Sofia Coppola’s New Lip Balm Was Inspired by a Discontinued French Beauty Product

I’ve never connected with an artist’s work the way I have with Sofia Coppola’s. She’s not just a filmmaker but a world-builder, known for her hyper-feminine sets, which include the truest depiction of a teenage girl’s bedroom I’ve ever seen in The Virgin Suicides. Twenty years before TikTok latched onto the concept of “girlhood,” it was a running theme in her work. Whether it’s through her films’ naturalistic dialogue or just shots of Kirsten Dunst pouting in a bathtub, she so perfectly captured the specific loneliness of being a teenage girl (or 20-something-year-old woman).

If you ask me, the perfectly curated “girl mess” Coppola constructs is the truest reflection of her heroines’ inner lives. It’s Priscilla Presley’s teenage bedroom walls covered in birthday cards, the broken perfume bottles and rosaries in the Lisbon sisters’ bathroom, or Marie Antoinette literally fading into the wallpaper of Versailles. She captures the feminine experience like no one else.

I’m not the only one who feels deeply understood by the director. On TikTok, “Sofia Coppola” is not just a name but an adjective that describes an unabashed girliness. But when it comes to real life, her personal style is much more understated. She favors classic pieces like crisp button-downs, black dresses, and perfectly worn-in jeans over ruffles and bows.

On the beauty front, she lets her glowing skin do most of the work and loves a soft flush of color on the lips. So, it makes perfect sense that she’s a fan of Augustinus Bader—which is about as “quiet luxury” as a beauty product can get—and has teamed up with the brand to create the Augustinus Bader x Sofia Coppola The Tinted Balm ($34), dropping May 3.

“I’m a fan of [the brand’s] face cream and lip balm and thought I’d love a tinted version, so asked if they’d be open to this idea,” Coppola tells Byrdie about the collaboration. “I love their products, and I love The Lip Balm because it feels rich and hydrating—not too shiny—and the sleek packaging is chic and nice to pull out of your bag.”

The resulting product included the same nourishing feel that Coppola knows and loves—thanks to the shea butter, vitamin E, and candelilla wax in the formula, alongside the brand’s FC8 technology—plus a sheer tint. The balm comes in three shades: Tint 1, a sheer hot pink; Tint 2, a bright coral; and Tint 3, a burnt plum.

“The dark pink is from a favorite discontinued lipstick I used to get at a drugstore in Paris, and the red coral is based on a color I like when at the beach or in summer,” says Coppola. “The darker plum is for a deep color that looks like deeper tint of your lips.” (Personally, I haven’t been able to stop wearing this shade, which I like to think makes my lips look just like Scarlett Johansson’s in Lost in Translation.)

In honor of the collab, we caught up with Coppola to chat about her favorite products, on-set essentials, and the beauty advice from Angelica Huston (!) that changed everything.

The Best Makeup Tip She’s Picked Up on Set

“I learned from Dick [Paige]: Less is more. Don’t try to cover too much, or it gives you a flat face, and how a little red lipstick on your cheeks and bridge of your nose can brighten up your face.”

The Skincare Product She Swears By

“I love getting facials, face massages, and having that time in the evening to do your skincare is a nice way to transition from the work day to the evening at home. I love the Bader Rich Cream ($240), which feels like a treat.”

Her On-Set Essentials

“Yorkshire Gold tea, Bader lip balm, a notebook, Contax snapshot camera and Kodak Portra film, playlists.”

The Best Beauty Advice She’s Ever Gotten

“Anjelica Huston told me when I was 15 that I would grow into my nose!”

On Revisiting ’90s Trends

“I’ll leave that to my daughters! I still love some of my Marc Jacobs clothes from then, though…I’m happy he’s remaking the Marc by Marc Jeans I always loved.”