Meet the Founders: Rituel de Fille

The embodiment of three sisters’ combined creative flair and faith in cosmetics’ capacity to transform and empower, Rituel de Fille stars bold pigments and only the finest, all-natural (cruelty free!) ingredients. We caught up with the brand's trio of bewitching (and completely charming) founders, who took pains to explain 'natural', talk through autumn's trends and leave us totally enthralled by their beauty and brilliance...

{Cult Beauty} Could you possibly provide a little bit of information about your individual backgrounds, and what steps led to the creation of {Rituel de Fille}?

{Rituel de Fille} We're three sisters - all with a creative bent. There's Caroline - a make up artist specialising in fashion editorial; Michelle - a make up artist who has worked on some of Hollywood's most famous faces for print, ad campaigns, TV and red carpets events; and then there's me (Katherine) - a writer, editor and fine artist with a background in luxury fashion, wine and food.

Caroline's wealth of product experience has led her to develop an inherent gift for formulating - she has a deep, intuitive understanding of how ingredients will interact. Michelle's many years of experience on set have informed her skill for recognising which colours will 'work', while I do all the research (I'm obsessed with history and symbolism), as well as crafting our brand imagery.

We wanted to develop something that felt special, and were inspired by the strength of colour (and simplicity of composition) in historical cosmetics - such as Cleopatra's statement lipstick made from beeswax, carmine and crushed ants. For us, this mimalistic approach to formulating brought a sense of 'magic' to the process - a feeling we were eager to pass on to our clients.

{RdF} We wanted a name that encompassed ritual and ceremony - that was beautiful while maintaining strength - and that helped to define our world, while still allowing scope for personal interpretation. For us, {Rituel de Fille} (the French for 'Ritual of the Girl') evokes a sense of magical intuition, and as soon as the name surfaced we immediately all knew that it was right.

Our ethos is expressed in feminine power, profound confidence and the strength expressed in uniqueness and eccentricity. The embodiment of {Rituel de Fille} is a highly creative, magnetic, intelligent, discerning woman; a modern aesthete who values authenticity and history. She adorns herself for herself, and relishes the sensory pleasures and ceremonial power of colour.

{RdF} People have a lot of understandable anxiety and suspicion about what's in their make up and in order to address that, we sought to create spectacular products with the shortest list of ingredients possible - eliminating that disorientating sense of looking at an endless list of meaningless words.

{RdF} There's a growing interest in natural products, and a lot of opportunity for products to be misrepresented - especially because the term is unregulated. As a consumer, it often means having to read ingredient labels very closely or risk being 'duped'.

Our approach has always been an almost aggressive degree of transparency. We want our customers to know exactly what's in all of our products so they can shop confidently based on their priorities - we're extremely proud of our formulas and believe they truly set us apart.

Our feeling is that 'natural' reasonably applies to ingredients that, if you had enough time and dedication, you could actually find in nature. You can touch stripes of iron oxide in the walls of canyons. You can open the fruit of the achiote tree to find seeds coated in a layer of annatto. We are interested in ingredients that have been used in cosmetics for centuries.

That said, restraint is still essential for us, and creating a safe product is paramount - we use only ingredients that are explicitly approved for cosmetic use, and use a synthetic, paraben-free preservative (1% or less of our formulas by weight), which is a necessity to keep make up safe to use.

{Caroline} My personal taste is quite severe. My hairstyles tend to be short, blunt and sharp in a changing palette, I dress in black, architectural silhouettes, and when it comes to my make up—prettiness is kind of irrelevant. I have very specific taste: I’m more concerned with interesting than flattering, and I'm about stark minimalism and dark modernism.

{Michelle} I am inspired by a softer femininity and a glowing, natural aesthetic. My taste usually leans to chic, neutral-hued design but I love special details in gold, rose and copper. I love dewy skin, winged liner and a nude lip, which is my everyday make up look.

{Katherine} I'm drawn to drama and geometry. I've had black hair since I was a teenager, and I keep it in a sharp, angled bob with a straight fringe and a triangular undercut. My signature look involves large, sharp sterling jewellery and I tend to lean toward more minimalist looks with my make up - think: luminised skin, one statement shade on the lip or eye, and a black liner.

{CB} We’re totally besotted with the {Eye Soots}. What are your top tips for application, and are there any trends to try for autumn?

{RdF} This autumn, we’re drawn to two eye trends in particular. For an edgier look, we are loving graphic black eyeliner in unconventional shapes and placements - something which can be created perfectly with {Ash and Ember Eye Soot} in 'Obsidian'. For a more opulent approach to the season, we are loving jewel-toned monochromatic looks: smoky eyes created using rich, deep reds or plums, such as 'Viscera' or 'Nightshade' {Ash and Ember Eye Soots}, paired with a lipstick in the same shade.

Ash and Ember Eye Soots are truly unique products, and once you have mastered them, they can become one of the most beautiful, versatile products in your collection. They have a totally different texture to shadows and liners that you may be used to and the packaging is carefully designed to guide you towards the best way to use it: though you might be used to swiping horizontally, {Eye Soots} should be picked up with vertical pressure instead. The colour transfers and applies much better this way.

{CB} And finally, what’s next for {Rituel de Fille}? Do you have any exciting products in development?

{RdF} We are absolutely thrilled to be launching a new category this year: Rare Light Luminizers. We experimented with highlighters for a long while to create something incredible that felt juuuust right for us, and we think we've alighted upon something really special... watch this space!

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