La Bouche Rouge Placed in Receivership

PARIS — French eco-luxury beauty brand La Bouche Rouge has been placed in receivership.

The Paris-based cosmetics label filed for court protection on July 25. According to the receivership filing, administrative receiver firm BCM has been appointed as administrator, while Paris-based firm Asteren has been appointed to represent creditors.

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Representatives for La Bouche Rouge could not be immediately reached for comment.

Under the procedure filed with the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris, the running of the business is not impacted as the company seeks to implement payment plans to pay its debts, or the sale of its assets and activities.

Best known for its luxury, plastic-free refillable lipsticks, La Bouche Rouge was founded in 2017 by Nicolas Gerlier, a L’Oréal veteran, who wanted to create the first cosmetics brand worldwide to ban microplastics and plastics from everything, including product formulation, manufacturing and selling.

Gerlier coined the term “blue beauty” to explain an approach that doesn’t just involve clean formulas and packaging, but also clean merchandising, production processes and supply chains.

Reached by WWD, Gerlier said selling the company was on the table, with discussions underway, noting that the brand “never had more desirability and traction than this year.”

He stressed that it was important “not [to] change the vision and commitments that I wanted to defend” from the brand’s inception and that he would only remain at the brand “if the project is serious and respects the values of the company.”

La Bouche Rouge made its U.S. debut via a hook-up with The Webster and has since collaborated with a number of makeup artists and other labels, including inside-out beauty company Aime Skincare and footwear brand Gianvito Rossi.

A 2020 funding round saw the company raise 2.5 million euros from French public investment bank BPI and business angels.

Last year, the company raised a further 10 million euros from investors Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation, the Chalhoub Group and BPI to fuel its next steps, including stepping up its communication and opening new territories such as China and the Middle East.

It had 22 product references at the time, comprising a full makeup range for lips, eyes and face, and has since launched its first perfume range, with five fragrances in refillable leather-covered glass bottles.

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