Byredo’s New Eye Shadow Palette Is a Book Lover’s Dream

Byredo, the beauty brand known for its iconic fragrances, chic candles, and modern makeup collection, has just expanded its offerings with a new eye shadow palette. It’s not just any eye shadow palette, though. It was created by Lucia Pica, an Italian makeup artist who was the former Global Creative Makeup and Color Designer for Chanel and is now the Creative Image and Makeup Partner for Byredo. Aptly named “Bibliophilia,” the limited-edition palette is inspired by “the sensory and emotional atmosphere of a library,” evoking the “tactile world of paper and pigment, shadow and light,” through color.

This isn’t the first time Byredo has released an iconic beauty product inspired by a love of books. The iconic Bibliothèque Eau de Parfum has been a cult-favorite for years. With notes of plum, cinnamon, leather accord, violet, birch wood, patchouli, and vanilla, it captures “A world of old books, the scent of their leather-bound pages arranged on dark wood shelves.”

As a literature-loving beauty editor, this new makeup equivalent is a dream, and it feels especially relevant for fall, given the season’s emphasis on academia-inspired aesthetics. Ahead, see this chic, new eye shadow palette, but fair warning: it might lead you to spend hours sitting in a comfortable corner of a dimly lit library, leafing through the pages of long-closed books.

A “library of color,” each of the 18 shades was inspired by the atmosphere of the library, “where the senses expand, and stories take shape.” There’s soft gold, like the gilded spines of old book bindings. There’s parchment and beige, like the soft, time-worn paper. There’s inky burgundy and leathery brown. Thanks to three finishes—matte, satin, and metallic—they’re easy to experiment with and create textured, layered looks.

I was lucky enough to test it ahead of launch, and was impressed by the silky and sumptuous pressed powders that were formulated to blend “with the ease of a page turning.” They’re easy to sheer out for a whisper of color or build up for a bolder look. As the brand puts it, “Blending with the ease of a page turning, the ultra-sensorial formula melts into the skin […] allowing for layered looks that shift from quiet restraint to expressive boldness.”

The 18 silky shades are encased in Byredo’s signature mirrored steel and adorned with a crisp paper motif. The brand hopes it will serve as a collector’s object (it’s certainly chic enough to do so, in my humble opinion). The brand also hopes it will be a “portal—inviting you to leaf through a library of color, where every shade tells a story.”