On Thursday, Westman Atelier, the clean and conscious beauty brand by makeup artist Gucci Westman, launched its e-commerce site after first debuting at Barneys New York and Violet Grey in July 2018.
The website features the full assortment of the brand’s six products, which includes makeup brushes, blushes and foundation sticks. Additionally, Westman Atelier has hired Catherine Piercy, former Vogue.com beauty director, and Lindsay Freeman, former director of operations at digital agency One Rockwell, to oversee creative content and digital and e-commerce strategy, respectively, for the brand.
“Barneys and Violet Grey have been and continue to be great partners for us, but WestmanAtelier.com will be our flagship,” said David Neville, co-founder of Westman Atelier (and Westman’s husband). “It will open up access, where we can take customers through our products in more detail, drill down into product formulation and demonstrate different ways to use the products. It’s where our brand voice, in our words, will come through.”
The site includes video and editorial content exploring product formulas and tutorials. According to Westman, “knowledge is the new luxury,” and the website was designed to welcome people into her lifestyle.
Westman Atelier is one of many celebrity makeup artist brands that have entered the marketplace in recent years, including Charlotte Tilbury in 2013 and Pat McGrath Labs in 2015. Westman Atelier differentiates itself with a clean ingredient story and minimalist aesthetic.
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That brand shared it’s considering transforming into a lifestyle brand in the future, which was the intent behind the non-beauty specific name, according to Westman. Westman has indicated interest in a home line and also sleepwear. The brand is designed to be a luxury, and also a “consciously clean” brand that is performance oriented.
“This is at the heart of Westman Atelier and what our customer is ultimately looking for, which one day may well extend into a lifestyle focus, but for now, our focus is on cosmetics and brushes, with new product launches coming in 2019,” she said.
The brand’s lineup of products were initially slated to launch in both Barneys and its own website in May, according to early press reports, but according to a Westman Atelier spokesperson, the brand decided it wanted to wait to launch e-commerce in order to learn more from it wholesale partnerships. While Westman Atelier declined to disclose sales or revenue figures, the brand shared it has become a top seller at Barneys among beauty brands, including fragrance, color and treatment brands. It has also been able to bring in new customers that might not have shopped beauty at the department store before, according to Jennifer Miles, svp and divisional merchandise manager for cosmetics at Barneys New York. Best-sellers include the Baby Cheeks Blush Stick in Petal, which is the namesake of Westman’s youngest daughter, as well as Super Loaded Tinted Highlighter, a multi-purpose compact. Both items have previously sold out at Barneys.com.
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“[The website] is launching now because we have Catherine [Piercy] and Lindsay [Freeman] in place, who have a unique understanding of how to help the brand connect directly with its consumers in a way that is very authentic and true to the Westman Atelier purpose,” the spokesperson said.
