Get Your Glow On: Charlotte Tilbury + Sofia Tilbury Tell Us Why Their Unreal Summer Launch Is Juicy, Dewy Perfection

This summer, Charlotte Tilbury is turning up the heat—and the glow. With two dreamy new launches designed to give you radiant skin and glossy, happy lips, it’s officially an Unreal Summer. We caught up with beauty icon Charlotte Tilbury and her niece, Global Artistry Director and Brand Muse Sofia Tilbury, to talk about the buzzy Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Stick and Unreal Lips Healthy Glow Nectar Oil (available July 15)—the ultimate duo for dewy cheeks and glazed lips. From skin-loving ingredients to mood-boosting scents, Charlotte and Sofia spill their beauty secrets behind the glow-up. —Noa Nichol

We Talked To Charlotte Tilbury

What inspired the dreamy, sun-kissed vibe behind the new Unreal Blush and Unreal Lips collections?

I have always been obsessed with the way our skin blushes when we’re looking and feeling our best, like when we’ve spent the day on the beach and look fresh, youthful and healthy. I wanted everyone to be able to cheat that beautifying, sun-blushed look any time, any place, which is why I created my new Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Sticks. They are an unreal summer glow effect, bottled! Unreal Blush makes it look like you’re watching the most breathtaking sunset, and the light is gently reflecting off the high points of your face. It’s you, but with the dreamiest post-holiday, post-spa, golden hour glow!

I have designed a sunset spectrum of six universally flattering shades that stretch across every skin tone. Each shade of Unreal Blush mimics different sunsets, from the pink and lilac hues you see in the desert to the red tones you see across the most breathtaking mountainscapes!

And I have always loved summer – when the sun is shining, there is a mood shift, people are happier, and they have a shining, glowing confidence about them. To bottle that feeling so that everyone can tap into that frequency all year round, I created my new Unreal Lips Healthy Glow Nectar Oils. They give the most unreal nectar glass-glaze lip effect – it’s you, but with a happy, healthy holiday lip glow!

You’re known for iconic, high-performance formulas—what makes these two new launches feel extra special to you?

When it comes to launching new products, it is all about innovation. Darling, I always innovate and never imitate! My Unreal Blush and Unreal Lips are my summer-glazed secrets to juicy, sun-blushed cheeks and glazed, glossy, juicylicious lips, and everyone is going to be obsessed. Let me tell you why!

My Unreal Blush is infused with Colour Light Mapping Mesh Tech^TM, which instantly retexturizes and blurs the look of skin, allowing light-mapping Pearlescent Pigments to diffuse light evenly across the cheeks. This glazes them in juicy, dream-sheen, luminous summertime colour that has a 3D lift effect! Unreal Blush is also supercharged with the same skin barrier defence matrix as my Unreal Skin Sheer Glow Tint Hydrating Foundation Stick, which is clinically proven to improve the look and feel of skin immediately*. They are infused with skin-loving ingredients like Collageneer™, Hyaluronic Acid, Daikon Radish Seed Oil and Vitamin E, which help strengthen the skin barrier for smoother, more hydrated, plumper-looking skin. Who else can say that about blush, darling?

And my Unreal Lips are so much more than just a lip oil. I have created a formula that smooths, plumps and glazes the look of your lips, optically filling the look of vertical lip lines and hydrating your lips with the most incredible juicy, glazed lip effect.

What makes my Unreal Lips extra special are their scents! To create each of the six fruity, juicylicious scents, I worked with leading Parisian experts and mixologists to formulate my unreal Mood-boosting Scent Technology, which replicates the scented nectar of real fruit! They are a sensory dream!

Collageneer™ is a trademark of Laboratoires Expanscience^TM.   

*Clinical test on 33 people after one application

The Unreal Blush is infused with skincare ingredients like Collageneer and hyaluronic acid. How important is that skin-meets-makeup synergy in your product philosophy?

With every beauty innovation I create, I always put skin first, supercharging each formula, whether it is skincare or makeup, with science-backed, skin-loving ingredients to create incredible formulas that are suitable for all skin types. A product does not launch until it is perfect, which can sometimes take years – but darling, you all deserve nothing but the best!

I have bottled over 30 years of artistry into easy-to-choose, easy-to-use, high-performance formulas and performance you can trust. I love seeing how my legendary beauty icons have changed people’s lives, and I cannot wait to see my Unreal Blush and Unreal Lips become instant viral sensations!

What’s your go-to blush and lip oil pairing from these new launches for a no-makeup-makeup summer look?

Darling, my Unreal Summer-glazed secrets are perfect for that fresh, clean girl, no-makeup-makeup look! One of my favourite pairings is my Unreal Blush in the shade Rosy Glow and Unreal Lips in Juicylicious Strawberry Vanilla.

Rosy Glow is a warm rosy pink infused with golden pearl pigments for the most gorgeous dream-sheen dimension. I designed this shade to mimic the neutral pink hues of the last light of day, that beautifying rosy light that bounces off the face at dusk! Darling, you cannot go wrong with the balmy glow-glide texture, buildable, blendable formula and universally flattering shades of my Unreal Blush. Its Glow Moisture Mesh behaves like second skin, stretching across the cheeks for the most natural, undetectable finish. You can even wear my blush sticks with no makeup underneath, and everyone will ask you if you have been on a juice cleanse! It doesn’t look like you’re wearing blush; it looks like you’re just back from the beach!

And I am so obsessed with Juicylicious Strawberry Vanilla. It is one of two shades that are supercharged with pH-powered Filter Tech, which adapts to the pH of your lips to create your very own unique shade. It’s like custom colour, darling! My Unreal Lips come in five other juicylicious shades that suit every skin tone. They are infused with my Unreal Summer-Glow Sheer Pigments, which have been individually balanced to perfect the smooth, subtle haze of true-to-you tints that mimic the glaze of juicylicious fruit nectar. Darling, they hydrate, retexturise, smooth, plump and glaze the look of your lips and are a must-have for every no-makeup-makeup look this summer!

If you had to describe the Unreal Summer aesthetic in three words, what would they be?

Fresh, sun-blushed and juicylicious!

We Talked To Sofia Tilbury

As Charlotte’s Global Artistry Director, what was your vision for bringing the Unreal Summer glow to life?

As the Global Artistry Director for Charlotte Tilbury, I get to work closely with Charlotte and our product development team to make sure our upcoming launches perform perfectly and are artistry-ready. It’s something I’m really invested in, as I’m out in the field using our products every day and know what’s needed! It also gives me a head-start on thinking about the looks I want to create for campaigns. Translating the brand’s vision into campaign imagery and makeup looks is always a collaborative effort – I love being able to brainstorm with Charlotte, our creative directors and Pro Artistry team.

I’ve always loved summer – when the sun’s shining, there’s a real mood shift and everyone has that unmistakable summertime glow. For Unreal Summer, we wanted to bottle that feeling and give everyone the most gorgeous sun-blushed cheeks and glazed, juicylicious lips, so that they can cheat the holiday, not the glow! With Charlotte’s new Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Sticks, we have mimicked the way skin blushes when you’ve spent the day on the beach or at the spa and look fresh, youthful and healthy. There are six flattering shades inspired by different sunsets that stretch across every skin tone and are super long-lasting, easy-to-use, buildable and blendable. They’re infused with this amazing Colour Light Mapping Mesh Tech^TM, which instantly smooths and blurs the look of skin, diffusing light evenly across the cheeks. This glazes them in a dream-sheen luminous blush of colour and gives a 3D lift effect. Unreal Blush is like a holiday glow-up in a stick!

And for Charlotte’s new Unreal Lips Healthy Glow Nectar Oils, we wanted to make it look like your lips when the sun glistens on your skin after a swim in the ocean. With six juicylicious shades that suit every skin tone, Unreal Lips are a 3-in-1 summer glow-up in a tube, with the glow glide of an oil, the glass-like, glazed shine of an amplifying gloss and the cushioning comfort of a balm. I’m obsessed with them!

Which Unreal Glow combo (blush + lip oil) is your backstage secret for instantly fresh, glowing skin?

It’s so hard to choose my favourite shades and combos as they all give different looks! I’m obsessed with berry-stained blush and how it looks so flattering across different skin tones. I love to pair Charlotte’s Unreal Blush in Berry Glow with Unreal Lip Oil in Candy Fig, a stunning berry-russet shade.

Rosy Glow is also one of my everyday staples and Peachy Glow is great for adding a super youthful warmth to the complexion, while I tend to reach for Pinky Glow when creating a cooler-toned look. They all complement Charlotte’s Unreal Lips in Juicylicious Strawberry Vanilla, which gives a fresh pink kiss of colour on the lips. This shade contains pH-powered Filter Tech, which adapts to the pH of your lips and creates a shade that’s unique to you! Or, if in doubt, I like to apply Juicylicious Coconut Water on top of one of Charlotte’s Lip Cheats for a glossy clear mirror shine.

The new lip oils are juicy, glassy, and scented—how do you decide which shade suits each client’s vibe or mood?

There are six shades of Charlotte’s Unreal Lips Healthy Glow Nectar Oils, each with its own juicy, sheer colour that suits every skin tone. They have these Unreal Summer-Glow Sheer Pigments, which have been individually balanced to perfect the subtle true-to-you tints that mimic the glaze of juicylicious fruit nectar.

So, it really depends on which scent my client gravitates towards the most! Charlotte is obsessed with innovation, so she worked with Parisian flavour experts to capture the nectar of real fruit at their ripest, creating her Mood-boosting Scent Tech, which boosts feelings of happiness. Charlotte says that Unreal Lips are a sensory dream! I like to let my clients try all of them out and pick their favourite, as scent is such a personal preference. A 90s brown glossy lip is huge right now, so the shade Candy Fig has been a super popular choice – they’re all obsessed with the scent of it!

What’s one pro tip for making the Unreal Blush look like a natural, lit-from-within flush?

You’ll never have to worry about Charlotte’s Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Sticks looking too intense as they have a buildable, blendable, weightless second-skin formula that gives you the smoothest, freshest, healthiest-looking sun-blushed glow in seconds. It won’t even look like you’re wearing makeup – people will be asking you if you’ve just been on holiday!

What I love so much about Unreal Blush is that it’s multi-use makeup magic! For a lit-from-within, summer-kissed glow, glide the stick directly onto the apples of your cheeks and blend it up and out towards the ears, building in layers to customise your blush using your fingers or Charlotte’s Hollywood Complexion Brush.

Another Tilbury tip I love is applying a little Unreal Blush over the bridge of the nose, forehead and chin for a naturally sun-kissed glow. You can even use them on the lips for an extra kiss of colour!

These launches are all about personalization—how do you suggest layering or customizing for each unique complexion?

Charlotte’s Unreal Blush Healthy Glow Sticks come in six universally flattering shades that stretch across every skin tone and have a buildable formula that lets you layer and customise the intensity of your blush. They’re so easy-to-choose and easy-to-use!

Berry Glow is a rich, blue-toned berry shade that enhances every skin tone, but looks especially incredible on deeper complexions as it mimics a natural flush of colour. Cherry Glow is a deep, juicy cherry red that is super versatile as it suits everyone from fair through to deep skin tones. Anyone who loves Charlotte’s iconic Walk of No Shame will love this shade! Peachy Glow has complexion-enhancing peach pearls that give a fresh, youthful-looking glow on fairer skin tones and enhance warmth on medium tones. I love using Pretty Glow on cool and neutral undertones as it creates a soft, ethereal, brightening blush of colour. For anyone who loves pink blush, Rosy Glow is a warm rosy pink that’s great for warmer undertones, while Pinky Glow is a vibrant cool pink that beautifully complements cooler undertones. Because the formula is so buildable, blendable and buttery, you can really have fun and layer them together. You can apply it underneath or even on top of powder blush!

Each Unreal Lips Healthy Glow Nectar Oil is designed to complement an Unreal Blush, but you can easily mix and match. Juicylicious Pink Watermelon and Juicylicious Strawberry Vanilla are also supercharged with pH-powered Filter Tech that adapts to the pH of your lips to create your very own unique shade!