Why Charli XCX for Valentino Beauty feels like the actual antithesis of 'brat'
Leveraging a cultural moment for commercial gain is far more complicated than it seems
It was really only a matter of time until a major beauty brand managed to snag the world’s most in-demand face right now, Charli XCX. So why doesn’t the popstar’s recent appointment as the ambassador for Valentino Beauty seem to hit the way one might imagine it would?
Charli’s sixth studio album brat hasn’t just acted as the soundtrack to our respective summer and winter seasons, it’s fuelled a global movement that embraces a hot-mess aesthetic, champions nonconformity and celebrates a distinct lack of polish over conventional beauty. The associated look is laidback and uncontrived with an air of Y2K nostalgia that recalls a time before we all finally cultivated a healthier perspective on our brows.
Valentino Beauty, however, is relatively new to the beauty sphere, having launched with a 100-product makeup line in 2021 under the creative direction of Pierpaolo Piccioli. Upon introduction, the brand billed itself as ‘edgy’ and ‘unconventional’, but so far it hasn’t been able to capture the zeitgeist, or even #beautytok, in a manner that seamlessly translates to international recognition or acclaim. The products are sleek, luxe and elevated with crimson lacquered packaging – but they don’t really read ‘brat’.
Thematically, ‘brat’ is unapologetically party girl with club culture at its core, which is a stark departure from Valentino Beauty’s comparably demure, hyper-femme campaigns with fellow ambassador Florence Pugh. It tracks that the brand would want to explore a fresh direction given the September debut of Alessandro Michele’s ‘baroque-punk’ vision for Valentino haute couture, but the news of Charli as the Italian house’s latest beauty face has been met with mixed reactions.
Why? Well, despite its rampant commercialisation over the Northern Hemisphere summer, ‘brat’ still retains relatively countercultural roots. There’s an evident youthful rejection of grandeur or fastidious grooming practices, as the British popstar herself told Allure: “[it’s] really kind of stripped back in terms of the skin being really fresh and dewy… almost like you just walked out of a party”.
In an interview with the publication for the new partnership, Charli shares her minimalistic approach to makeup and hair, which includes sleeping in her eye makeup (IMO, truly the ultimate hack to really squeeze every cent out of a previous day’s professional makeup application) and air-drying her natural curls. When it comes to her skin, Charli has a similarly relaxed philosophy, saying, “I put on a sheet mask and watch loads of movies and lie there, and that's kind of my beauty routine.”
We’ve seen the ‘Sympathy is a Knife’ singer nab partnerships with beauty brands such as Laneige off the back of her own organic promotion of its products. She also filmed some sponsored content for the iconic K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask a few months back. However fronting Valentino Beauty’s new launch is a first, with Charli promoting the Spike Valentino Buttery Matte Lip Color as her signature on-stage lip look throughout the ‘Sweat’ tour.
“I'm kind of really only into working with brands that encourage and amplify individual expression, and that's obviously something that Valentino Beauty does,” Charli told Allure. “I think you can see that from the history of the people that they work with and also their products.”
The star was a surprise guest at a private launch event for Valentino Beauty in New York this past week, where she took part in a Q&A and masterclass with the brand. It was all very beautiful, but the sleek content captured wasn’t at all brat – and given ‘brat’ is Charli’s personal brand, it felt like the partnership wasn’t (yet, at least) leveraging her image in the right way. This, I suppose, is where the point of contention really lies for those that commented on the apparent lack of a connection between the two.
On the one hand you’ve got Valentino Beauty, a heritage name with beautiful, ultra-luxe products that has yet to really establish itself as a beauty brand in the eye of the consumer. The products are great, the credibility is there, it’s backed by the world’s largest cosmetics company, but it hasn’t been around long enough to be a victim of its own image – perfect. Then you have Charli XCX, a superstar with global appeal who has redefined the term ‘brat’ for a generation that are feeling fatigued by anything highly curated, overtly stylised or too earnest.
Both present an incredible opportunity for collaboration, but the partnership feels as if it fails to significantly elevate either participant: Valentino Beauty (which has yet to even launch here in Australia!) needs Charli’s authority as the current social arbiter of cool. Her alignment lends a grunge-glam air to Valentino Beauty, which could serve as a much-needed differentiator from other luxury beauty extensions – Dior, Chanel, YSL Beauty – at a very pivotal time, when start-up DTC beauty brands are arguably more coveted than their conservative designer contemporaries.
And Charli needs… well, she doesn’t really need anything right now, but she absolutely deserves to get her bag. So, how could Valentino Beauty better leverage a partnership with Charli XCX?
Launch-wise, they could’ve tapped into her established club kid persona by throwing a rager in the same spirit as that of her partnership with H&M – which occurred just ahead of London Fashion Week and became one of its most coveted invites. Wearing a custom piece from the high street brand’s impending Studio collection, Charli revealed in her short performance that the mass retailer was “so down to really let me do exactly what I want”, which in turn charged the evening with authenticity and the same distinctive carefree vibe that brat has come to represent.
And sure, it might not feel entirely realistic for a brand like Valentino Beauty to create (or indeed fund) a sanitised Boiler Room set for a lipstick launch, but there are definitely other avenues that could’ve been taken to tap into the ‘365-party-girl’ of it all. It didn’t have to be a big bash, but there needed to be something that drew these two ‘brands’ closer together – whether it came via an unforgettable, brat-coded brand activation or a collaborative product offering that bears Charli’s effortless, casually stylish perspective.
Perhaps they could’ve created a separate Charli edit of her clubbing makeup essentials with limited-edition shades (and a brat-green packaging treatment, obvi). I’m getting a ‘Valentino Beauty and it’s the same but it’s Charli’s brat shades so it’s not’ kinda thing. Even brat muse Gabbriette’s signature MAC lip combo kit feels much closer to the mark, which was essentially just a strategic repackaging of three well-known MAC lip favourites to capitalise on the model’s trademark ‘greige’ pout.
My personal preference would be for an entire Charli XCX x Valentino line of multi-purpose, long-lasting makeup products that are designed to be worn without a second thought. It’d be something of an anti-beauty brand, with an uncomplicated, almost lazy application and a touch-up requirement of absolutely zero – which is obviously the most ideal for dingy club lighting, days at a bush doof with zero mirrors or indeed on stage at Madison Square Garden. Equally, such a philosophy would also serve everyday monotony behind a desk, the ‘Guess’ remix covertly bumping in your AirPods.
It’s early days (literally it’s been like a week lol, dw I’m very aware) but I do hope there’s much more in store for this partnership. There is genuine potential for Valentino Beauty to tap into Charli’s – and by extension brat’s – cultural moment, but there is also the possibility that it’ll be little more than another expensive photo-op featuring a very famous face. In which case, I’ll most certainly think about it all the time (and probably trademark my take on brat beauty lol).
Good Gets: Valentino Beauty x Charli XCX edition
Both of these aren’t readily available in Australia, but you can get them on the Nordstrom website (expect an eyewatering shipping fee, mind you).
According to Allure, this is the deep berry red lipstick shade that Charli applies backstage between songs on the ‘Sweat’ tour. “I'm always saying ‘It’s Charli Baby,’ so that kind of feels like my signature shade almost.”
Charli also shared her love for the brand’s Colorgraph Eyeliner in Rockstud Noir. “If it gets a little smudgy, I'm never mad at that. I always kind of like to look like I've been out partying the night before, which in some cases, I have been… but other times, I can rely on my makeup to make it look like that.”
See you next week!
KL x
P.s ICYMI we’re doing Wednesdays now, probably… mostly… you’ll just get it when you get it, okay? TY TY