The creative mind behind multi-hyphenate musician Grimes brings his signature fantasy aesthetic to the world of beauty.
The musician’s co-creative director Bryan Huynh, along with co-founders David José and Mollie Gloss, announced the launch of new brand Hyrular Beauty on Wednesday. With visual elements of sci-fi, gaming and edgy fashion, the brand’s first product is a multi-pigmented Nebubalm Lipstick in Chrome, $30, available exclusively through the brand’s direct-to-consumer site.
Grimes, known for her genre-bending music and energetic performances, has been a big inspiration. “[She has] “Really opened my eyes to this whole world of image-making that so many people don’t believe exists,” Huynh said. The popular video game Final Fantasy has been her main influence from the gaming world on her creative work, which includes Grimes’ “Book 1” album cover and her commercial for Australian designer Dion Lee, as well as filming with other pop stars, including girl group Aespa, during her acting career. photographer.
Huynh, the brand’s visual director, and José, its general manager, began brainstorming beauty ideas during the pandemic. They eventually enlisted celebrity makeup artist Gloss, known for her surreal looks on stars like model Amelia Gray and actress Sadie Sink, as beauty and product director.
The co-founders solidified plans to launch the brand in 2022, which “was the moment where we said, ‘This is something we can create that fills a gap we haven’t seen yet,'” said José, who comes from the advertising industry and has worked with fashion and beauty brands.
Hyrular, a portmanteau of “hyper” and “spectacular,” is largely funded by friends and family. Its first campaign, directed by Huynh, is described as a journey into space.
“We all immediately understood each other’s point of view,” said Gloss, who uses the product in photoshoots with clients, citing the futuristic shades Halcyon and Nymphaea.
Moving forward, the team’s ambition is to become a full-fledged beauty brand offering not only makeup, but also skincare and fragrance. They aim to further explore the visual language of video games, including potential collaborations with gaming companies and working with unconventional streamers and influencers.
The aesthetic features a lot of computer-generated and digital imagery, but, according to Huynh, it won’t include anything AI-generated.
“I just don’t believe AI is the future,” Huynh said. “For us, we expect Hyrular to incorporate AI because it’s a gaming-focused, tech-looking brand, but I’m vehemently opposed to that. It will delegitimize what we’re doing. I also think AI is cheap escapism, and I’m not working on a cheap brand.”
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