Guerlain preserves cosmetics history in new ‘warehouse of wonders’

Paris, June 10:The world’s first lipstick. A pivoting toothbrush. The original Nivea cream and serum. Not to mention the intimate secrets of Queen Elizabeth II. These are some of the treasures held in Guerlain’s first archive, which brings stories from the iconic French cosmetic company’s sensational past to life.

Guerlain gave The Associated Press exclusive international media access to its newly opened archive, a warehouse of wonders shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public view by Paris’ Seine River. It’s a gem of documents and mysterious objects spanning three centuries, each with a unique 

history of its own.

Yet what is perhaps most remarkable about the collection is that the company founded in 1828 that invented modern perfumery had not assembled it before.

“It’s what we call our little secret,” said Guerlain heritage director Ann Caroline Prazan, who sifted through a mine of artifacts to create the archive in a years-long labor of love. “It was hard to whittle down 18,000 pieces to just 400 from so many years but we did it ... Some of the pieces are so fragile, I’m scared to touch them.”

The ambitious project exists thanks to Prazan’s passion — and patience. Through a mist of perfume, she reels off vignettes about Guerlain’s innovations and famous patrons, including French Empress Eugenie, Josephine Baker, Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, Barbra Streisand, Margaret Thatcher and the late British queen.

As Prazan turned to handle the collection’s most prized object, a lipstick created in 1870 and housed in a contemporary looking gold bullet, she carefully took off her white gloves as if performing a sacred ritual.

“It’s so modern,” she whispered, her finger carefully operating a push-up mechanism to reveal a dark Bordeaux wax pigment still intact after 153 years.

The refillable lipstick has a remarkable story, like everything else in the archive seems to. An employee of Aime and Gabriel Guerlain was walking in a street and happened upon the store of a candlemaker, whose wax and colored pigments gave him a eureka moment.

At the time, women used tubs of colored powder to paint their lips with a clunky brush. Seeing the candlemaker’s tools gave the Guerlain employee the “mad” idea of creating a waxy, lip cosmetic as a stick, Prazan said.

“That small object revolutionized women’s makeup forever,” she said.

Prazan also procured the world’s first ever lipliner, also in sleek gold casing, and a third stick — that an one Associated Press journalist could not identify. It turned out to be a liner that women used to paint the veins on their arms and necks blue, a popular technique women used in late 19th century Paris to appear paler. Thankfully, Prazan said, it has gone out of fashion.

That Guerlain is a family-run house across five successive generations is perhaps one reason why the pieces that make up the archive were fastidiously kept. The company was bought by luxury conglomerate LVMH in 1994 but has managed to keep its  unique identity. (AP)