L'Officiel's Daphné Hezard tipped us off to a French law-student-turned-artist named Kelly Favre, who embellishes cosmetics packaging (Chanel, Dior, Guerlain...) with her sometimes-cheeky—and sexual, as in [4], which depicts a sperm fertilizing an egg—hand-embroideries. Intrigued by the forwarded photo of a half-finished Chanel bottle, we asked Favre to share some more examples of her work, and she happily obliged. Favre writes:

'I am a young 'artist' with an atypical career. I was going to be a lawyer when I suddenly stopped my studies, as I found out my real passion was and will always be ART. I love to transform objects to give them another life, identity, history, function. Moreover, relief and superposition characterize my work. Since my childhood I've always admired women's artcraft and handiwork, and for this project, I wanted to pay tribute to them. This is the reason I've started with embroidery: it represents different major subjects, like beauty and the meticulous work of handicraft, a properly very feminine work, concentration, meditation.

I have the chance to receive lots of cosmetics presents, and I always feel sad to throw away the packaging. I think it's a waste. Sometimes, I even go in perfume shops to ask for empty boxes. But in fact it's quite difficult, because people like to keep the boxes. It's like if they are opening a little present when they arrive at home. I like to work with theses boxes and give them a new life. And especially for big brands, there is an important gap between cosmetic retailing (mass-market) and handiwork (art craft).

The only thing I can tell you is that it's very long and meticulous work. It takes me almost three days to do one piece, and I barely have any more fingers or eyes ;)

but I love it.”