Zara's beauty range launches today: here's what you need to know

The hotly anticipated new beauty offering is now available online and in select stores

Zara Beauty offers intense colour, as seen in this image by Marilyn Minter. Courtesy Zara Beauty

Spanish high-street brand Zara has launched its first beauty range.

Zara Beauty is available online and in select stores from Wednesday, and there was much hype surrounding the line. With Zara already known for its cool-girl vibe, the fashion brand seemingly pulled out all the stops to ensure the new range gets off on the right foot.

For a start to create it, Zara enlisted the help of renowned make-up artist Diane Kendal. With years of experience under her belt, Kendal is the go-to for designers such as Tom Ford and Proenza Schouler for runway shows, and is the beauty product consultant and make-up artist for Marc Jacobs Beauty. Kendal has also developed product lines for Calvin Klein Cosmetics.

The new Zara Beauty range offers a wide selection of lip colours and finishes, shot by Steven Meisel. Courtesy Zara Beauty

Secondly, the range is huge. Rather than drip-feeding new lines, Zara is launching a full collection from the outset, with eye, lip, skin and nail products on offer, in an impressive 130 shades.

For lips alone there are lipsticks in matte, satin and demi-matte finishes, as well as lip balms, oils and gloss. For eyes, there are six-shade eyeshadow palettes, plus a matte-black eyeliner, as well as loose metallic pigments. There's also bronzer and blush palettes, as well as highlighters, and six different make-up brushes to apply it all. For nails, there are 39 different colours.

Model Paloma Elsesser stars in this image by Mario Sorrenti for Zara Beauty. Courtesy Zara Beauty

Ahead of the launch, Kendal explained why she was keen to be involved. "When Zara approached me to lead the creative direction of Zara Beauty, I saw an opportunity to make something that everyone would want to use," she said. "Zara has always reached such a diverse audience, and I wanted to bring that same big vision to beauty with a collection that is clean, refillable and accessible to all.

"I am really proud of what we have created: an expansive array of consciously unique formulas for eyes, lips, face and nails."

As part of the launch campaign, photographer Oliver Hadlee Pearch shot this image for Zara Beauty. Courtesy Zara Beauty

For the launch campaign, Zara tasked nine different photographers to shoot the images, including Steven Meisel, Oliver Hadlee Pearch, Craig McDean and Mario Sorrenti, who each brought their own interpretation to the project.

Seemingly free to create images however they felt, the inspiration was Zara's slogan: "There is no beauty, only beauties." The resulting shots are not only fabulous, but capture a diverse range of faces.

This image is by Craig McDean for Zara Beauty captures a nude lip and heavily smoked eyes. Courtesy Zara Beauty

With such a crowded beauty market, Zara realised a good way to set itself apart was through the pigments and formulas on offer. Using quality ingredients, Kendal created a range that is packed with intense pigments that give excellent coverage, something bound to win fans around the world.

In response to customer feedback during the 18-month production process, the formulas are also cruelty-free and the packaging is refillable.

The significance of all of this is not lost on Kendal. "This is the first time I've been able to start from scratch with a brand that didn't already have a pre-existing make-up line," she said. "And the fact that Zara wanted to do it all in an ethically responsible way was important to me."

In contrast to the blast of colour contained inside, the packaging was designed by art director Fabien Baron, and comes with clean lines and in pure white, with a diagonal top and base to echo the Z in the Zara logo.

Prices range from $7.90 to $25.90 for products, and from $4.90 for refills.