Chantecaille Creates Eye Shades and Augmented Reality for Endangered Species

Chantecaille, a luxury botanical skincare company based in New York City is supporting African species with their Africa’s Vanishing Species Collection Luminescent Eye Shades. The six iridescent earth tones were created to pay tribute to – and to benefit – six of Africa’s most endangered, vanishing species: the elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah, giraffe, lion and pangolin. All of these wild animals face common threats from shrinking habitats, conflict with humans, and illegal poaching, which make their long-term survival uncertain.

“I wanted to elevate fall’s earth-toned smokey eye by creating a formula that offers rich pigment in an approachable, buildable texture. Each Luminescent Eye Shade was inspired by the endangered animal that it will support and is enhanced with beautiful, wearable shimmer.” – Olivia Chantecaille

“Part of the joy of having this company is that Chantecaille can act as an ambassador and a voice for animals. This fall we are proud to partner permanently with six amazing charities working to prevent the extinction of these endangered African animals.” – Sylvie Chantecaille

“I have always considered the cheetah to be the most beautiful and elegant of all the animals so accepting partnerships within the luxury beauty and fashion industry is a natural choice for CCF. Chantecaille is a family run business with a longtime commitment to supporting conservation and we are thrilled to have their support.” – Dr. Laurie Marker

The cheetah eye shade, a warm shimmering champagne color, was so popular that it sold out online in less than one month!

Chantecaille Wild Beauty

To coincide with the launch of the Africa’s Vanishing Species Collection, Chantecaille launched an Augmented Reality app called Chantecaille Wild Beauty. The goal of the app is to inspire users to experience Africa’s most charismatic and endangered wild animals in Augmented Reality (AR): the cheetah, elephant, giraffe, lion, pangolin, and rhinoceros. The app is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Developed with conservation-focused gaming company Internet of Elephants and UK-based AR specialists, RamJam, Chantecaille Wild Beauty allows users to bring six of Africa’s most threatened animals into their world and photograph them in action.

Donations collected on the app will go towards equipping conservation partners with the tools they need for their research and protection efforts.

News of each campaign will be posted at Chantecaille.com and on their Instagram and Facebook feeds @Chantecaille.

App Features

For the photography function, users select one of six animals from the menu and place it in their environment, then watch the animal emerge life-size from a Chantecaille eye-shadow compact. You can move an animal around your space by tapping the floor, resize it to fill a room or sit on the palm of your hand, or flip to selfie mode to photograph yourself with an African wild animal in your own environment. Set against a soundtrack of the African savannah, the animals can move, walk, and behave as they do in the wild. The lion even growls and the elephant trumpets.

Additional features of the app include an informational tool that describes each of Africa’s Vanishing Species, with unique facts about the animal, video of the animal in the wild, the greatest threats to its future, and the conservation solutions of each wildlife charity partner.

App users can “Join the Herd” by posting photos to their social media channels with the hashtag #ChantecailleWild for the chance to unlock additional charitable donations from the company to six Africa-based philanthropy partners: Cheetah Conservation Fund, Space for Giants, Giraffe Conservation Foundation, Lion Guardians, Tikki Hywood Foundation, and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. A graph on the app will track how many photos of each species have been posted.