Publications
- The Chanel digital showcase took place on Tuesday at Paris Fashion Week, presenting its Spring/Summer 2021 Ready-to-Wear collection by creative director Virginie Viard.
- Once again Virginie's fashions have raked in mixed reviews, but one thing remains consistent about Chanel's shows - the makeup.
- We go backstage with Chanel's head of beauty, Lucia Pica, to take a retrospective look at the makeup notes from this show.
Every showcase of garments is accompanied by makeup that completes the visual story told on the runway. For this, Chanel has Lucia Pica, their head of beauty whom we take makeup notes from regularly.
Between Lucia Pica and Sir John, we can comfortably say we have a pretty enviable arsenal of makeup experts on our side.
READ MORE: U.S. celeb makeup artist Sir John on his latest collab with WBeauty made exclusively for SA women
Today, just two days after the Chanel Spring/Summer 21 Ready-to-Wear show that a Fashionista reviewer described as "lacking any charm", we get a backstage peek into the head of beauty's creative process. The fashion community may be disappointed with Chanel's Virginie Viard, but beauty enthusiasts remain impressed by Lucia Pica.
While Virginie's predecessor, the late Karl Lagerfeld, played by "more is more" rules with regards to accessories in particular, Chanel Beauty's signature adopts a "less is more" approach - perhaps one of its most desirable charms.
Image supplied by Chanel
It's going to be a big season for makeup, as we all enjoy the spoils of eased lockdown restrictions every once in a while. So of course, we have seized the opportunity to take makeup notes from Lucia Pica show after show.
What were your sources of inspiration for this season's makeup?
It’s about a cinematic woman, the makeup look is a very exquisite masculine and feminine with a minimalist glamour feel to it. It’s an all-over matte look. It’s very finished and matte in a pristine kind of way. The girls feel slightly untouchable.
Image supplied by Chanel
Can you describe the fashion show makeup?
All the finishes are matte, like on the eyes, lips and skin. On the face, I used a concealer LECORRECTEUR DE CHANEL where needed and a powder compact foundation ULTRA LE TEINT as I really wanted the girls' makeup finish to look very blurry, matte and pristine.
On the eyes, I used two colours from LES 4 OMBRES mixed together, a grey from Blurry Grey’s palette and a black eyeshadow from Modern Glamour, to create a smoky effect all over the lids with a matte finish.
Image supplied by Chanel
I brushed up and defined brows with a pencil, STYLO SOURCILS WATERPROOF and an eyebrow gel LEGEL SOURCILS. I finished with a black mascara LE VOLUME RÉVOLUTION DE CHANEL Noir, on the top lashes only. Then, I used a nude lip pencil LE CRAYON LÈVRES Nude Brun and ROUGE ALLURE VELVETEXTRÊME Modern, a matte peachy brown lipstick on the top. And that’s the look!
Do you have any professional tips and tricks to share with us?
The trick to get this look right is to put a base of LE CORRECTEUR DE CHANEL concealer all over the eyelid and then put the grey-black eyeshadow directly on the lid, using the flat brush and patterning on all over the eyelid. Then blend it in the socket line to create that blurriness around it.
Is there a product that you particularly enjoyed using for this makeup look?
I particularly enjoyed using the compact foundation ULTRA LE TEINT, because it’s a creamy powdery foundation but it feels very light, like a veil. I really loved using it because it gave me that matte blurry finish I was looking for.”
