So what makes Invisible so unique?

I’ve been a passionate makeup developer for many years and I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of "visible invisibility." By that I mean, you don’t dare go bare at Estée Lauder, but you don’t want to see what's on your skin either; the foundation should basically be invisible. The equation that makes up invisibility has three components. The first is reflection. The second is refraction, which means light is going to hit a surface, bounce back towards your eyes and diffuse or scatter what you’re seeing. The third need is absorption, so that enough light goes into the skin to create translucency. All three components hadn’t existed together in the cosmetic world before. We could refract and reflect. We could reflect and absorb, but we never could do all three…until now.

How did you create that finish?

Well,pigments are often coated and smooth, but they can also be heavy. Ordinarily, we go to vendors and ask them to help us develop pigments that we use in our products. In this case, however, because we wanted to be so sensitive in developing Invisible, for the first time in Estée Lauder’s history we created our own pigment. Basically, we used the concept of taking the three colours that you need to create real colour -- red, blue and yellow -- and we trapped it inside of a little white case so that your own skin comes through, and yet you’re still getting colour. This concept is called "adaptivity." If you put this pigment onto your skin, it will turn beige because it’s adapting and absorbing into the skin and creating refraction. But it’s not masking the face. It’s still letting your own skin show through.

The texture is softer than any foundation we’ve felt before, it melts onto your skin and is imperceptible to the touch. How did you manage that?

Through our Foundation Sensoriums, we knew that women wanted their makeup to feel clean, weightless and fresh. In order to accommodate this need, we created Invisible Makeup to glide lightly onto the skin through the use of air emulsion. An emulsifier essentially keeps everything in a product together. It’s what makes the product feel creamy and cohesive. We knew that our consumers didn’t want to feel the product at all, and because they wanted something fresh, clean and cool, we created air emulsion formula technology and a base that will go invisibly onto the skin, without the weight of using emulsifiers. You’ll notice that each bottle of Invisible Makeup has small beads in them. If you shake the bottle until you stop hearing the beads moving, you know it’s been air emulsified, which will give the makeup a weightless and light effect on the skin.

How proud are you of Invisible?

Extremely! The result is a product discernibly unique in every way -- a product inspired by consumers’ words and designed to surpass any other makeup on the market. It feels very cool to the touch and gives your skin a beautiful luminosity. It diffuses light in such a way that you know the product is there, but you can’t tell its makeup. It will change your beauty life.

Estée Lauder Invisible Fluid Makeup , £27, available in 16 shades, launches on 30th Jan at Estee Lauder counters in John Lewis stores. Tel 0870 034 2566

The new Estée Lauder foundation