Victor de Souza And Dustin Lujan Celebrate Makeup Line Launch

Imagine a lipstick that felt so good on your lips you wanted to keep applying it, and doing so made a fashion statement. That’s the brainchild of designer Victor de Souza and luxury beauty product creative guru Dustin Lujan, who debuted their new VdES makeup line with a lipstick launch at Tanja Dreiding Wallace’s Osswald parfumerie and luxury skincare boutique. Oswald may be a downtown destination for Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but this night was a mix of fashion stylists, magazine editors and gorgeous young women turned VdES models. Very Soho. Very chic.

The line is available at Osswald or online. (Photo: Teresa Pyskaty)

For de Souza and Lujan, a natural makeup line is a natural next step. Lujan created makeup lines for Tom Ford, Oscar de la Renta, Marchesa and (as Creative Director) Le Métier de Beauté. “I’ve been in this business close to 20 years,” Dustan told Hamptons.com. “It’s about time I started my own.” An exclusive technology called hyla-bubble, that releases hyaluronic acid when you press you lips together is the secret to the way it looks and feels. “When I was working for other companies, these formulas were actually too expensive for them to produce,” Lujan said. “So they rejected them. I have a lot of paperwork, patents and things that I’ve been collecting for more than 14 years that are exclusively mine. We even have a formula that has anti-inflammatories.”

The pointed metal design was inspired by a Chess pawn, and is unique to the market. “It’s edgy, classic, contemporary and old fashioned at the same time,” Lujan continued. “Next in line is a mascara that I’ve been working on for ten years. It has no charcoal, tar or mercury, and it would be the only one of its kind. Right now, there is mercury in every mascara. The FDA tried to make it illegal but they couldn’t. It would put everyone out of business.”

For de Souza makeup has always been part of his fashion statement. “I like the idea of transforming women in different moments and attitudes,” he told us. The last show he did with Dustan featured a fashion forward “albino” look. “Now, for the next show I will have exactly what I need,” he added.

Want what you need? Buy it at Osswald (311 West Broadway, New York,) or at victordesouzany.com.