Emily Cooper is back and she’s — still — in Paris. Earlier this week, Netflix released a trailer for the fourth season of its hit show “Emily in Paris,” which premieres August 15. And, once again, the titular character’s fashion and beauty choices get a starring role.
Last season, while caught in the throes of a complex love triangle, Emily cut herself bangs with the aid of a bottle of rosé. This season, she gives viewers another glimpse into her beauty routine. Alongside half-naked shower shots of Gabriel — Emily’s on-and-off-again love interest played by Lucas Bravo — the trailer shows Emily’s bathroom shelf with a carefully placed array of beauty products. Included are Milk Makeup’s blush stick, a Fenty beauty compact, Burt’s Bees’ classic lip balm, Violette Fr’s Boum Boum Milk and a hot pink Foreo Luna 4 face cleanser.
“Emily in Paris” is no stranger to product placement, both large and small. Centering around social media strategist Emily Cooper’s work at a Parisian marketing agency, the show has included product placement for everything from luxury suitcase brand Rimowa to McDonald’s. The latter partnership, which included the promotion of the real-life McBaguette meal in conjunction with the show’s third season, inspired backlash from viewers who likened the inclusion to a “series-long McDonald’s advertisement.”
But that controversy hasn’t stopped Emily, played by Lily Collins, from being a powerful branding tool, including in beauty. Lancôme, for which Collins is a longtime ambassador, launched a limited-edition “Emily in Paris” makeup collection in 2021 to coincide with the show’s second season, while Makeup Revolution launched its own dedicated collaboration last fall.
“Emily in Paris” beauty crossovers speak to the perennial fascination with French girl beauty. According to consumer trends agency Spate, “French Girl Makeup” has 1.7 million average weekly views on TikTok. And the trend has only grown, climbing 55.5% since last year. Creator Anna Annora’s paid partnership video with Typology comparing French makeup to American makeup has amassed 5.8 million views since it was uploaded to TikTok earlier this month. A spring 2024 clip from makeup artist Violette Serrat in promotion of her Violette Fr brand’s Bisou lip balm also has more than 3 million views on the platform.
Some of the products on Emily’s shelf follow the show’s welcoming attitude to product placement. The show’s head of makeup, Aurélie Payen, is an ambassador for Swedish skin care device brand Foreo, whose bright pink cleansing device appears in the new trailer. That’s a valuable placement, with products worn by Emily and her friends, such as AZ Factory apparel and Lancôme beauty products, often appearing in the shoppable content of retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue related to their appearance on the show.
Other product inclusions are more organic, but in keeping with Emily’s adoption of Parisian culture. For Serrat, seeing her Boum Boum Milk cream spray on Emily’s vanity was a welcome surprise.
“Boum-Boum Milk has become a shelf staple in France, so I was thrilled to see it featured in the season four trailer of ‘Emily in Paris,’” she told Glossy. “A 3-in-1 toner, serum and moisturizer, it’s the perfect place to start if you’re looking to adopt a minimalist ‘French-girl’ beauty routine.”
But despite her minimal makeup shelf, Emily’s heavy-handed makeup look is far from the French girl ideal.
“Emily embodies the American-in-Paris reputation with her full matte face, complete with bold lip, defined brows and dramatic eyes,” said Addison Cain, marketing and insights lead at Spate. “The placement of French products on Emily’s vanity, at this point, seems opposed to the looks she’s actually wearing.” (Camille, Emily’s romantic rival played by Camille Razat, meanwhile, better embodies the fresh-faced approach associated with French beauty.)
But such contradictions are at the heart of “Emily in Paris.” The show has long since inspired critical grumblings in equal proportion to its popularity. Actual U.S. expats living in Paris have scoffed at the show’s reinforcement of stereotypes around clueless Americans, most notably Emily’s struggles to learn French after more than a year of living in France. French viewers have ridiculed Emily’s maximalist fashion as impractical for Parisian life. And yet the third season came in as the No. 2 most popular English language show on Netflix when it debuted in December 2022, quickly amassing more than 117 million hours viewed.
Emily’s Parisian journey is ongoing, however, both sartorially and culturally. “Perhaps in season four, Emily will continue her Parisian transition, and we’ll see more subtle looks from her,” added Cain. Time will tell if, alongside polishing up her French, Emily will also ditch the matte foundation.
