Aurélia: Where Beauty Becomes Collectible
A self-led brand creation project | Brand Strategy, Product Development, Packaging Direction, Integrated Marketing, Financial Planning
The Opportunity: Beauty is one of the most personal categories. Scrolling through the category today, most brands default to the same minimalist, clean-girl aesthetic. I wanted to build something in the opposite direction: a brand rooted in whimsy and craft for people who see beauty and adornment as part of the same act of self-expression.
Aurélia was built on a simple premise: what if a beauty product was designed to be kept, not just used up?
My Role: This was a self-initiated project where I acted as founder and brand lead, owning strategy, research, product direction, and campaign execution end to end. I brought in specialized collaborators: two jewelry designers and a UX designer to execute specific pieces of the vision, and directed a photographer for the campaign shoot.
Consumer insight: My research pointed to adornment and beauty functioning as identity markers, not just routine — and to a consumer who's more likely to buy from brands whose values and aesthetic point of view they recognize as their own. That told me Aurélia couldn't just be "beauty meets jewelry" as a novelty; it needed a clear point of view a customer could actually align with
The Product: The core idea: cosmetics designed as wearable objects, inspired by the glamour of 1950s makeup compacts. Instead of a disposable lipstick tube, Aurélia pieces are built as jewelry with interchangeable lipstick components so a customer buys the piece once, then collects shades the way she'd collect charms.
Reflection: The hardest part of Aurélia wasn't the product idea; it was forcing myself to build the business logic underneath a creative concept: who exactly is this for, what does it cost to make, and how does it actually sell. Managing collaborators across jewelry design and UX also taught me how to translate a brand vision into a clear enough brief that other specialists could execute it accurately. If I took this further, I'd want to pressure-test the interchangeable mechanism with real prototypes and validate price sensitivity with the target consumer directly, rather than through research alone.
