Daria Werbowy creates charity Lancome make up line

It takes people years of studying chemistry and other sciences before they are qualified to become makeup artists, but all Daria Werbowy had to do was get signed up as the face of Lancome. Though it’s for the good cause, the limited edition collection will benefit Centro Espacial Vik Muniz, a Brazilian charity for children.

“This collection is a true expression of modern femininity, and it was really Daria’s passion that inspired the project,” said Odile Roujol, global president of Lancôme. “She truly believes in this cause and in fact, Daria shared her desire to help children the very first time we met her.”

Werbowy learned about the makeup creation process not long after her trip to Brazil, where she met many of the children she aims to help, at the Lancome labs in France with a scrapbook of colours and fabrics she liked.

Werbowy began by mixing pigments, then graduated to adding pearl to eye shadows and learning techniques to make lipsticks more opaque or translucent — something that the former art student had a blast with. “I started to appreciate red lipstick and other makeup colors I generally don’t wear,” she said. “You can spend days creating one shade — I didn’t really realize the extent of color creation before. But I loved the immediacy of being able to mix and then try things right away, and I got to keep mixing and changing them until they were perfect.”

Werbowy’s collection consists of a US$42 eye shadow quad, a US$24 lip gloss and a US$26 lipstick and will be stocked exclusively in Sephora from April 2008. It will be available worldwide, with exclusivity deals organized for Douglas in Germany, and Selfridges in the UK.

[Via WWD]