Sofia Coppola’s new balms will give you strawberry-stained lips

A Sofia Coppola tinted lip balm range may sound like the stuff of Coquette girl dreams, but it’s real and it’s here – so clear a space between your hair ribbons, white socks and balletcore leg warmers, and welcome the latest edition to your bedside table.

The director has partnered with Augustinus Bader to reimagine the skincare brand’s lip balm (£33). Formulated with a blend of plant-based butters and the brand’s signature TFC8 patented technology, the lip balm will come in three shades: a deep pink, an earthy plum and a coral. All of these colours are easy to imagine smudged on the edge of a coffee cup, a pillowcase or someone’s cheek. “The dark pink is from a favourite discontinued lipstick I used to get at a drugstore in Paris, and red coral is based on a colour I like when at the beach or in summer,” Coppola said in a statement about the collaboration. “The darker plum [is] a deep colour that looks like a deeper tint of your lips.”

The range marks the first time Augustinus Bader has ventured into colour cosmetics, although it did release a tinted priming moisturiser with Victoria Beckham in 2019. The collaboration came about after Coppola, a big fan of The Rich Cream and lip balm, asked if the brand would be open to the idea of a tinted version. “I always love [lip balms] and I’m always searching for the perfect one that you can put on like a chapstick and gives a hint of colour, that’s easy and gives a little lift and doesn’t look make-up-y,” she said. Alongside her favourite discontinued Monoprix lip balm, Coppola was inspired by the strawberry-stained lips of Nastassja Kinski’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles when it came to formulating the shades.

The girlhood trend that’s become popular over the last year has meant the rise of a beauty look heavy on flushed cheeks, rosy lips and cute hair accessories. The aesthetic takes huge inspiration from the films of Coppola – who in turn draws from references like Picnic at Hanging Rock – and her distinct brand of feminine melancholia, so this new launch makes perfect sense. Elsewhere, there seems to be no slowing down from the coquette girlhood trend. Still reeling from Lana Del Rey’s Coachella performance and the Sandy Liang X Salomon collab, this latest iteration joins a cult aesthetic coined Coppola Core; characterised by prairie dresses, Orion Carloto poems, and blushed cheeks. We can see the lip balms now, nestled beside Simone Rocha ballet flats and Acne Studios bow bags in shopping wishlists..