Gabriela Trujillo, founder and CEO of 3 -year-old Alamar Cosmetics, was in shock when she received a DM on Instagram from Jan Coleman. Coleman, vp of global marketing partnerships and multicultural marketing at Walt Disney Studios was working on a plan around the upcoming release of the new film “Encanto.” Disney describes the film as such: “In ‘Encanto,’ Mirabel — the only ordinary member of her extraordinary family — discovers that the magic surrounding their home is in danger, and she might be her family’s last hope.” “Encanto,” out on November 24, takes place in Colombia, and Disney wanted to partner with a Latinx-owned brand to bring the collection to life.
“I read about Gabriela and the reason why she started Alamar cosmetics. I was inspired in the truest sense of the word,” Coleman told Glossy. “I knew that I wanted to find the right opportunity, through the power of Disney storytelling, to help amplify
For Trujillo, who received the DM in the early months of the pandemic, the opportunity was a dream come true.
“At first I thought, there’s no way this is real life. I really did not believe it,” Trujillo said. “My mindset was so different at that time because we were in the middle of the pandemic, and I was trying to figure out, ‘Where are we going to go from here?’ I was really trying to get a grip on what the future of the company and the makeup industry was. When Disney came to me with this opportunity, it was heaven-sent.” It is the first time Disney Studios has collaborated with a Latinx-owned brand for a theatrical release.
When her team started working on the collection, the movie was still in the works. Partnering with Disney, however, meant that the Alamar team was not lacking in resources. “The filmmakers even went to Colombia to experience the culture and talk to locals. And they made this whole four-hour documentary,” Trujillo said.
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The 13-piece collection is made up of an eyeshadow palette, a highlighter, two blushes, a trio of eyeshadow brushes, a duo of complexion brushes, lip liners, lip glosses, liquid eyeliners and a “magic mirror.” To create the makeup itself, Trujillo’s team took inspiration directly from the animated film. “The house that the characters live in is a really big part of the movie. We would pull up pictures of that, put them into Photoshop and then, with a dropper tool, pick out the specific colors we wanted to see represented,” she said. It will be available on alamarcosmetics.com on November 18.
Another example: “There’s bougainvillea flowers, which are very popular flowers in Latin culture, and I wanted that to be an eyeshadow. And we literally made it into an eyeshadow. The family’s house has this big greenish-blue door, and we made that into an eyeshadow. One shade is exactly the golden color of the butterflies portrayed in the movie. Every single shade we pulled in so that you can have a touchable piece of the movie,” Trujillo said.
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In the last few years, it’s become par for the course for movies to launch with a makeup partnership. Such collaborations are abundant, even with animated movies that might be thought of as having a younger audience than the typical makeup consumer. Recent examples include MAC x Cruella, Bambi x Colourpop and Morphe x Mickey Mouse. Sometimes, consumers even see collections pegged to nostalgic films. See: “Clueless” x Hipdot. “It’s a really awesome way to capture color and texture, and put it into something tangible,” Trujillo said of the now-common trend. “You see a movie and it’s a 2D experience, but how do you bring that off-screen and then put it into your look?”
“Our heroine is a beautiful young Latin woman named Mirabel who is on a journey to find her worth and value in her family and in life. I knew this movie would be the perfect vehicle to magnify Latinx brands such as Alamar Cosmetics,” Coleman said. “This movie also shows how our gifts and talents can help our community. We need community more than ever and supporting Latinx brands that are part of our community is powerful.”
