A.P.C., the French fashion brand best known for well-made wardrobe staples and raw denim, has launched a collection of six beauty products with a philosophical bent.
Priced between $20 and $85, the range includes shower gel, body lotion, hand cream, hand soap, lip balm, and cologne. On the back of each product is a label bearing a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche's book Thus Spoke Zarathustra: "I am a body through and through, nothing more: and the soul is just a word for something in the body."
God is dead! But at least we're moisturized.
Another, non-existentialist element unites the curated selection of products: scent. All six offerings are fragranced with orange blossom, an ingredient that's particularly nostalgic for A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou — the fragrant flower flourishes in his native Tunisia. (In fact, Nabeul, a city in the country's northeast, is known as the capital of orange blossom water.)
"In fashion as in the cosmetics industry, the balance between too much and not enough is difficult to find," Touitou said in a press release announcing A.P.C.'s beauty launch.
"These six products are the best possible. They are designed to make you feel good and comfortable and help you to have a good day."
Available online and in-store, the products aren't A.P.C.'s first foray into beauty. Back in 2009, the brand released a limited-edition fragrance, Sustain, formulated by perfumer Haley Alexander Van Oosten. 300 bottles of the perfume were re-released in 2014.
According to previous coverage of the fragrance, it was meant to smell like the "inside of a guitar case strewn with rose petals." Its bottle was modeled after "the waves on a computer screen that a 12-string guitar makes when playing the opening chord of the Kinks’ 'Waterloo Sunset.'"
