Vogue cover of Beyoncé is
headed to the National Portrait
Gallery in Washington, D.C.,
shared a quiet sidewalk scene of
a couple in the blazing late afternoon. Chad Moore’s
still life of neon foliage redefines the term hothouse flowers.
“To me, beauty is what you feel inside—it’s like magic,”
says Tierney Gearon, recalling the backstory of her
own contribution: an exuberant snapshot of her young
daughter and a friend catching air on a trampoline in the
English countryside. “It captures this feeling in childhood
when you have that incredibly free, happy spontaneity.”
The decision to repurpose private moments for the
public arena illustrates a nonnormative approach
that’s also reflected in the lip treatment’s tactile, clear
packaging—icicle-like baubles that don’t resemble
anything else on the market. From there, the suite of
six sheer colors invites play. The shimmering gray is
dubbed -4 for its cool-tone effect, while the fiery coral
(+5) continues to dial up the metaphorical thermostat.
—lau r a regensdorf
surest way to move makeup.
for us: They can provide emotional value and
make everyday life richer than ever,” says
Imamura, the cofounder of UZ (pronounced
oo-zoo), a forward-thinking beauty concept
out of Japan that has positioned itself as a
refreshing outlier. For its Stateside debut this
past March, the brand released 13 rainbow-
bright shades of liquid eyeliner, with an
artisan-made brush tip from a centuries-old
white stripes on models’ lids. The company’s tagline
“Unframe the Beauty” garnered similar intrigue,
splashed across billboards in SoHo, where a flagship
retail store opened in June.
This month, UZ continues to build its renegade
reputation with a collection of lip gloss christened not
with a name but with a temperature: 38°C / 99°F. “I
think each person has a 38-degree moment,” Imamura
says of the idea to focus on the mercury point just above
normal body heat—the glow you get upon emerging
from a bath, or the natural blush that blooms on cheeks
after you come inside from the cold. Just as unexpected
are ingredients such as La Flora (a beneficial bacteria
that promotes a healthy skin barrier on the lips) and
Endmineral, used in Chinese medicine to boost circulation
and incorporated here to encourage a subtle flush.
The same convention-defying logic guides the
campaign, which features not a drop of product, not one
famous face. Instead, UZ tapped 10 buzzed-about
photographers to contribute curated images that convey
a breadth of simmering emotion. Tyler Mitchell, whose
Picture Show
The innovative
Japanese makeup brand UZ
is rethinking how we wear—
and why we buy—lip gloss.
EMOTION CAPTURE
FROM TOP: JUMPING
J OY, 2011, BY TIERNEY
GEARON, ONE OF THE
ARTISTS FEATURED
IN UZ’S NEW CAMPAIGN.
THE LIP TREATMENT,
CALLED 38°C / 99°F,
COMES IN SIX SHADES.
BEAUTY
VLIFE
98 DECEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
STILL LIFE: LIAM GOODMAN. FRAME: ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS.
