Le Domaine, the new sustainable, luxury skincare line launched by Brad Pitt, takes its cues from French wine and beauty traditions.
Best known as the Academy-Award-winning star of films like Bullet Train and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Brad Pitt is also an investor, entrepreneur, and artist. His newest offering to the world follows his skirt-wearing summer press tour for Bullet Train with another surprising twist: a vegan skincare line made from wine grapes.
Called Le Domaine, the new range infuses the antioxidant power of his Château Miraval-grown sustainable wine grapes mixed into science-backed formulations proven to bring skin benefits.
“Through the ages, Château Miraval has always been this hub of creativity; it has so many places within it where you want to sit and think and expand and explore and make beautiful things,” Pitt told Vogue.
Le Domaine
Pitt developed the line alongside the Perrin family—the vintners behind Château de Beaucastel and Pitt’s partner in Château Miraval Côtes de Provence Rose.
The luxury skincare range takes a minimalist approach with four products: a serum, a cream, a fluid cream, and a cleansing emulsion. The luxury skincare is sustainably packaged in recyclable and refillable glass bottles topped with wooden caps made from old wine casks.
The antioxidant-rich products were developed in part with University of Bordeaux Professor of Oenology Pierre-Louis Teissedre to identify the best grapes grown by the Perrin family for skin benefits. It’s a project that started more than 15 years ago. The result is a brand exclusive: the GSM10 molecule made up of seeds from Grenache grapes and the seeds and skin of Syrah and Mourvèdre grapes. It also features ProGr3, another patented ingredient that comes from grapevine tendril resveratrol.
“For a long time, I had tossed around the idea of creating a skincare line,” Pitt said in a statement. “When the Perrins told me about the research they had conducted with [Teissedre] on the antioxidant property of the grapes and leaves, it clicked.”
The range targets the aging process by fighting oxidation and supporting collagen growth for skin that’s firm, elastic, smooth, and radiant.
“I’m a big fan of every single one and use The Cream daily,” Pitt said. “I really like the texture because it’s creamy, moisturizes quickly, and makes my skin much more comfortable under the California sun.”
Nature inspired, nature made
Le Domaine is both an homage to the earth and a way to protect it from harsh synthetic chemicals and fossil fuel-derived packaging. The range is made up of 96 percent natural ingredients and is fully vegan and sustainably made. The scents were developed by a Grasse perfumer, using orange blossom, woody cedar, and sandalwood.
“Our goal is to imitate the organic cycles of nature,” Pitt says. “There is no waste in nature. Anything left over or discarded becomes food for something else. This exemplary circular system is the inspiration for Le Domaine.”
France is shifting its wine industry to brace for climate change and be proactive in slowing it. The country’s goal is 50 percent compliance from growers to be either organic, sustainable, or in transition by 2025. The le Domaine grapes grow biodynamically in Miraval’s soil amid olive trees and the region’s pesticide-free forest and woodland, picking up the terroir.
Pitt off-screen
The star is no stranger to side projects. His Château Miraval is just one example. He’s also a backer of Enroot, a line of organic and Fair Trade cold-brewed teas developed in partnership with James Beard chefs. He also recently launched God’s True Cashmere, a clothing range that the actor claims ethically sources its cashmere. (Demand for cashmere is putting pressure on snow leopards in Asia, among other issues.)
His off-screen projects are also happening in galleries.
Earlier this week at the Sara Hilden Art Museum in Finland, Pitt debuted his sculptures alongside two friends: Nick Cave, the prolific Australian singer-songwriter and author, showed ceramics, and sculptures by British artist Thomas Houseago. Houseago was to have a solo showing but convinced the museum to include his friends in the exhibit.
“Cave and Pitt are already renowned in their respective fields of music and cinema, but this is the first time ever they have exhibited their artwork—pieces which were created during the course of an ongoing dialogue with Houseago,” the Finnish museum said.
Pitt debuted nine pieces, including a house-shaped sculpture made from silicon and shot with bullets—it’s a piece he says he started following his separation from Angelina Jolie in 2017.
“It’s about, you know, where have I gotten it wrong in my relationships? Where have I misstepped? Where I am complicit?” Pitt told Finnish broadcaster YLE.
“It was borne out of ownership of really what I call a radical inventory of self, getting really, brutally honest with me and … taking account of those I may have hurt and moments I’ve just gotten wrong,” he said.
Celebrity skincare
Pitt is not the first celebrity to launch a skincare line. In the last year alone, supermodels including Winnie Harlow, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Kate Moss have all launched ranges. Fellow actor Scarlett Johannson launched her own minimalist skincare range The Outset, and Kim Kardashian launched Skkn, a 9-step clean skincare brand that replaced her KKW Beauty, among others.
Pitt also joins a sea of men launching into skincare including singers Pharrell and Harry Styles. Like Le Domaine, Pharrell’s Humanrace and Styles’ Pleasing aren’t targeting gender-specific demographics, but rather aim to bring minimal and sustainable ingredients to the forefront of the changing industry. “I love the idea of a genderless line,” Pitt said.
But beyond the initial Le Domaine launch, don’t expect regular skincare routine tips and tutorials from the actor. Pitt plans to stay in the background. “Le Domaine is not meant to be a celebrity brand,” he said.
In a recent GQ interview, Pitt, 58, reflected on aging in Hollywood and said he sees himself in the “final stages” of his career. “I consider myself on my last leg, this last semester or trimester. What is this section gonna be? And how do I wanna design that?” he said.
His work with Le Domaine underscores how he’s embracing his age and what it means to grow older.
“I don’t want to be running from aging,” Pitt told Vogue of the new skincare range. “It’s a concept we can’t escape, and I would like to see our culture embracing it a bit more, talking about it in those terms. Something we discussed [in founding Le Domaine] was this headline of ‘antiaging.’ It’s ridiculous. It’s a fairy tale. But what is real is treating your skin in a healthy manner. And it’s something I’ve learned to do for my business, but it kind of makes you feel better. I grew up with a country mentality, kind of, you know, Dial soap once a day and then move on. And I think that we’re learning that if we love ourselves, if we treat ourselves a little better, then there are long-lasting benefits to that. So just age healthy, age in a healthy manner.”
