The Lightness Of Being

When is makeup not makeup? When it's as light as the air we breathe. Arissa Ha takes flight to France to discover the world of beauty encased in that famous orange box

- Arissa Ha

Freedom can mean many things. For some, it's the ability to cross borders freely; for others, it's as simple as spending time in nature and feeling the wind in your hair.

This March, I had the privilege of being invited to France to experience Hermès Beauty's newest launch and its take on freedom. Titled Plein Air, which means open air in French, the collection marks Hermès Beauty's foray into the complexion category. The main event took place at Baie de Somme, an estuary north of Paris that's about a three-hour car ride away, and filled with towering sand dunes, endless beaches and rich avian wildlife. There, guests were invited to partake in long walks on the beach, ride in horse-drawn carriages, and go sand yachting (whereby one moves across firm sand in a three-wheeled vehicle powered by wind through the use of a sail). The point? To encourage total immersion in the outdoors-a liberating treat for not just the usually landlocked Parisians in our group, but also this travel-starved writer.

R&R aside, the Plein Air collection was introduced by Gregoris Pyrpylis, Creative Director of Hermès Beauty, in a glass house-erected just for the event-overlooking the beach. “We wanted to arrive in the complexion category with an offering that will reveal natural beauty, he shared. There's a certain idea of lightness that is rooted in the relationship between the House of Hermès and the outdoors.