Tom Pattinson talks to Laurent Taisne, the Shanghai-based French cosmetics entrepreneur who is revolutionising the concept of lipstick with his physical-digital object, the YiZhiJi
Taisne got his first taste of China in the 1990s when he visited as a backpacker, so when he was asked by L’Oréal to return to China to launch the French cosmetic company’s China research and development division 20 years ago, he leapt at the chance.
“At that time, we needed to address how we looked at the booming Chinese cosmetic market, and we discovered that Chinese women challenged the way we looked at the global cosmetics industry,” he says. Taisne explains that at that time, Korea and Japan were leading the industry but their routines often took over 40 minutes and might involve 10 to 15 products.
“The Chinese didn’t have time for this but they also didn’t want to make any compromise on the results,” he says. Because of this, Taisne and his team came up with unique products – including L’Oréal’s now global hit BB Cream – that derived from the demands of the hard working, time poor Chinese consumers with ever higher standards.
Taisne enjoyed his work creating new products and was increasingly tasked with working with OEM partners to aggregate the various products. Many of these partners were seeking new technologies and an idea was born: he would combine his knowledge of product development with tech development. Five years ago, he set up on what he calls his own adventure, launching the brand Totemist.
The first product that he has produced under the Totemist label is called the YiZhiJi – a luxury lipstick that carries personalised messages to the owner. It’s the first ‘phygital’ cosmetic product in the world, he says.
The physical product itself is a weighty, high quality lipstick that “contains one of the most expensive formulas he ever developed,” says Taisne. It has a moisturising lip treatment effect and is refillable in order to do something “less bad” for the environment – sustainability in a world of consumerism. Before selecting a shade, a digital colour wheel allows users to ‘try’ the colours to ensure the most suitable colour is picked.
A further and more unique digital element is the existence of a personalised message that is activated whenever the lipstick is brought towards a phone. Using the near field communication (NFC) chip in the lipstick, the message is revealed in a text, video, image or audio message.
“It’s like an old pocket watch, the kind that your grandfather had with a photo inside,” says Taisne. “This message transforms the object because of the message inside. I ask what has more value, a 60 euro luxury big brand lipstick or this, which enables you to remind yourself of the voice of your daughter when you use it,” he says as an example.
From a practical point of view, when you buy a lipstick, a message is saved on to it. Once the message is created, it is there forever, “like a love letter you can’t take back”, he says.
Some people might record a message of or for their loved ones, explains Taisne – like a grandparent, child or partner. For others, it might be a personal mantra, encouraging them to smile every time they pull out their lipstick. Or it could be a gift, “a message saying to your Mum, ‘I love you’. We never tell our parents we love them enough so this would be a nice way to share a token of love,” he says. “The idealism is that perhaps we can change the world for people one by one.”
Taisne’s inner French romantic comes across clearly when talking to him. I can imagine the product working well with Europeans, but what about the more pragmatic Chinese? Taisne tells me that the company has worked hard to explain the concept of how to use it via videos on social media, and the concept of NFC readers is already very common in China and consumers are quick to learn.
But while Chinese people might tend to understand the technological element of the product better than Europeans will, – the ‘how to’, if you like – the European user tends to understand the ‘why’ better, says Taisne.
The product only fully launched in 2023 after a false start thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, and is now available in many of the luxury malls around China, including the SKP and Galeries Lafayette luxury retail destinations in the country. After getting it in to Hong Kong, Europe is the next target market for the brand.
Taisne tells of the time he met a Nobel Prize winner whilst studying for his PhD in physical chemistry, who told him that there are two ways to find innovation. The first, he explains, is to become a specialist and dig and dig and keep digging until you find something. The second is to dig into two areas until you have a fair understanding of both and find something new at the intersection between the two.
“For me, that is China and Europe. IoT and cosmetics,” he says.
Explore the world of phygital retail at China Consumer 2024
Hear more from Laurent Taisne at China Consumer 2024 on 14 October, where he will join one of the event’s key panel sessions, titled “The Future is Phygital”.