PARIS — British actress and producer Vanessa Kirby has been named the new Lancôme global ambassador.
“My earliest memory is my mum having Lancôme products in the bathroom,” said Kirby, a BAFTA award-winning actress and nominee for Emmy, Golden Globe and Academy awards. “I always grew up thinking: ‘Oh, that’s what my mum uses.’ So it was very surreal to be asked to be ambassador, and I was honored, because for me, it’s in my history.
“The history of the brand and the legacy of it — all the women over the years who have used it for their every day — there’s something that felt very intimate, very special for me personally,” she continued.
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Kirby is known for her work spanning film, television and stage. She played Princess Margaret in “The Crown” on Netflix, and Martha in “Piece of a Woman,” for instance. Most recently, Kirby starred in “The Night Always Comes,” which she also produced.
Kirby is an advocate for children’s rights, especially in high-conflict areas.
For her, Lancôme represents optimism. The brand has inspired Kirby because she finds its woman to be deeply natural. “It’s a woman in her natural state, her everyday state,” she said.
Kirby explained as a new mother she feels different in herself now. “I have less time, so I need things that I can rely on and trust them to feel good and walk out feeling natural and more carefree in some ways,” Kirby said, adding this new role with Lancôme corresponds to a different phase in her life, and that the brand represents the kind of woman she hopes to be to her child.
Beauty to Kirby is how she feels inside and learning what makes her feel good. “It’s coming back to the things that make me feel centered first,” she said. “Lancôme feels like the everyday woman, which is where I feel best in myself.”
Kirby said she feels honored to have joined a long legacy of Lancôme ambassadors that are inspiring women to her. She called them “the essence of the brand.”
“I hope that I can do them proud,” Kirby said. “I have an authentic connection to [Lancôme] because of my mom, and I’m going to take that with me.”
Vania Lacascade, Lancôme global brand president at L’Oréal, said for such a heritage brand each ambassador-related decision must be meaningful. “So we were not looking just for a face,” she explained. “We were looking for conviction, for meaning. What struck me immediately when I met Vanessa was her depth.
“She approaches her heart, her roles, the way she’s portraying her characters from the inside out,” Lacascade continued. “She has this emotional intelligence, this curiosity.”
Kirby can bring vulnerability and strength simultaneously, according to Lacascade, who said: “This is very Lancôme. She embodies what we call ‘sophisticated vulnerability.’”
That is what resonates with women today — not just being powerful but also having unapologetic authenticity, according to the executive.
Kirby will appear in various campaigns. Beside other ambassadors, including recently nominated Christy Turlington Burns, Kirby is to appear in the Teint Idole Ultra Wear liquid foundation and new Shape Sticks ads.
Alongside Ni Ni, Kirby will feature in the campaign for L’Absolu Rouge Glaze Tintation, billed to be a next-generation lipstick mixing shiny, blushing color and revitalizing care.
The campaigns are to break early this month in Asia, followed by May for Ultra Wear in Europe and the United States, and September for Rouge Glaze.
“Vanessa is a face that we will use broadly in the brand,” Lacascade said, explaining: “She represents this cultivated, modern femininity that is bringing a lot to our collective of spokes. She brings this grounded meaning that is very important.
“We believe that modern femininity is plural,” Lacascade continued. “So, in a way, Vanessa joining Christy, joining Isabella [Rossellini], joining Julia [Roberts], joining Olivia [Rodrigo], it reinforces the message that beauty is universal, diverse and is typically connected to personal growth.”
