and look smart. Called “ couture lipstick “ refillable, the brand is heading towards the language of “clean” beauty marketing using a refillable and clean part of the formula. Lipstick is meant to be enjoyable and very playful, with an interesting design, to make the story around the product much more captivating. 

“ We are seeing an evolution in the beauty market with a lot more campaigns regarding refillable products. It’s time that the entire industry shifts to a better model” expresses Anna. “We are expanding the refillable concept to other product categories, compacts, lipsticks, and in 2025 with a new launch of two refillable mascara.”

It will take time to change consumer habits, and the return on investment might not be immediate, but if all the offering on the market becomes refillable, consumers will become accustomed to it and will be more willing to adopt it. As of now, we don’t know what model will work better. It’s a work in progress and a trial at scale.

Refillable make-up in retail space

As everyone knows the main challenge in retail is space. Retailers are interested in serving the future, and it seems that Artdeco has a part to play.

International expansion is a bit complex as the market needs education. Like in Asia, for instance, where sustainable living is not a priority (yet!).

“ In Europe retailers are happy to contribute, but most brands are doing online only for refills,” explains Anna. “And for make-up it’s key to go and test at the store.It’s rewarding to see interest from retailers after working on refillable solutions for years, we feel our voice is finally heard “. The main challenge that we face now is to make refills smaller, and also keep the price at bay. A lot still needs to be adapted still for the business model to be economically viable,” continues Anna Blasco.

Supply chain for refillables

“ We are seeing more and more efforts and more solutions from suppliers,” expresses Blasco.

For some categories like make-up refill makes a lot of sense, since most of the packaging is complex, most of the colours are seasonal, so having refillable palettes seems only logical. But it’s not easy to sell refills.

“Lipstick is the most interesting,” says Blasco. “With mascara it is more difficult, but we want to serve this market, and we don’t have big expectations, but we will try our best.” 

Brands need to educate consumers for a smoother adoption. It will take marketing and retail investment to help consumers understand the benefits of refills. We live in a world where everything is so instantaneous that moving to refills feels a bit “backwards” but innovative concepts might break the mould and bring something interesting to the market.

Anna, says that in her opinion “refillable is the best in beauty, but it takes more time, and effort to make it work, but it’s the right way to do beauty: refills”.

Regulations for refills

“In the new law european regulations, the empty case is not considered a finished product, it’s not a packaging. In other words, it does not need to follow the rules of packaging with recycled content rate and recyclability for instance” explains Anna, so a brand can make them smaller or with black finished for instance.

It means that a make-up case / box sold separately, and empty is not a packaging. So there is more flexibility in the design restrictions, or meaning that brands have more time to develop a design that will work into the “packaging” category while being luxurious for example.

Overall, the journey to refills is only starting and looking at brands like ArtDeco who has been practising it for years, and is working in the segment of masstige or affordable luxury can give us guidance and what works and what doesn’t. The retail market is very competitive and consumers have very little time to make a purchase decision. Understanding the drivers behind ArtDeco success is interesting. It could also be a cultural success, since its main market is Germany, and it is the only few markets in the world with a deposit scheme for drinks bottles (glass bottles). What do you think in German culture is the driver to sustainable living: price, convenience, regulatory pressure, tax pressure, etc.?