”I wanted to make my own mood board; to be inspired by what is happening in the moment” says Lucia Pica, Chanel Global Creative Makeup and Color Designer. She captured fleeting, photographic moments to find fresh nuances for color and visual textures that could inform the Fall / Winter Collection.
So she embarked on a Californian road trip. Her idea was startling in its simplicity: to experience lights and colors of the outside world, nurturing her creative process. Inspiration came from everywhere: the bark of a tree, tyre marks, headlights. The journey’s end was in downtown LA, where Lucia Pica spent the day. ”Enough nature and poetry – I was inspired by grittier locations, too.” From the dawn mists and sun-dappled coastline to the City Lights and gritty noir of downtown LA, Lucia Pica embraced the serendipitous creative possibilities afforded when the journey becomes the destination.
As befits the freedom of a road trip, effortlessness is key to the collection, too. Lucia Pica introduces a long-time dream of hers: a PALETTE ESSENTIELLE containing three key products for a modern touch of natural polish in the form of creamy concealer, highlighter and blush used also for lip and cheeks. Together, they combine to create a fresh, glowy complexion all day long with that essential touch of refinement and polish – something Lucia Pica describes as her signature for skin. “I wanted a product that could achieve that fresh skin look I do on shoots,” she says.
The art of the unexpected; the energising jolt of taking a fresh look at familiar subjects as a new understanding of beauty that celebrates duality. “I am always trying to find the opposition – I think it’s something very CHANEL,” says Lucia Pica. So, for eyes, a darkness and intensity as enigmatic as the Californian ocean; for lips, the brightest pop colors that bring irreverence and energy.
“I’m so passionate about each color. I think it’s important that vibrancy comes through.” Her care for new and unexpected color combinations brings a new sense of poetry to the collection. “The feeling was depth and freedom,” she says. For example, LES 4 OMBRES Road Movie eyeshadow palette, with its satiny green-blue of the sea, satiny copper, matte stone beige and dark blue-green with grey undertone, presented itself to Lucia Pica almost fully-formed: “there was the sea, with the sun coming from one side to create this beautiful coppery gold, and then this lighter, brighter blue and a darker blue, and the pavement looked this beautiful beige… it was an obvious palette. It was just right in front of me. I couldn’t escape.
Two OMBRE PREMIERE crème mono eyeshadows Urban and Memory exemplify the easiness of Lucia Pica’s road trip-inspired collection; each a shorthand for elegant eye make-up, like Urban, a deep petrol blue that seems to exemplify the very essence of a road trip.
Another effortless essential, and a hallmark of Lucia Pica’s own work, the perfect deep black eyeliner pen. SIGNATURE DE CHANEL is a new fluid, intense and smooth formula that glides effortlessly across the eyes for an intense, satiny-black line, and is both waterproof and smudge-proof. Eyes are further intensified by an entirely new range of STYLO SOURCILS WATERPROOF eyebrow pencils in beautiful, natural-looking shades. A soft, buildable yet long-lasting formulation, the bevelled tip never needs sharpening, and offers a flat edge for a softer look and a pointed tip for definition, while a perfectly-shaped brush offers instant and essential brow grooming.
And so the lips: Lucia Pica’s desire for this Fall / Winter collection was that “bright pop colors” for lips would be a counterpoint to the intensity of the eyes. The color spectrum runs from nude beige through effervescent corals to burnished reds, but there is duality here too, as colors come in a variety of exquisite textures. For a nude look, choose from the matte liquid lip color of ROUGE ALLURE INK in Lost or the moist, creamy finish of ROUGE COCO in Daylight. For sunset shades, choose from either ROUGE ALLURE INK in the sweet orange Highway or the vivid coral of ROUGE COCO in Experimental.
There are also reds. ROUGE ALLURE VELVET, that decadent, soft, rich matte lipstick, expands the theme of opposition as it gets reimagined for day and night: First Light is a bright, poppy orange-red, and Nightfall is a dusky burned red.
Finally, nails are where the touch of irreverence in California’s beauty finds a home: LE VERNIS Horizon Line captures the pale, soft greenish grey of the sea on a cloudy day with almost watercolor perfection, LE VERNIS New Dawn is a muted taupe-grey.
Chanel’s Fall / Winter Collection is about memories, emotions and connections that color can inspire – an exercise in broadening horizons, in every exhilarating sense.
Tips for a modern beauty
Lucia Pica offers some new gestures and application techniques
Tips For The Complexion
The PALETTE ESSENTIELLE is my interpretation of a modern woman’s approach to make-up. Makeup should not be covering like a mask, it should be worn lightly on the skin.
Start with the concealer. I apply it with the new concealer brush, the retractable dual-tip concealer brush using the flat side to load the product and the fluffy side to blend into skin. Buffing concealer in with a brush stops the product sitting on top of the skin, and it becomes more a part of you. Use it wherever needed: under the eyes, around the nose and chin.
The concealer is ideal to perfect skin. Using the soft side of the brush, highlight the central parts of the face, the dark shadows around the nose, the mouth and the nasal font. Around the eye, it is very helpful to brighten dark circles and conceal any fine lines. I likealso to use it as an eyeshadow base by blending the eyelids.
I like to apply the blusher to the cheeks with the new retractable dual-head face brush/blush and highlighter, using the dark side to pick up the color.
Lightly buff the color onto the highest point of the apple of the cheeks in a downward and outward motion, and then pat the blush with the fingers to become the color part of the skin.
I love also to use directly my fingertips to press the color of the blusher into lips to create a soft, modern stain.
The highlighter looks beautiful on the brow bones. Pick up the color with the light side of the retractable dual-head face brush / blush and hightlighter, and then lightly buff it in downward sweeping motions on the highest point of the cheekbones, the bridge of the nose and the cupids bow of the mouth.
I like also to use the highlight cream to add just a touch of light in the inner corner of the eyes or a subtle sheen across the lid.
I love the idea of matte and shine existing together on the face. I might create a dewy skin with a matte eye, or a matte, velvet lip with a glossy eye”
Tips For The Eyes
“I love to layer eyeshadows. The OMBRE PREMIÈRE crème eyeshadows look beautiful on their own but also look incredible layered beneath the powder shadows in the LES 4 OMBRES palettes to add depth and intensity. Urban makes an interesting starting point for a modern smoky eye; Memory brings new depth to a nude eye
With the STYLO SOURCILS WATERPROOF, I like to use the flat edge for a natural look. Gently brushing the brows with the brush afterwards will soften the effect so the brows have an intensity without looking over-defined.
With the new SIGNATURE DE CHANEL eyeliner, I like to wear it with fresh, clean skin. The intense, satiny black color looks beautiful with dewy skin and a matte lip. It’s the perfect partner to the new PALETTE ESSENTIELLE.