Creating a make-up look is much like creating an outfit – you start with one element and build it out from there: lipstick or shoes; eyeshadow or jacket, etc. Yet the starting point for the world’s most famous living make-up artist, Pat McGrath (behind countless runway looks for major houses, from Louis Vuitton to Maison Margiela and Marc Jacobs, and founder of Pat McGrath Labs), is an unexpected one: the lip line.

‘Every look I have ever created on the Louis Vuitton runway begins with the lip line,’ says McGrath. ’It is where precision becomes art.’ No surprise, then, that her latest launch as creative director of Louis Vuitton Beauty is the LV Crayon, a lipliner that is shaped like the brand’s signature monogram flower and enhanced with peptides to smooth and plump lips.

Designed to be worn with the brand’s previous launches – the LV Rouge lipstick and LV Baume lip balm – the liners come in ten different shades, ranging from 190 Beige Atlas (a beige-brown inspired by the sun-warmed patina of an ancient map) to 896 Monogram Rouge (a deep bordeaux developed by blending a classic red with the brand’s signature monogram brown). Other notable shades in between include 193 Sépia Panorama, a deep, universal chocolate; 390 Pink Aurora, an electric magenta; and 490 Plum Comet, a rich purple with dark red undertones.

When it comes to wearing the pencil, McGrath recommends creating a look she calls ‘Blur Illusion’, which, she says is her ‘love letter to the lip. It is imperfect, it is romantic, and it is entirely addictive. Once you try it, there is no going back.’ To create, simply pair your preferred neutral lipstick with the corresponding liner drawn just beyond the natural lip line, then softly blur with a brush or finger at the edges to create a diffused finish. Another of her suggestions is combining one of the collection’s brown or nude liners with a pink gloss to create a classic 1990s lip, which McGrath calls ‘the greatest lip moment in history’.

No matter how it’s worn, the collection is, for McGrath, an extension of what she’s been doing with Louis Vuitton beauty since the beginning. ‘I have always believed that the most powerful tools in any make-up artist's kit are the ones that enhance without overpowering. The LV Crayon shades were built from that philosophy – the finest nudes and rosewoods, each one chosen with absolute precision, anchored by a fearless edit of iconic LV reds that bring the unexpected and deliver the drama.’

This month's edit of the best new beauty launches span the ancient and the futuristic, from space-grown lip balms by new brand Exist, to 39 BC’s Cleopatra-inspired bath oils. In between, we have pistachio-scented candles from Loewe to give your house a springtime refresh, and a facial cupping kit from FaceGym to give your face a refresh, too.

Here, as selected by Wallpaper* beauty editor Mary Cleary, are the very best beauty launches of May 2026 – what they are, why we love them, and how to use them.

The nutty candle: Loewe's Pistachio Candle

The unconventional at-home facial: Face Gym's Facial Cupping Set 

The ancient bathing set: 39 BC Alexandria Discovery Set

The floral moisturiser: Chanel’s Hydra Beauty Micro Gel Crème

The lip balm grown in outerspace: Exist's Spacelip

‘Denim used to be a very masculine, only associated with workwear, but at Chanel, we can always use our magic twist to make everyday pieces really refined and luxurious,’ says Valentina Li, one of the three visionary make-up artists behind the brand’s beauty think tank, the Cometes Collective. That ‘magic twist’ is how Li transformed a potentially unremarkable idea, denim-inspired make-up, into a standout beauty collection that infuses the versatility and casual coolness of the fabric into eyeliners, nail polish, lipsticks and more.

Blue is a notoriously difficult colour to wear when it comes to make-up, limited exclusively to the eyes (unless you’re really bold) and, if not applied tactfully, it easily looks tacky or unflattering. Chanel’s Denim make-up line is impressive because it not only features blue that can be worn everywhere from your cheeks to your lips, but it does so in a way that, as Valentina says, is ‘refined and luxurious’.

Take, for instance, the Coco Denim Illuminating Powder, a highlighter which comes in a washed denim shade with a thread-woven logo embossed onto it, and leaves behind a slightly metallic flush of blue and pearly pink highlights. Or the Rouge Coco Flash lipstick in ‘Baby Blue’, which leaves behind a sheer pearlescent glow with a delicate tinge of barely perceptible blue. There are three other Rouge Coco colours in the collection as well – ‘Washed Beige,’ ‘Faded Orange,’ and ‘Raw Brow’– inspired by, according to Li, ‘girls in the 1990s who wear a lot of denim and a lot of brown lipstick’.

Browns and blues also feature heavily in one of the two ‘Les 4 Ombres’ eyeshadow palettes in the collection, ‘Coco Jean’, while the other, ‘Denim Dream’, blends shimmery blues with a dusty pink and a pearl coloured highlighter. Rounding out the line are two blue eyeliners, an indigo mascara, a shimmery blue nail polish and the brand’s classic La Creme Main hand lotion in a limited-edition denim pouch.

For Li, this collection is designed to be played with. ‘At Chanel Beauty, we don't set rules. We allow you to set your own rules and embrace the colour in your own way – just like how you wear your denim.’

The Chanel Beauty Denim Collection is available for a limited time, on counter from 20 February until mid-April 2026, and at chanel.com

Shop the story

All make-up is an illusion, designed to create the appearance of something that, once it’s removed, no longer exists. At least, that was the case until a few years ago, when brands started creating make-up that left a lasting effect on the skin. Case in point, Hermès’ latest product, the Plein Air Luminous Matte Skincare Foundation – honoured among other standout beauty launches in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2026 – which is formulated with an 82 per cent skincare base to improve skin health with every wear. Essentially, when you wear it, skin looks poreless, bright and blemishless. When you take it off, skin is more hydrated, smoother and plumper.

‘It’s a paradox that my team and I spent years working to create something you barely see,’ says Hermès Beauty’s creative director Gregoris Pyrpylis. ‘I didn’t want it to feel like a band-aid, something just to fix a problem. It isn’t meant simply to correct visually, but to help the skin improve over time. That’s the only way Hermès could do a foundation. It had to be done that way.’

Pyrpylis began developing the foundation when he took up his position in 2021. At the time, Hermès was formulating its Plein Air Complexion Balm, a hydrating cream that provides a lightweight veil of colour and SPF protection. Pyrpylis saw what the team was doing with that product launch – namely, creating make-up that benefited skin long-term – and knew he wanted to channel it into a higher-coverage foundation.

Five years later, the final product is formulated with a core trio of active ingredients: niacinamide to nourish, hyaluronic acid for moisture, and white mulberry extract for ​​brightening skin and reducing pigmentation. Recognising that each individual’s skin shade is a unique blend of surface colour and undertone, Hermès has developed five colour intensity groups – light, light-medium, medium, medium-deep and deep – and three undertones for each (cool, neutral, and warm). All 35 shades have a matte finish and medium coverage, making them ideal for those looking to improve the appearance of discolouration and pores.

I wore the foundation over the course of a few particularly cold winter days, and can attest that it evened, brightened and kept my skin moisturised, even as I moved between icy outdoor environments and drying, indoor heat.

The foundation launched is accompanied by a Perfecting Primer that can be worn underneath for extra coverage, or alone for a subtle, pore-blurring effect on days when you need less coverage. The collection also features an application palette, a spatula and a brush, designed by Pyrpylis to make the act of putting on your make-up feel like a special, ritualised moment of the day.

‘We are a house of craftsmanship, and I understand how important tools are in any discipline, including make-up,’ he says of the application tools. ‘I wanted to honour that moment each day when a woman or man decides to apply their make-up. I know we all have busy lives and often feel pressed for time, but I wanted to create a ritual – not just a foundation and primer that work perfectly together, but also a moment. Whether you take five, ten, or 15 minutes is up to you, but the idea is to elevate that moment into an act of self-care.’

Like all Hermès Beauty products, the packaging has been designed by the creative director of Hermès jewellery, Pierre Hardy. The foundation and primer come in frosted glass bottles, with a black-and-white lacquered metal cap topped with the house’s ex-libris motif in gold. The Le Perfecteur blending brush has a bevelled shape that nods to the appearance of a horse’s hoof and is engineered to evenly distribute product around the skin. Meanwhile, the make-up palette is inspired by an artist’s palette, with an easy-grip indent and an accompanying brush designed for mixing, collecting and applying the products.

As with everything Hermès does, the emphasis with this collection is on taking the time to do a few things perfectly, rather than hurrying to do many things well. For creatives like Pyrpylis, this slow pace can sometimes be frustrating, especially in a world that encourages the opposite; but ultimately, it’s a blessing more than a curse.

‘We often talk about “Hermès time”, [a pace] that means we can come out with more deliberate and intentional collections,’ he says. ‘[In a creative field], sometimes you have this vision and want to materialise an idea [quickly], but it can have more complications than expected. Still, when you take the time to do things well, the idea is executed in the most impeccable way. Even if it means the product comes out a year or two later, then it is worth the patience.’

The Hermès Plein Air Luminous Matte Skincare Foundation will be available to purchase in the UK from 23 January 2026 from hermes.com.
In the US, you can order already, $145 at hermes.com

Every day of the past year seemed to bring a new beauty launch, making it hard to tell exactly which debuts were worth paying attention to, and which were simply more noise.

Thankfully, after a year of trying, experimenting and then trying again, I’ve narrowed down 25 of the standout beauty launches of the year, chosen for a combination of innovative formulations, pleasing packaging, and the offering up of something new.

From contouring palettes to workout apps, Japanese make-up brushes and fragrance designed for your clothes, we're certain there’s something here for everyone. And, with the festive season looming, it doubles as a handy gift guide – whether indulging yourself or a loved one.

Make-up

Hair and body care

Perfume

Skincare

Wellness

Louis Vuitton’s beauty line, La Beauté Louis Vuitton, is finally here, following its announcement in March this year. The collection comprises 55 shades of LV Rouge lipsticks (55 being LV in Roman numerals), ten shades of LV Baume lip balm, eight shades of LV Ombres eyeshadows, as well as application brushes and leather accessories, and was developed under the auspices of legendary make-up artist Pat McGrath.

McGrath was a natural choice for creative director as a long-standing collaborator with Louis Vuitton fashion who shares the brand’s exacting attention to detail and dedication to quality. ‘With product development, I have always been obsessed with the smallest of details,’ says McGrath. ‘The perfection needed in product texture, the precise application methods, just the right amount of pigment pay-off, and how products should make you feel. I always like to push boundaries with make-up – and this métier is no different.’

If anyone knows about pushing cosmetics into new territory, it’s ‘Mother’ – a nickname given to McGrath thanks to her mentorship of younger artists and her foundational role in shaping contemporary beauty. From her iconic Vogue Italia covers with Steven Meisel in the 1990s to her recent glass skin for a Martin Margiela show, as well as her commercial work creating cosmetic lines for Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci, her overseeing of Covergirl and Max Factor in the early 2000s, and the launch of her own beloved make-up brand, Pat McGrath Labs, in 2015, no one in beauty has a more impressive resume than McGrath. Yet, for all this experience, La Beauté Louis Vuitton has given McGrath the chance to do something new – to parlay the expertise she has honed over decades in the industry into a line of unparalleled luxury.

One of McGrath’s greatest skills is her ability to develop high-impact colours that flatter a wide variety of skin tones. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hero products of the La Beauté Louis Vuitton collection, the LV Rouge lipsticks. With 27 satin shades and 28 matte, the lipsticks range from ‘406 Fearless Night’, a rich plum colour, to ‘103 Vanity Beige’, a subtle mauve. In between is the house’s signature shade, ‘896 Monogram Rouge’. Developed by McGrath to reflect the heritage of the house, this unique take on a classic red fuses the brown shade of Louis Vuitton’s iconic canvas fabric with traditional scarlet to create a rich, burnished colour.

A sheer interpretation of the shade is also available as an LV Baume, alongside eight other lightweight, buildable tints and one transparent balm. Formulated with shea butter, hyaluronic acid, five-flavor berry extract, and upcycled mimosa wax from Grasse, the balms are designed to have a skincare effect on lips, improving their smoothness and hydration with every wear.

Rounding out the collection are the LV Ombres eyeshadow palettes, each of which contains three easy-to-wear base shades and one bold colour to make them pop. There is, of course, a ‘Monogram Rouge’ palette, with deep browns and the signature red, as well as a ‘Beige Memento’ palette that draws inspiration from the patina of Louis Vuitton’s leather with gleaming ivory and shimmery bronze; and more outré options like the blue colours of ‘950 Sky’s The Limit’ or purple shades of ‘450 Cosmic Dreams’.

McGrath and Vuitton have, unsurprisingly, taken an exacting approach to the composition of the eyeshadows. Each shade is formulated with plant-derived squalane to help colour blend into the skin without compromising its long-lasting hold, while the glitter in each of the pearly and metallic shades is wrapped in a transparent gel to reflect light for maximised shine.

It’s these details that, according to McGrath, make La Beauté set a new standard in luxury beauty. ‘Luxury in make-up is about performance, craftsmanship, and sensoriality. It’s about textures that feel exquisite, colours that captivate, and formulas that perform flawlessly. True luxury is when every detail is considered – from the way the pigment melts into the skin to the way a lipstick feels in your hand. It’s the fusion of artistry and technology, of heritage and innovation.’

When it comes to La Beauté, every detail certainly has been considered, even the way it smells, with a scent designed by the brand’s in-house perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud. Instead of traditional perfumes, which are built on an alcohol base, Belletrud had to work with a wax and oil foundation for the lipstick, a much more difficult task. ‘Creating fragrance for lipstick is a completely different challenge than for skin,’ says Belletrud. ‘The scent sits much closer to the wearer’s nose, so it must be delicate yet expressive, something that seduces first the wearer herself before anyone else.’ In order to create a fragrance that would last, Belletrud had to find and formulate materials that would strike the right balance between delicate and distinctive. It took a total of four years to find a formulation he was happy with, which blends flowers native to Grasse – mimosa, jasmine, and rose – into subtle, lasting scent.

Rounding out the powerhouse team behind the line is German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic, who brought his sophisticated reimagining of simple forms to the design of La Beauté Louis Vuitton’s packaging. Grcic’s designs for La Beauté are weighty cases that close with a satisfying click and feature elegant details like a lock system for the lipstick and eyeshadow refills in the shape of LV’s signature flower, or a window at the top of the lipstick case that allows you to view the shade inside. ‘The way it feels in your hand, the sound of the closure, the temperature of the materials – these are all part of the emotional connection,’ says Grcic about the design.

Each La Beauté Louis Vuitton piece is designed to be a lifelong keepsake, and that ethos is reflected in its prices (lipsticks are priced at £120 and the eyeshadow palettes at £190). For those who would like to make the experience of owning one of the items extra special, the brand has designed a line of small leather goods to accompany the collection, including Monogram canvas cases to hold lipsticks and blotting papers.

Ultimately, it is a collection that sets a new standard for luxury in beauty. ‘I’ve always said make-up is more than product: it’s performance, obsession and emotion,’ says McGrath. ‘This new chapter is about pushing craftsmanship into a new realm.’

Shop the collection at louisvuitton.com

Refillable beauty has revolutionised the industry, with the aim of reducing surplus packaging waste; only about nine per cent of that packaging would have been recycled, according to the British Beauty Council.

Here, across make-up, skincare, fragrance and haircare, Wallpaper* edits a selection of the best refillable beauty packaging designs that you’ll want to keep in pride of place on your vanity table or bathroom shelf, from the likes of Dries van Noten, Hermès, Noble Panacea, Perfumer H, Davines and more.

The best of refillable beauty design, edited by Wallpaper*

Refillable make-up

Refillable skincare

Refillable fragrance

Refillable haircare

Cream blush sticks are invaluable tools in your beauty arsenal for the summer months, striking the perfect balance between a lightweight, ethereal consistency and high-impact payoff.

Buildable and incredibly low-stakes when it comes to errors in application, the cream blush stick is also infinitely versatile: it can be dabbed onto eyelids, lips and swept across the temples, as well as the apples of the cheeks and bridge of the nose in keeping with the natural skin flush that warmer weather provides.

From dewy to matte finishes, Wallpaper* selects five of the best formulas, including Merit’s aptly-named Flush Balm, Chanel’s Les Beiges Blush Stick and Nars’ cult classic The Multiple.

Five of the best cream blush sticks, from Merit to Chanel

‘Perfect’ is an overused adjective. But when it comes to Victoria Beckham’s namesake beauty line, it’s a description that sincerely fits. From the moment Victoria Beckham Beauty debuted over London Fashion Week S/S 2020 with an edit of eye products inspired by its founder’s signature smokey lids, it was clear that the pop-star turned fashion designer had struck a considered balance between form and function – no easy feat in the world of make-up, at least.

The first collection included The Eye Wardrobe quad, a palette that features shadows in an array of finishes. Textured like silk, they also provide a surprising whack of buildable and intensely pigmented colour. In addition, there was the Satin Kajal Liner, which now boasts a cult status thanks to its ability to glide over the skin like butter, yet cling onto a make-up look for hours on end, thanks to a waterproof formulation.

This month, the brand celebrates one of its first Satin Kajal Liners – a matte burgundy kohl named Bordeaux – with an expanded collection of products built around this colour spectrum. Joining the eyeliner is a new Eye Wardrobe palette and Future Lash mascara, which was first used by Lucia Pica to create the runway beauty for Victoria Beckham’s A/W 2025 show.

In addition, Victoria Beckham Beauty marks a milestone moment, unveiling its first-ever collection of make-up tools: The Brush Set. Here, Beckham gives Wallpaper* a glimpse into the process of its making. (Her method is just as meticulous as you might expect).

How Victoria Beckham designed the perfect collection of make-up brushes

Wallpaper*: When and why did you first have the idea to create The Brush Set for Victoria Beckham Beauty?

Victoria Beckham: I’ve been obsessed with brushes for longer than I can remember. When it comes to make-up, years of working with top industry professionals have given me a clear vision of what I want, what’s missing and what truly works. Just as I’ve collected make-up over the years, I’ve also collected make-up brushes.

With this set of brushes, I’ve considered every single detail. I’m deeply focused on the ‘why’ behind everything and strive for best-in-class quality before I share anything. I’ve spent a great deal of time analysing this brush collection: what I wanted and what I couldn’t find [elsewhere]. Each one has really earned its right to be there.

W*: The Brush Collection draws inspiration from calligraphy pens and cutlery. What was your research process here?

VB: Precision is extremely important to me. I was especially drawn to the fine, controlled lines of calligraphy pens and their ability to create both delicate and bold strokes with absolute accuracy. That same balance of artistry and function was key when designing these brushes.

Looking at my past work, like the Contour Stylus, I see how that same level of precision carries through. The compact size of the Stylus allows for detailed application, almost like sketching on the face. My research process was about studying the elegance and functionality of both calligraphy tools and cutlery, focusing on their refined craftsmanship, the way they feel in hand and how they elevate the experience of using them.

W*: What were the essential design elements that you wanted the brushes to include in terms of functionality?

VB: I wanted nothing to be overcomplicated. I was meticulous in each brush being the perfect shape, whether it’s the right angle to create the perfect smoky eye or achieve seamless application. For the shape of the brush handle, I thought about when I’m using a particular brush. How do I hold it in my hand? And so, consequently, what does the shape need to be?

When I’m using the double-ended 22. Define & Line Brush, for example, I use the bushy end to build the arch in the eye, then the flatter side to refine and shape. I love that balance of precision and ease; it just makes the whole process feel intuitive.

W*: The handles are crafted from walnut timber. Why did you settle on this particular type of wood?

VB: The materials that we use are true to my brand DNA. Walnut timber felt like the perfect choice; the wood is beautiful, and I love the weight it gives the brushes. It also gives them a real point of difference. I’m always influenced by my surroundings, including my home and my interiors. I’m incredibly particular about design, and everything I create has a purpose. Nothing is chosen at random; there’s always intention behind every element.

The Brush Set and The Bordeaux Collection by Victoria Beckham Beauty are available now.

victoriabeckhambeauty.com

It’s been five years since Hermès debuted its beauty métier. The first ever collection, Rouge Hermès, is a range of matte and satin lipsticks in colours extracted from the house’s archive. Textures are inspired by suede and calfskin leather, with the lipstick bullets (scented by Christine Nagel) contained in Pierre Hardy’s ergonomic and aesthetically striking cases.

‘It’s first of all sensual; about revealing, as opposed to masking. It’s about enhancing what is naturally there, and creating elegance and comfort and pleasure in being the best version of yourself,’ Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director of Hermès, told Wallpaper* upon the launch.

Now, marking this milestone, creative director of Hermès Beauty Gregoris Pyrpylis has expanded its lipstick offering with a new compilation: Rouge Brilliant Silky. As the name suggests, instead of leather, this time around Pyrpylis looked to Hermès silks when devising the collection’s diaphanous – yet buildable, pigmented and longwearing – formulas.

Here, he takes Wallpaper* further behind the making of Rouge Brillant Silky.

Hermès Beauty: the making of Rouge Brillant Silky lipstick

Wallpaper*: What was the starting point – and inspiration behind – the Rouge Brillant Silky collection?

Gregoris Pyrpylis: After five years of Hermès Beauty, I wanted to celebrate this moment. So it made sense to introduce a new lipstick – a new signature, a new expression – for Hermès Beauty, which is complimentary to the Rouge Hermès collection that we began with, back in 2020. The finish of Rouge Brillant Silky is more of a delicately coloured yet intensely glossy finish. It’s intuitive and playful. It’s not about precision.

The collection draws inspiration from a memory from my childhood; the first time I felt silk against my skin. My mom used to wear a lot of long, ethereal silk scarves, either around her neck or attached to her handbag. I was only small – around six or seven years old – and when she would come and pick me up from school I would walk alongside her at knee-height and the silk would brush against my face.

W*: How did you capture this sensation in the Rouge Brillant Silky formulation?

GP: We worked closely with the Hermès silk métier, which provided different samples from the archive. I then borrowed elements from these samples for the lipstick formula and texture. There’s the transparency of silk chiffon; the suppleness of silk twill; the luminosity of silk lamé.

The ingredients were key to achieving this. There’s Abyssinian oil, which is incredibly hydrating and nourishing. We also infused the lipsticks with sesame seed extract, to soften and smooth the lips, and raspberry leaf extract, which has a subtle plumping effect. Then there’s the Morus Alba, or white mulberry, a core ingredient running throughout Hermès Beauty, which has antioxidant properties.

W*: How did you translate the intense colours of Rouge Hermès into more of a sheer finish?

GP: The shades in the Rouge Brillant Silky collection are emblematic of Hermès, such as Rouge Casaque, Rouge H and Rose Épicé. I stayed as close as possible to the true colour payoff, in this sheer formula. The lipsticks elevate the natural shade of the lips, rather than covering entirely.

There are also new shades that I developed. One of my favorites is called Brun d’Ambre, which is a beautiful beige, infused with golden, pink and copper-toned pearls. So, when you apply it, it just warms up the skin in a very subtle way. And it works on every skin tone. Another of my favourites is Rouge Brique, another signature Hermès colour, that we hadn’t used in the beauty métier before now. It’s a dark terracotta red. It’s a lipstick that elevates and reveals the natural colour of the lips, rather than covering.

W*: What is the ‘gesture’ – or application technique – for Rouge Brillant Silky?

GP: A Rouge Brillant Silky lipstick doesn’t follow the rules. There are so many ways to apply it. Of course, you can start with one swipe on your lips and stop there, which will provide a very lightweight veil of colour. Then, you can build up the intensity if you continue with a second or even a third layer. By pairing it with one of the Trait d’Hermès pencils, you could create a shade sur mesure.

When used alongside a corresponding lipstick from the Rouge Hermès collection – for example, Rouge Casaque paired with Rouge Casaque from Rouge Brillant Silky – you can achieve a lacquered finish. For an ‘almost there’ tint, try applying one of the lipsticks to the back of your hand and dabbing it onto the lips with your fingertip. I think the gesture has an addictive power. Those who have worn the product so far have told me that ‘they cannot stop applying it’.

W*: The refillable lipstick cases and protective canvas pouches for Rouge Brillant Silky are new. Also, the bullets are slanted. Why is this?

GP: Pierre Hardy has made Hermès Beauty so unique that the moment you touch the object in your hands, you instinctively know it’s Hermès. So when it comes to this new chapter, I explained to him that Rouge Brillant Silky is a melting and enveloping texture that needs to be guided by the shape of the bullet and the case. The slanted bullet will facilitate the gesture when you apply it; it’s not flat, so you won’t hold the lipstick in a way that feels unnatural. The slender shape of the case also aids in this gesture.

This year we are also celebrating the 100th anniversary of Rouge H – a distinctive colour for Hermès. It’s a Bordeaux red with a hint of brown and a slightly blue undertone, which dictated the design of the new canvas pouch.

W*: And what about the metallic-finish limited edition cases?

GP: At Hermès, we’re always trying to create objects that have long lasting life. To me, the limited edition cases are like treasures you want to keep forever. Rouge Brillant Silky is about how colour interacts with light. So here, I looked at artists who have explored this approach, such as James Turrell. And Pierre Hardy worked his magic yet again.

W*: What’s next for Hermès Beauty?

GP: The Hermès A/W 2025 show was on Saturday last week (8 March 2025), in which Hermès Beauty had a very significant presence with a bold make-up expression. As for what’s next, the beauty métier feels almost complete in terms of its core offering. So the aim is to enrich our existing collections, going a bit deeper into each segment but always sticking to the foundation of Hermès Beauty. The next launch is coming in September this year. I think it’s going to be one of my favourites and may be surprising to some as it’s quite unexpected for Hermès.

Rouge Brillant Silky, from £63, from hermes.com

Founder of Abra Abraham Ortuño Perez grew up in Alicante, Spain, surrounded by women. ‘My mom, my sister, my aunt... Our home was filled with beauty products,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘They were some of the most striking and memorable elements of my childhood.’

Yesterday (5 March 2025) Ortuño Perez drew upon these memories for Abra’s A/W 2025 collection, titled Fashion Boutique. (This marked the brand’s third runway presentation and the second to be included on the official Paris Fashion Week schedule for ready-to-wear).

Abra A/W 2025 beauty: furry wigs, greige lipstick and New Romantic glamour

Ortuño Perez – who moved from Spain to Paris to study at Institut Français de la Mode – realised Abra in 2020, whilst freelancing at Jacquemus, Coperni, Rabanne, JW Anderson and Loewe on shoes and accessories. (Ortuño Perez is behind the S/S 2022 sandals at Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe, where heels took the form of realistic-looking cracked eggs, solid soap bars and bottles of nail polish, to name but a few of his viral designs).

In Abra’s debut runway show for A/W 2024, make-up met clothing once more in the form of surrealist jewellery and bags: eyeshadow palette clutch bags and earrings; lipstick-shaped brooches; necklaces that curved around the décolletage, sculpted to look like bent make-up brushes; and prints on dresses, nodding to the branding and marketing imagery of provincial beauty salons.

‘My mom had a unique approach to make-up,’ Ortuño Perez continues, speaking on the themes of the A/W 2025 collection, which built upon those of A/W 2024. ‘She would use a single pink lipstick for everything, from her lips to her cheeks. She also carried a compact eyeshadow palette filled with glossy, vibrant shades, effortlessly creating her signature look.’

This season’s presentation received its name thanks to the local fashion boutiques the designer would visit with his mother during the 1980s and 1990s, where a commercialised ‘fantasy’ of Parisian fashion, by the likes of Thierry Mugler, would be sold. ‘This was an era where high-fashion drama was effortlessly mixed with the everyday woman’s wardrobe,’ says Ortuño Perez.

The designer worked with French hair stylist Charlie Le Mindu and make-up artist Cécile Paravina to realise the Abra A/W 2025 runway beauty, which fused his mother’s effortless style with the glamorous aesthetics of 1980s pop and subculture. ‘The New Romantics revolutionised beauty and fashion,’ he says.

‘I also vividly remember a scene from Flashdance where she dances in a room filled with flashing lights, wearing the signature make-up [of that time]. As a kid, I was convinced this was the future of beauty.’

To achieve this, Le Mindu styled some of the models’ hair in a typically ‘bourgeoise’ fashion; either loose and natural, cropped short or slicked back into buns which were then tied with scarves. Here, make-up was kept soft, tonal and ‘griege’. ‘The goal was to have a cohesive color story with the 1980s, brownish fabrics of the collection,’ Paravina explains.

‘Before the show, we prepared variations of beige and browns shades by mixing several cool-toned lipsticks to create a kind of gradient and match each model with something that would work on their complexion. We then went for a soft matte base, using minimal foundation and concealer and translucent powder,’ she continues.

In seven out of the 28 looks, however, Le Mindu and Paravina provided shaggy black wigs and white face paint, à la Siouxie Sioux. ‘I had my team start with eyes first to avoid eyeshadow fall out,’ Paravina says, noting that she used a black waterproof pencil to build a structure around the eye before applying matte eyeshadow in deep black and a medium purple-hued grey, finishing the look with a touch of pale lavender. ‘Layering matte shadow helps with creating a diffused look reminiscent of Pater Sato’s airbrushed illustrations,’ she adds.

‘The Abra A/W 2025 beauty look has a mix of punk and goth, but with a futuristic energy,’ Le Mindu tells Wallpaper*. ‘The hair is almost like a hybrid of a Russian ushanka and a 1980s glam rock mullet. It blends elements of raw, untamed textures with sharp, structured layering.’ A combination of natural hair and goat fur provided exaggerated volume, with lengths given a sleek polish. ‘There was some serious teasing and razor cutting to get that jagged finish, alongside matte texturizing products by Savage Panache and powders by L’Oreal Professional.’

‘This vision had been lingering in the back of my mind for a while and the A/W 2025 collection felt like the perfect moment to bring it to life,’ concludes Ortuño Perez. ‘Charlie and Cécile are two of the most exceptional artists working today: their talent and professionalism made them the ideal creative partners to realise this project.’

abra.paris

Today (5 March 2025) Louis Vuitton has revealed it will launch a make-up line, with Pat McGrath as its creative director. The new métier will be called La Beauté Louis Vuitton.

The British make-up artist first collaborated with the house under the tenure of Marc Jacobs (1997 to 2014) and has remained the visionary lead behind its runway beauty over the past 12 years of Nicolas Ghesquière’s reign. ‘Working backstage for over 20 years at Louis Vuitton fashion shows, I am thrilled to now play such a key role in the launch of La Beauté Louis Vuitton, which is the result of extraordinary craftsmanship, creativity and innovation,’ McGrath said in a statement.

Louis Vuitton is launching beauty with Pat McGrath

This won’t be the first time Louis Vuitton has dabbled in the cosmetics world, in a contemporary sense at least. Over 100 years ago, it produced power compacts, brushes and mirrors designed to be transported in its monogrammed leather luggage and vanity cases. Two of these pieces remain in the Louis Vuitton archives: a bespoke beauty kit and toiletry case crafted c.1925 for opera singer Marthe Chenal and composer Jan Paderewski.

Whilst Louis Vuitton’s fragrance line will remain in the hands of master perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud, McGrath, one of the most influential make-up artists working today, will blend its expansive history with her singular vision.

Alongside Ghesquière, she has devised make-up looks that speak to his avant-garde and futuristic take on the storied house codes. Notable catwalk moments include her beauty looks for shows such as S/S 2017 and A/W 2019, with angular eyeliner and airbrushed 1980s-inspired eyeshadows a signature of her work at Louis Vuitton.

‘La Beauté Louis Vuitton is a natural business evolution, driven by our meticulous attention to quality, formula and innovation,’ Petro Beccari CEO of Louis Vuitton says. ‘Through this new universe, we have the opportunity to further accompany clients in their everyday lives with purpose and pleasure, while continuing to celebrate our creativity and heritage.’

La Beauté Louis Vuitton is set to arrive in the autumn of this year, with a collection of eight eye palettes, ten lip balms and an array of lipsticks (55, to be exact).

louisvuitton.com

Mikey Madison, the breakout star of Sean Baker’s Anora, has won the 2025 Oscar for best actress for her titular role in the film. At the ceremony in Los Angeles (2 March 2025), Baker became the first person in Academy Award history to take home all four golden statuettes for best director, cinematography, original screenplay and picture.

Baker’s fellow nominees included Brady Corbet and Coralie Fargeat, the respective directors of The Brutalist and The Substance. (The hair and make-up team who worked on Fargeat’s film to create the grisly prosthetic design worn by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, won the Oscar in this category).

Albeit in wildly different ways, both The Substance and Anora ask audiences to cross-examine feminist themes in the context of late capitalism. And, although the hair and make-up in each film are also diametric opposites, they are equally important parts of the storytelling.

For Madison to become Anora ‘Ani’ Mikheeva – a 23-year-old sex worker from Brighton Beach who marries the son of Russian Oligarchs – collaboration with New York-based hair and make-up leads Justine Sierakowski and Annie Johnson was an integral part of the actor’s methodology. Here, both Sierakowski and Johnson take Wallpaper* behind the scenes of this process.

Anora: the hair and make-up behind Mikey Madison’s transformation

Wallpaper*: How were you brought on board as Anora’s hair and make-up leads?

Annie Johnson: I had previously worked with one of my best friends, Jocelyn Pierce, who was the costume designer on Anora. She gave me a call and she was like: ‘Hey, listen, Sean Baker is looking for a make-up artist for his new film. Are you interested?’ My ears immediately perked up. She put me in contact with the producers and I went through maybe eight interview rounds in total. I think they had spoken to several different make-up artists and were struggling to find the right person because Sean likes less make-up in his films than you might expect – and that’s a surprisingly difficult thing to achieve on screen. But it’s something that I often do in my work on films, so I got the job.

Justine Sierakowski: When I got hit up to do this job I remember thinking: ‘Oh shit, I love Sean Baker’s work!’ Annie had brought on Callie Filion, another great make-up artist as our HMU swing, who would be assisting on the film. She recommended me for hair. I had worked with one of the film’s producers before I got hired and the rest went from there. The opportunity to work on Anora was like a dream coming true. I had to slap myself and get my shit together! I’d never worked with Annie before, but we immediately hit it off and started a creative dialogue right off the bat. We did a couple of jobs together to see how we flowed – even a Jimmy John’s sandwich commercial. It’s was wild going from a sandwich commercial to an Oscar-nominated feature film.

W*: How did you work with Sean Baker and Mikey Madison to map out what the hair and make-up might look like once filming began?

AJ: Sean put a lot of it in our hands. We knew the gist of what he was looking for, but he didn’t know the specific terminology. He kept calling eyeliner mascara, for example! But he knew what elements of Anora’s character he wanted to communicate through the hair and make-up. Sean is very invested in trusting the expertise of the team he’s working with. So he was really open to ideas.

JS: Annie and I spent a lot of time getting familiar with the script before we sat down to have a conversation with Sean. He already knew that we would be working with Mikey, as he only ever wanted to cast her in the role. And then once we had more of a concrete idea of what we were doing, and what we wanted to do, we moved into collaborating with Mikey.

W*: What references did you have pinned to your moodboards for hair and make-up?

AJ: Mikey has such a unique eye shape. Sean had come to me with some 1970s film references, which was very natural skin but really thick, winged eyeliner. So we ended up doing a toned down and modernised version of this.

JS: In the initial conversations with Sean, he was keen to have something glittery or sparkly in the hair, because Anora’s name means ‘light’. I immediately thought about Adrian Maloof’s hair tinsel extensions in the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I did a lot of research on Pinterest. During pre-production, we did some tests with different colours of tinsel. Mikey then picked out the colours she wanted; a combination of purple, magenta and light pink.

W*: What were the technical aspects when it came to transforming Mikey Madison into Anora aka ‘Ani’?

JS: I used microbeads to attach the tinsel to Mikey’s hair, so they are clamped in. Then everything else is tied on with slip knots. The bottom layer was more permanent than the top, so there was a lot of work resetting her hair between takes. Particularly between her pre-home invasion look and her post-home invasion look. It was more of a beast than I was expecting.

AJ: Mikey’s acting was so physical that she had so many bruises from the fight scenes and the dancing. So equally, Justine and had about three hours of work to do before she would be ready. We would start work every morning at 3am. I also added the bow tattoos on the back of her legs and I went through months of trying to get the process right for this in order for them to look right. I eventually got them made through Tinsley Transfers in LA. They did an amazing job. They sent me hundreds of transfers, as we had to apply them four or five times a day, as they would sometimes rub off on the costumes and when she was lap dancing.

W*: What other products did you use for the make-up and hair?

AJ: To cover bruises, I was using the Sian Richards Hydroproof Palette. Its completely waterproof and transfer-proof. It was in my kit at all times and I went through a whole palette on Mikey during filming. I used Ardell false lashes from the drugstore and Makeup by Mario Ultra Suede lip pencil in the shade Toasty. A lot of setting spray was used. It was really cold whilst we were shooting, too, so I was trying to keep Mikey’s skin hydrated with products from Tatcha.

JS: We kept things simple. I used a lot of the IGK Hair Direct Flightand Jet Lag dry shampoo, which gave Mikey’s hair a lot of texture. We would have to map out when she was able to wash her hair [for continuity]. So the dry shampoo would suck up some of the oil whilst giving her hair more life. The Colour Wow Dreamcoat Supernatural Spray would really help with frizz in the damp conditions when we were filming outside, as she has pretty thick and wavy hair.

W*: There’s a scene in Anora when Ani is outside the club comparing nail designs with another dancer called Lulu. Who created them?

AJ: The nails were done by Joy Accardi of Claws by Joy, an artist based in Brooklyn. She created a custom diamanté butterfly design for Ani, which works with the theme of transformation that runs throughout Anora. The other design in this scene, the dollar symbol nails worn by Lulu, was something that I picked out from one of the images on Joy’s Instagram. There is a lot of symbolism here, too. But this scene wasn’t scripted. It was Mikey using the nails in improvised dialogue.

W*: What was it like when you both watched Anora in full at its premiere in Cannes?

AJ: At Cannes, Justine and I were sitting right next to each other and we were just like holding each other’s hands the entire time. It was truly amazing. There was such a vibe in that room. Clapping, shouting...

JS: Oh it was such an overwhelming moment. Me and Annie were probably the closest to Mikey on set, as we worked so intensely together from really early in the morning to last thing at night. We formed a real friendship and bond. I think the hair and make-up room became a serene, safe place for her, you know. She had a lot on her plate during that movie – she truly gave it everything she had.

anora.film

The best beauty products of the month, according to Wallpaper*, includes eight new launches by a roster of brands. Below, find Prada's latest mascara, used by lead make-up artist Lynsey Alexander in the runway look for the house’s A/W 2025 show on Wednesday this week (26 February 2025).

Plus, Westman Atelier’s bronzing drops, formulated by Gucci Westman. The American make-up artist has recently worked with Anthony Vaccarello and David Sims on Saint Laurent’s S/S 2025 campaign starring Michelle Pfeiffer, in addition to Nicole Kidman – who plays Romy in Halina Reijn’s Babygirl – on the actor’s red carpet appearances during this year’s awards season.

The best beauty products of the month, according to Wallpaper*

The Prada A/W 2025 collection was, as Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss writes in his report, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ ‘pitch for liberation’. Titled Raw Glamour, it subverted typical codes of ‘feminine beauty’, not just through clothing but also via hair and make-up, courtesy of Guido Palau and Lynsey Alexander.

‘A feeling of dishevelment ran throughout – not least the hair, which had been teased and ruffled, as if at the end of a long evening (or, indeed, rolling out of bed),’ Moss continues of the show, which took place yesterday (27 February) during Milan Fashion Week.

Prada A/W 2025 beauty by Guido Palau and Lynsey Alexander

There were distinct echoes of the ‘frazzled’ ponytails Palau created for Miu Miu A/W 2023: a collection that interrogated ‘ways of looking’ and the push and pull of ‘attraction and repulsion’. Here, he used static electricity to lift loose strands at the crown into delicate tufts, by rubbing hair with balloons.

Miu Miu is often thought of as Prada’s ‘little sister’. And certainly, the Prada A/W 2025 woman is a grown up version of her younger self, taking a decidedly darker road through life. On the likes of Julia Nobis, who opened the runway, and two new faces Xaria Carter and Maelie Harambat cast in the show by Ashley Brokaw, Palau backcombed hair into a matted tangle, as though a once perfect blow out had been unwashed and slept on for several days and nights.

Similarly, Lyndsey Alexander made ‘unkempt’ eyebrows the central focus of A/W 2025’s make-up, lending them an exaggerated fuzz and ultra-dense appearance with Prada Beauty’s new Pradascope mascara and soon-to-be-released eye pencils.

In contrast, complexions had a bare appearance, whilst lips were given just a touch of balm. ‘There’s a juxtaposition of ugly and beautiful, coming together to create something quite extraordinary,’ Alexander told Wallpaper* in a 2023 interview, a statement that rings true in her work on yesterday’s show.

Here, co-creative directors Mrs Prada and Raf Simons – alongside Palau and Alexander – have told the story of a woman who is disinterested in the so-called ‘clean girl aesthetic’, multi-step routines and endless ‘shower hacks’ peddled on Instagram and TikTok.

This is a continuation of the agenda laid out at the recent Prada womenswear and menswear seasons, designed as ripostes to the prescriptive, pervasive – and often deceptive – algorithmic image. (As Wallpaper’s Jack Moss reported, the house’s S/S 2025 womenswear show was a rejection of the ‘derivative and expected’, with Mrs Prada stating backstage: ‘We are driven by algorithms. We like things because people tell us to like them.’)

Prada tapped Ottessa Moshfegh to write a series of short stories to accompany the S/S 2025 Ten Protagonists campaign, in which Carey Mulligan plays a roster of different personas, donning various wigs by Guido Palau.

Moshfegh is renowned for her lurid and ‘unsavoury’ female narrators, their beauty, grooming and hygiene habits – or sometimes lack thereof – speak to an unwillingness to conform to the societal expectations dictated by America during various points in history.

‘What does femininity mean today? How can it be defined?’ read the Prada A/W 2025 show notes.

Questions around beauty standards for women, across every demographic and culture, are ever-evolving and infinite. But during a time when technological progression leads to political regression, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons seem to be saying that these questions are even more urgent to ask.

prada.com

Backstage at Simone Rocha’s A/W 2025 show, which took place yesterday (23 February 2025) over London Fashion Week inside Goldsmiths’ Hall, key make-up artist Thomas de Kluyver talked Wallpaper* through his vision.

‘This season, Simone was inspired by the children’s story The Tortoise and the Hare, so we wanted to keep the make-up playful,’ he said. ‘You know when you were a teenager and you’d pluck your eyebrows to be really thin? We referenced this but also kept the Simone Rocha narrative in there with colourful bugle beads. Embellishment has always been a signature of the Simone Rocha beauty look.’

Simone Rocha A/W 2025: Beauty by Thomas de Kluyver, Holli Smith and Ama Quashie

A/W 2025 began with creating a ‘raw’ yet luminous canvas for all models, with skin prepped using products from Dr Barbara Sturm. ‘We’ve kept the skin very fresh, with details then added on top such as the beaded eyebrows or a dark lip,’ De Kluyver said, who had blocked out natural brow hair before etching a thin line onto which pearlescent bugle beads in pale pink, red or black were glued.

In other looks, brows remained natural and fluffed up, exaggerated with Byredo’s Ultra Definer Brow pencils. Neutral tones inside the fragrance and beauty brand’s Desert Road eyeshadow palette, along with a lick of black Astronomical mascara, gently defined eyes. Viynl, satin and matte-textured lipsticks, in shades such as September, On The Edge, Lost Letter, Molasses, Auburn and Calmer, had been daubed onto the likes of Alexa Chung and Andrea Riseborough who, alongside Fiona Shaw, were cast in the show by Julia Lange. A few of the lipsticks also doubled as a blusher. ‘I like to think of each part of the make-up look as fashion accessories on the face,’ said De Kluyver.

This season, hair was taken care of by American stylist Holli Smith, who cut her teeth as an assistant to Guido Palau before attaining a legendary status in her own right. A/W 2025 marked the first time that Smith had worked on a standalone Simone Rocha show, having joined forces with De Kluyver and London-born nail artist Ama Quashie – also present backstage yesterday leading a team of manicurists – on the runway beauty for Simone Rocha x Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture S/S 2024.

‘We wanted to ensure that everyone had something a little different with their hair and the models kept a sense of individuality,’ Smith explained. ‘Although the one thing that tied everything together was making sure that everyone’s look is kept away from the face. But nothing is flat or severe. There’s some messiness, too,’ she continued, noting that Bumble and Bumble’s Thickening and Surf sprays were essential in keeping a nonchalant feel. ‘When these products are combined, it gives a lightweight wet look to the hair, but it’s also quite starchy and structured, so holds its shape and is malleable for playing around with.’

The collection also spoke of Simone Rocha’s teenage schooldays in Dublin, as Wallpaper* fashion features editor Jack Moss notes in his A/W 2025 London Fashion Week report. So Smith also gave some of the models hair bunches, before nonchalantly securing them at the nape of the neck using thick black rubber bands. ‘Everyone has the same rubber bands, it’s nothing too special,’ says Smith. ‘We made it look like they did it themselves, almost.’

From rubber bands to Tipp-Ex, in the form of playful yet minimal nails by Ama Quashie, who has been the key nail artist for Simone Rocha shows over the past several seasons. ‘For A/W 2025 we’ve used white polish with a mattifying top coat in full and half-moons and there are some red half-moons in the mix, too. And even though we wanted to keep it youthful, it still has to be perfect,’ she said. ‘It’s a simple, look but sometimes it takes even more work as there’s nowhere to hide,’ Quashie continued, adding that meticulous cuticle prep, hydration and a uniform shape are the foundations of her technical process.

‘The way I work is knowing when to exercise restraint and simplicity, or when to go bigger. But always, it’s important to master the foundation: a perfect, really clean nail,’ Quashie told Wallpaper* in 2023, echoing this sentiment. ‘It’s the groundwork for every manicure. And from there, everything else is added in line with the creative vision … When I work with Simone Rocha it’s often about going with your gut instinct.’

simonerocha.com

Nars’ Radiant Longwear Foundation, Radiant Creamy Concealer and Radiant Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser are the make-up equivalent of the holy trinity when it comes to creating skin that – if you’ll pardon the beauty cliché – still ‘looks like skin’.

Of course, the raison d’être of the brand, founded by virtuoso François Nars in 1994 with black rubberised packaging designed by Fabien Baron, is to traverse the line between ‘no make-up make-up’ and outré glamour. Though arguably Nars, who remains the creative director for his namesake product line 30 years on, considers these two aesthetics as one and the same.

Nars radiant foundation and concealer are cult classics

Born and raised in the South of France, Nars grew up during the 1960s and 1970s, watching the matriarchs of his family titivating and preening themselves in the signature manner of French women.

Later, he would paint the faces of his mother and grandmothers to practice his make-up skills, before leaving home for Paris to hone his craft at the prestigious Carita Institute. ‘What I learnt from my mother is that character and personality are the most important beauty traits in a person. She was never into heavy make-up, but she always looked amazing, which taught me that less is more,’ Nars once said. In 2021, he even produced a range of products called The Claudette Collection, in tribute to her.

But it was the legendary fashion editor Polly Mellen who gave François Nars his ‘big break’ during the 1980s. Mellen, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 100, was drawn to his work precisely because it had a ‘lighter’ touch than the make-up by some of his contemporaries. ‘She loved the transparency of the make-up, compared to what was being done at that time,’ Nars told WWD in 2011. ‘I sought out girls with freckles, raw beauty. It was a new concept. I wanted to show that they were human,’ he explained.

A seminal moment in Nars’ career was keying the make-up for Marc Jacobs’ S/S 1993 show for Perry Ellis, which tore up the rulebook of American style in tribute to the grunge movement. (The collection led to Jacobs’ immediate dismissal from the brand and simultaneously catapulted the fashion designer to stardom).

Grunge was defined by a lived-in nonchalance, epitomised in the styles of Kate Moss and Kristen McMenamy, who closed the Perry Ellis show hand-in-hand. Here, the make-up – semi-mattified skin with a flush of colour on the cheeks, a touch of mascara and eyeliner and balmy lips in the same shade as the model’s skin tones – aided in capturing this mood. ‘Make-up is very important for a show. It’s really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes,’ Nars, who collaborates with Jacobs to this day, once said.

Coinciding with London Fashion Week A/W 2025 (20 – 24 February 2025), and speaking to the brand’s longstanding relationship with the city’s runway shows, Nars has popped up in Covent Garden with an installation called The Players Lounge, celebrating its hero make-up base products. This includes the Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation – a budge-proof, featherlight formula providing medium to full coverage – and the hydrating, long-wearing and multifunctional Radiant Creamy Concealer.

Ten years ago, at Christopher Kane A/W 2015, key make-up artist Lucia Pieroni used Nars on the models, including the sheer yet buildable Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser producing looks that featured ‘nude skin with a strong handsome eyebrow.’

More recently, for Erdem’s A/W 2023 show, Nars’ global artistry director Jane Richardson led the backstage beauty team, with its Radiant Creamy Concealer subtly evening out complexions, only in the areas requiring it. Slept-in, black eyeliner, creased with a slick of gloss, and The Multiple highlighter stick, daubed onto cheekbones and cupids bows, gave faces an almost perspiratory sheen.

In a shoot for the Wallpaper* March 2025 issue, shot by Grace Difford and styled by our creative and fashion director Jason Hughes, make-up artist Claire Urquhart used Nars to transform model Maaike Klaasen into six visual interpretations of intoxicating perfumes, including seamless finishes to her skin.

Nars is known for its collaborative product collections, teaming up with the likes of Kane and Erdem – the latter brand showing its A/W 2025 collection tomorrow (23 February 2025) – on two limited-edition product edits released in 2015 and 2018 respectively.

For now, we will wait patiently in the hope that a project with a third London designer could soon be in the works.

The Nars Players Lounge is open from 22 – 23 February 2025 between 11am and 6pm at The Stables Unit X, 40 Earlham Street, WC2H 9LH.

nars.co.uk

When Valentine’s Day rolls around, it can be tough to think outside the box if you don’t want to adhere to the prescribed mandate of flowers and chocolate, hurriedly purchased from a supermarket chain.

Fortunately, Wallpaper* is an expert on thoughtful, design-led gifting for the aesthete in your life, whether that be a partner, friend, or even yourself. And, if whoever you’re planning to treat this Friday 14 February is a beauty-obsessive, then look no further than our selection of products in the most amorous of shades: red.

Below, find five suggestions to fulfil or inspire your last-minute Valentine’s Day shopping needs, from lipstick and blush to perfume and nail polish, all in bold, passionate and powerful hues of ruby, burgundy, berry and more.

Valentine’s Day: red beauty products to gift the aesthete in your life

A limited edition lipstick by Chanel

A ruby-like bottle of Comme des Garçons perfume

A flushed cream blush by Westman Atelier

An (almost) burgundy nail polish by Hermès

A fiery glass flagon by Kindred Black

Make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench is renowned for her technical prowess and singular vision. (Both of which she has brought to collaborations with the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Junya Watanabe and Björk, to name but a few).

Two years after establishing Byredo’s inaugural make-up line, Ffrench launched her namesake brand Isamaya Beauty, with unusually formulated yet high-performing products contained in outré packaging. Collections included the latex-inspired Industrial 2.0 and Wild Star, built around a kitsch rodeo-theme. Lest we forget Isaymaya Beauty’s edit of creamy and pigmented lipsticks, held in weighty, penis-shaped cases. ‘I’ve never had a creative slump! I don’t know what it feels like! I know what decision fatigue is or burnout but the creativity never goes away,’ Ffrench told Wallpaper* in 2022.

Since then, Ffrench has stayed true to her word by teaming up with the likes of Lashify, Nike and FaceGym. Isamaya Beauty has also just dropped Core Collection, a new line up of essential, multi-purpose products devised to ‘redefine modern beauty’. ‘Core Collection represents what the future of beauty means to me,’ Ffrench said in a statement released yesterday (4 February 2024). ‘This line of skincare-infused makeup products, housed in strong and timeless chrome packaging are the tools for anybody who wants to feel empowered in the truest version of themselves.’

Find out exactly what they are and how to use them below.

How to use Isamaya Ffrench’s Core Collection

Colour Correcting Serum

With six different shades – Lilac, Pistachio, Olive, Rust, Caramel, and Moka – the Core Collection Colour Correcting Serum is designed for all skin tones, evening out pigmentation and brighten up dullness. Containing ingredients such as rosebay willowherb, which aids in refining pores, apply this product from the Core Collection ahead of concealer and foundation to create a radiant base.

Isamaya Beauty Colour Correcting Serum, £40.

Sculpting Stick

The Sculpting Stick is a cream contour product in an equally diverse range of shades. (There are 11 in total: Ebony, Willow, Burch, Beech, Mahogany, Ash, Maple, Rosewood, Pine, Walnut, and Oak.) Designed to be used all over the face to define and enhance cheeks, lips and eyes, the hydrating and blendable formula is infused with ceramides to protect the skin-barrier.

Isamaya Beauty Sclulpting Stick, £35.

Skin Enhancing Duo

The Skin Enhancing Duo is a solid blush and higher in one compact; the formula melts into the skin upon application. Shades traverse Pout, Fig, Marta, Capricorn, Nectarine, Sultan, and Char. Apply the blush to the apples of the cheeks, eyes and lips and the highlighter to the highpoints of the face including the cheek bone, brow bone and cupid’s bow.

Isamaya Beauty Skin Enhancing Duo, £34.

Lip Balm

Metal Lip Balm and Lip Balm are two separate products with different finishes. The former lives up to its name with a ‘liquid foil’ effect, whilst the latter provides a pearlescent glaze. Layer the two together, over a lipstick, or wear them alone.

Isamaya Beauty Metal Lip Balmand Lip Balm, £27.

Lip Liner

Smudge-proof and durable through a network of fixing agents, the Core Collection Lip Liner is a pencil that glides onto the lips with ease. When whittled to a 2mm point using the accompanying sharpener, the liner creates precise and smudge proof definition. Shades include Flat White, Au Lait, Bourbon, Mocca, Gesha, Arabica, Liberica, Tonka, Bean, Coffee and Java.

Isamaya Beauty Lip Liner, £24.

5 Point Lift

Containing caffeine and bioactives, and held in rather tongue-in-cheek syringe-shaped tube, the 5 Point Lift is a multi-functional skin illuminator in adaptable shades that can be used to brighten, sculpt and freshen areas of the face that need it most. (The de-puffing formula particularly comes into its own when patted and blended under the eyes).

Isamaya Beauty 5 Point Lift, £35.

Liplacq

Isamaya Beauty’s beloved Lip Lacq has been redesigned as part of the Core Collection. Plumping and moisturising, it provides a glass-like sheen to the lips, without any dreaded stickiness. Each of the new shades (Black Veil, Rust, Lotus, Metal, Ultraviolet and Beetle) contain extracts of red pepper and ginger, stimulating blood flow for a bee-stung finish. Wear over the Lip Pencil to create the illusion of an even fuller lip.

Isamaya Beauty Lip Lacq, £32.

Mascara

The Core Collection Mascara is not only volumizing, but simultaneously cares and strengthens your lashes with a peptide-rich formulation. Its available in two colours: Tar, an inky black perfect for building up dramatic length and definition, and Umber, a terracotta brown that intensifies blue and green eyes.

Isamaya Beauty Mascara, £30.

Eyeliner

The Core Collection’s liquid Eyeliner has an incredibly fine tip and smudge-resistant but non-drying formula, thanks to the inclusion of castor oil. The ways it can be used are endless, whether delicately dotted it into the roots of lashes to thicken the lash line, to create a razor-sharp wing or draw intricate shapes anywhere on the face or body.

Isamaya Beauty Eyeliner, £33.

Hyaluro Lip

The Hylauro Lip is a clear and lightweight serum containing hyaluronic acid and vitamin E for intense moisturisation. It can be used alone, dabbed on top of lipstick and liner, or to circumvent the drying effect of matte products when used as part of the skin prepping process.

Isamaya Beauty Hylauro Lip, £33.

Face Glaze

The Core Collection’s Face Glaze is a translucent, gel-based balm. Use it all over the skin, in certain areas of the face prone to dryness, or even to provide cheekbones with a subtle dewy sheen over the top of make-up. The formula is hydrating and plumping thanks to the inclusion of brown algae extract and phyto collagen.

Isamaya Beauty Face Glaze, £33.

Microbial Gel

Prebiotics and hylauronic acid meet in the Microbial Gel, another skin prep essential included in the Core Collection. Calming, soothing and balancing, keep it in the fridge for its additional de-puffing properties, prior to applying make-up.

Isamaya Beauty Microbial Gel, £35.

The Isamaya Beauty Core Collection is available online and will arrive exclusively in-store at Selfridges from 25 February 2025.

Pat McGrath was tasked with creating the make-up for Marc Jacobs’ S/S 2025 show, which took place last night at New York’s Public Library. This is not the first time the make-up legend has teamed up with the American designer, of course, with McGrath working alongside hairstylist Guido Palau in 2019 to devise 60 unique beauty looks for Jacobs’ S/S 2020 runway presentation.

With elements of this cacophonously colourful collection referencing 1970s designs by Yves Saint Laurent and Norman Norell, the make-up was fittingly era-appropriate, including false lashes fluttering on models’ eyelids like insect antennae, à la Shelley Duvall.

Pat McGrath’s runway make-up for Marc Jacobs S/S 2025

S/S 2025 honoured the work of another fellow designer admired by Jacobs, Rei Kawukubo, recalling two Comme des Garçons collections in particular: S/S 1997’s Tumour/Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body – otherwise known as Lumps & Bumps, renowned for its groundbreakingly irregular, sculptural silhouettes – and A/W 2012’s 2 Dimensions, with oversized garments appearing as wearable collage cutouts; reminiscent of clothes worn by paper dolls.

The latter is what Pat McGrath honed in on with her make-up, adorning model’s faces with red circular fabric shapes in place of blusher and lipstick. Besides a second collage-inspired element – a black beauty mark – the skin was kept entirely bare with a luminous finish, eyes subtly contoured and framed by lightly pencilled and brushed-up brows. (McGrath’s take on this quintessential colour palette recalled her work for Marc Jacobs A/W 2020, where she used only red lipstick and black eyeliner to provide a cast of 90 models and over 50 dancers with entirely different looks).

Yesterday on the runway, the fabric shapes for ‘blush’ and ‘lipstick’ appeared in both matte and glitter textures and two different hues of red, nodding to Pat McGrath Labs’ collaboration with Marc Jacobs for a limited edition version of the brand‘s MatteTrance Lipstick.

The art of transforming models into living works of art is one of Pat McGrath’s signature talents. Last year, her ‘glass skin’ for Maison Margiela Artisanal 2024 went viral, leading to the formulation of Pat McGrath Labs’ Skin Fetish: Glass 001 Artistry Mask – a product Wallpaper* previewed in our 2025 Design Awards issue – which replicates the same hyperreal, ‘porcelain doll’ finish. (Whether bringing lipstick and blush decals to the masses are the next on her agenda remains to be seen).

marcjacobs.com

One of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025 winners includes a recent collection of eye and lip pencils from Hermès Beauty, named Trait d’Hermès. ‘I vividly remember that I was one of those kids who loved stationery and having a huge palette of colours in front of me,’ Hermès Beauty’s creative director Gregoris Pyrpylis said of the collection upon its launch in October 2024.

Conceived in collaboration with the brand’s packaging creator Pierre Hardy, it reflects on these childhood memories and is designed to resemble a kaleidoscopic set of new crayons. ‘Make-up has become even more joyful and more playful than ever,’ he continued. ‘And Trait d’Hermès is an invitation to explore this to its fullest.’

Wallpaper* Design Awards 2025: make-up collections by Hermès, Dior, Celine, Chanel and Prada selected by beauty editor Hannah Tindle

A grown-up invitation to play with make-up application has felt like a running theme over the past year in beauty. Peter Philips, Dior’s creative and image director of make-up, channelled a similar line of thought into the reimagined Diorshow Mono Couleur eyeshadows and Stylo eyeliners, encouraging spontaneity and experimentation with an array of colours and textures. In the accompanying Diorshow ad campaign, Philips drew abstract black and pastel-toned stripes across model Deva Cassel’s eyes – paying homage to Serge Lutens, whose radically illustrative work for Dior creative director Marc Bohan used every inch of the face as a surface for painting and drawing with make-up.

During his tenure at Celine, Hedi Slimane mined the modernist archives of its founder Céline Vipiana. (Besides clothing, Vipiana produced the brand’s first perfume, Vent Fou, in 1963, alongside accessories and lifestyle objects.) Before announcing his departure last October (2024) Slimane marked a new chapter, launching Celine Beauté with a single product: a satin lipstick in an effortless red dubbed Rouge Triomphe. As quintessential as a piece from Slimane’s ready-to-wear collections, it’s a lipstick so universal that the individual ways it can be worn seem almost endless.

Back in 2022, Chanel set up its Cometes Collective, a group of emerging make-up stars hand-picked by the brand to formulate a seasonal, limited-edition collection – ‘independent thinkers united, above all, by the conviction that beauty comes from the freedom to be and to become yourself in all your richness, complexity and nuance,’ says the house.

The first make-up artists selected were Ammy Drammeh, Cécile Paravina and Valentina Li, with the collective’s debut launching in 2024, courtesy of Li. A painter before she turned her hand to make-up, she sports a blue bob (Li considers the colour to be a ‘reflection of her inner world’). As a result, her Spring 2024 collection traversed a range of blues from cobalt to pale azure in a Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad, Stylo Yeux eyeliner and Lumière de L’Océan illuminating powder.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons described their vision for Prada’s S/S 2025 collection as ‘rallying call against the internet algorithm’ and a rejection of the ‘derivative and expected’. Casting director Ashley Brokaw assembled a roster of new and eclectic looks for the runway show, with Prada’s global creative make-up artist Lynsey Alexander taking an equally tailored approach to beauty. Using products from the brand’s namesake make-up line – including the Memphis Milano-esque Dimensions eyeshadow palettes, which Alexander described as a ‘juxtaposition of ugly and beautiful, coming together to create something quite extraordinary’ in a 2023 interview with Wallpaper* – each model received a unique look, corresponding to their facial structures and personalities.

As artist Cindy Sherman once said, ‘I’m good at using my face as a canvas. I’ll see a photograph of a character and try to copy them on to my face.’ It’s a statement that speaks to the current mood in contemporary make-up and beauty, where the face becomes a canvas in every sense of the word.

Models: Mouy Onak at IMG, Essoye Mombot at Oui Mangement, Marie Loridan at Women Management. Casting: Ikki Casting at WSM. Hair: Rimi Ura at Calliste Agency. Digital assistant: Farouk at Dope Paris. Photography assistant: Theophile Parat. Make-up assistants: Toma Marandeau, Ekaterina Mignery.

Find all the Wallpaper* Design Awards winners in the February 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 9 January 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Wallpaper’s beauty products of the month is an edit of the make-up, skincare and haircare loved by our resident beauty editor.

Today (1 February 2025) this includes Celine’s expanded lipstick range, Chanel’s S/S 2025 make-up collection and Mantle’s jellyfish mucin serum pads. Plus, Frédéric Malle’s quintessential perfume Portrait of a Lady by Dominique Ropion, dressed up for its birthday in a red lacquered bottle.

The best beauty products of the month recommended by Wallpaper*

Make-up

Chanel’s limited edition make-up collection for S/S 2025

Chanel’s limited edition make-up collection for S/S 2025 has been designed by Ammy Drammeh, one-third of the house’s Cometes Collective alongside Valentina Li and Cécile Paravina. Naturally, the offering is a celebration of colour and texture, with unconventional shades of Ombre Essentielle solo eyeshadows, or Stylo Yeux waterproof eyeliners. (This season, they come as duo sets in hues of mauve, pink, green and nude). Le Vernis nail polish in creamy pastels, and Jeux de Lumieres highlighting powders, complete the house’s offering.

Chanel S/S 2025 limited edition make-up, price varies, chanel.com.

Celine’s expanded lipstick shades

Celine Beauté’s debut lipstick Rouge Triomphe, which inaugurated the Le Rouge Celine collection, has now been joined by 14 others, each in the same hydrating, long-lasting satin texture. Orange Clea is a sultry red; while La Peau Nue is a classic nude, first featured on the S/S 24 Celine runway. There’s also an array of warm, rosy hues: from Rose Palace, through to cooler pinks and purple tones including Zou Zou (also the name of a fragrance launched by the house last year). Nightclubbing, which takes its name from a perfume as well, is the darkest shade of all – a deep inky violet.

Celine Le Rouge Celine lipstick, £62, celine.com.

Dior’s PH-activated lip balm

Dior Addict Lip Glow, a recent launch from the house of Dior’s make-up line, has been made with a pH-reactive formula, so the sheer wash of colour it provides will morph into a distinct, personal hue upon contact with the skin. It also comes in both warm and cool undertones and is intensely hydrating, containing both cherry extract and shea butter.

Dior Addict Lip Glow lip balm, £33, dior.com

Skincare

Omorovicza’s healing blue serum

Omorovicza’s Blue Diamond Super Serum – an addition to the Blue Diamond Surfacing Peel and Blue Diamond Supercream – focuses on eliminating senescent cells to regenerate skin at a deeper level, with ingredients including diamond peptides, tetrapeptides, hyaluronic acid and Omorovicza’s patented healing concentrate derived from the thermal waters of the brand’s native Budapest.

Omorovicza Blue Diamond Super Serum, £350, omorovicza.com

Mantle’s jellyfish mucin pads

Mantle’s Hydra Serum is powered by the combination of jellyfish mucin (said to bind water three times better than hyaluronic acid), and deep sea algae. Together, these ingredients form the Scandinavian skincare brand’s patented mPelagic2 Complex, which is now also found in its Hydra Pads alongside lactobiotic acid, providing exfoliation and intense hydration in just a few swipes. Keep them in the fridge for an additional de-puffing and cooling effect.

Hydra Pads by Mantle, £49, mantleskin.com

Haircare

Dyson’s automatic hot tool

The beloved Dyson Airwrap received an update in 2024 in the Airwrap i.d., a tool that wirelessly connects to an app via Bluetooth. Here, you are able to create your own profile and styling programme, adapting heat, timing and airflow depending on your particular hair type. Then, at the push of a button, the Airwrap i.d. will carry out the sequence. (Last month, it received a makeover in the form of a limited edition colourway called Jasper Plum, which compliments the packaging of its Chitosan products).

Dyson Airwrap i.d., £480, dyson.co.uk.

Fragrance

Frédéric Malle’s Portrait of a Lady (in red)

Frédéric Malle's Portrait of a Lady was created by legendary nose Dominique Ropion in 2010. Ropion is often referred to as ‘the master of flowers’, a title that he demonstrated with aplomb in Portrait of a Lady, where two variations of concentrated Turkish roses meet with notes of blackcurrant, raspberry, patchouli and amber. To mark its 15th anniversary, the fragrance is dressed up in a limited-edition red lacquered bottle, accompanied by a portrait series by photographer David Sims.

Frédéric Malle Portrait of a Lady eau de parfum, £290, fredericmalle.co.uk

Acqua di Parma’s interpretation of a classic

Colonia Il Profumo by Acqua di Parma is an intense reinterpretation of the Italian maison's original Colonia. Opening with the citrus notes, Acqua di Parma is renowned for, including Italian bergamot, grapefruit, blood orange, and petitgrain, the heart of Colonia Il Profumo features rosemary and ylang-ylang. Going deeper still, vetiver and patouchli provides the scent with a richness quite unlike any other from the brand.

Acqua di Parma Colonia Il Profumo, £264.00, acquadiparma.com.

Dior’s olfactory lucky charm

Christian Dior was a superstitious man. One of the couturier’s lucky charms, a piece of wood he would carry with him to bring good fortune, is the inspiration behind Bois Talisman, a new fragrance by Francis Kurkdjian for La Collection Privée Christian Dior. Kurkdjian, sharing M. Dior’s superstitions – including keeping a sugar cube as a charm – crafted a perfume symbolising the blend of wood and sugar. This scent is an olfactory exploration of cedarwood and vanilla, with multiple extraction methods enhancing the richness of vanilla.

Dior Bois Talisman eau de parfum, £380, dior.com

Tom Ford’s rose exposé

An unconventional composition of florals and leather, Rose Exposed by Tom Ford has been created to ‘capture the ephemeral beauty of a rose at its peak bloom’. It achieves this through an exclusive co-distillation of rose absolute and rose water. Rose Expose is more complex than it first appears, however: white pepper, pink peppercorn, bergamot, and curcuma give a warm and spicy element. A ‘tactile black leather accord’, as the brand describes, is comprised of sandalwood olibanum, and cashmeran.

Tom Ford Rose Exposed eau de parfum, £222, tomford.com.

The art of make-up organisation is a skill I have honed over a number of years. Every January, I’ll start culling products that I’ve accumulated over the past however many years. (Yes, make-up and skincare expires, and although some has a longer shelf life than others, no matter what the packaging states, it’s best to check how certain formulas are faring every so often).

What can be sharpened, scraped, sanitised or wiped clean with isopropyl alcohol – lip and eye pencils, solid cream concealers, blushers, highlighters, lipstick bullets and even powder products – I usually keep, providing they’re still performing or aren’t humiliatingly ancient. Liquid products in pump bottles, such as foundation, keeps slightly longer than those that require a ‘dipping’ action: wands, doe foot applicators and fingers are bacterial harbingers of doom for make-up past its prime. So mascara, liquid liner and anything contained in a jar sadly must go.

Then, its time to address what needs replacing, before re-categorising or consolidating to free up space. I might even look at investing in something new – brushes and essential tools, perhaps – or storage for the designated beautifying area in my compact London flat (some examples of which are included in the below guide).

Design solutions for make-up organisation: a guide by Wallpaper's beauty editor

Wipe-clean storage units and multipurpose desk tidies

B-Line trolley

I apply my make-up at a small desk in my bedroom and purchased a second hand Joe Colombo for B-Line Boby trolley from eBay a few years ago. It’s been the ideal vessel for storing beauty products, with its multiple pockets and drawers that fan outwards on hinges. Plus, I can glide it in and out from underneath the table as needed.

Joe Colombo Boby trolley, £494.00, aram.co.uk.

Kartell drawers

Similarly, the Kartell Mobil drawers, designed by Antonio Citterio and Oliver Löw in 1994, are a great option for moveable, compact make-up and skincare storage, with drawers numbering between one and six and a choice between gloss or matt finishes. Some models also include additional shelving, with newer editions of the Mobil Mat drawers made from recycled industrial waste materials.

Kartell Mobil Mat drawers, £670.00, heals.com.

Vitra desk tidy

Pretty much anything that works as a desk tidy can double as multi-functional organisation for make-up and skincare. Case in point, Vitra's O-Tidy and S-Tidy by Michel Charlot. The former has a dish shape with a cup in the centre; perfect for holding brushes. The latter is also great for brushes, plus liners and products in elongated bottles that stand on a base, with its sectional, ‘serpentine’ shape. (Another tip: I often use Loewe's empty ceramic candle pots for a similar purpose).

Vitra O-Tidy, £39, twentytwentyone.com.

Muji acrylic drawers

When it comes to the organising of make-up and skincare, I don’t know where I’d be without Muji. Not only does the Japanese lifestyle brand have a wealth of wipe-clean drawers and boxes, but also make-up cases and pouches, reusable 100ml bottles, and cotton pads and buds. (Its thin-stem cotton buds are my favourite for precise clean ups, such as correcting mistakes, removing mascara that has transferred to the eyelids or sharpening the border of a red lip).

Muji acrylic 6 drawer unit, £32; thin-stem cotton buds, £2.95, muji.co.uk.

Adjustable table lamps for make-up application in low lighting

Flos LED lamp

Applying make-up with a light source shining directly onto the face is the only way to properly see what you are doing, alongside the true textures and colours of products. Ideally, the source is natural daylight. After dark, in place of a less-than aesthetically pleasing ring light, I use a portable and adjustable table lamp (such as Antonio Citterio’s Kelvin, designed for Flos) to assist me.

Flos Kelvin Led Base table lamp, £380, flos.com.

Artemide clip-on lamp

Similarly, Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina’s Tolomeo Pinza lamp (a miniature version of the Tolomeo desk lamp designed in 1987) is made from lightweight aluminium. If you need a change of scenery, its signature clip mechanism means it can be attached to varying surfaces, providing a face-on light source in any space in the home.

Artemide Pinza lamp, £175, aram.co.uk.

Multi-angle, versatile mirrors for horizontal and vertical surfaces

Artek multi-angle mirror

Viewing your face from every angle – front on, plus the so-called ‘bad’ and ‘good’ sides – allows for a complete understanding of how your make-up appears. (This is usually something I will check on for formal occasions that take place during the day, such as a wedding). Daniel Rybakken’s 124° mirror, created in 2017 for Artek, can either stand freely on a horizontal surface or be fixed to a wall, offering a multi-perspective solution. It includes a tray-shaped base to place products in whilst you use them, too.

Artek 124° mirror, £388, finnishdesignshop.com.

Ligne Roset trinket mirror

Marie-Aurore Stiker-Métral’s Nimbe mirror, created for Ligne Roset with a steel rose beige-coloured frame, is a compact enough for a table top and portable enough to be moved around the house to work with different sources of light. The moulded polyurethane dish-shaped base is also a practical solution for holding (or storing) make-up, skincare products and tools in.

Ligne Roset Nimbe mirror, £466.00, chaplinsfurniture.co.uk.

The make-up tools to invest in, including eyelash curlers, brushes and tweezers

Prada Beauty make-up sponge

Although they can last through many applications and washes, after a while, I will replace any make-up sponges that are feeling a little ragged round the edges. The Prada Beauty foundation blenders can be used wet or dry, are designed different shades for various skin tones and are cut with a triangle edge (a nod to the house's inverted triangle emblem, a motif present throughout Prada’s make-up line) for precise application.

Prada foundation blender, £26, flannels.com.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler

The Shu Uemura eyelash curler is, in my opinion and that of many others, one of the best there is. The tool is even mentioned in The Devil Wears Prada by supermodel Gisele, her character Serena in disbelief that Anne Hathaway’s Andrea doesn’t know what it is: ‘We were in the beauty department and [Andrea] held up this Shu Uemura eyelash curler and she said, “What is this?”’ The S curler, a second and smaller version of the original tool, launched in 2013, which is suitable for an even more extensive range of eye shapes and lashes.

Shu Uemura S eyelash curler, £20.15, stylevana.co.uk.

Victorinox tweezers

If you’re finding that your tweezers are losing their grip, or never really had a strong enough one in the first place for that matter, it’s time to replace them. An expertly-designed pair can last a lifetime, such as this pair by Victorinox, made in collaboration with fellow Swiss brand Rubis. Crafted from stainless steel, their precision-cut slanted tips will grab, seize and remove even the most miniscule of hairs.

Victorinox tweezers, £ 37.50, victorinox.com

Rae Morris make-up brushes

An expertly-designed set of make-up brushes will also stand the test of time. Australian make-up artist Rae Morris is renowned in the beauty industry for her namesake line of professional brushes with magnetic handles. This allows for the brushes to be affixed to metal surfaces, or the brand’s custom-built stainless steel Rae Frameor Rae Plate, ensuring that they never roll away during use or occupy too much space on a table top.

Rae Morris Personal brush set, £330, raemorris.com.

Nars pencil sharpener

A dual-blade pencil sharpener accommodates all widths of eye and lip products. This particular tool by Nars is built with a removable and adjustable adapter, so even extra-thick pencils, remain clean and whittled to a point. It also comes alongside a blade cleaner and a hard cover to catch fall out.

Nars pencil sharpener, £9, spacenk.com.

Essential products that cleanse brushes, remove make-up, prep skin and more

Mac brush cleanser

Used make-up brushes should, in an ideal world, be deep cleaned once a week. I use a solid soap bar and gentle shampoo to wash just the bristles in the bathroom sink, watching the diluted product residue slide down the drain, before laying them down to air dry on a towel. Therapeutic as this process may be, its an activity that takes a bit of time. So a brush cleaner is another absolute essential for the days in between. (I suggest this one by Mac).

Mac brush cleanser, £15, selfridges.com.

Chanel micellar water

Alongside cotton pads, buds and tissues (plus a sturdy and inoffensive tissue box such as the Birillo by Alessi) micellar water is a must. It can be used to dampen a brush, clean up the back of your hand if you’ve used it as a palette, or remove an entire face of make-up when a technique has gone awry. Chanel’s micellar water in particular contains marine plant extracts and a prebiotic molecule to keep the skin’s microbiome balanced.

Chanel L’Micellaire micellar water, £36, chanel.com.

Aesop eye and lip make-up remover

When it comes to wiping away most make-up products, micellar water gets most of the job done. But waterproof mascara or long-lasting, budge-proof formulations are another story entirely. Here, you will need something oil based, such as Aesop’s eye and lip make-up remover, made with nourishing grape seed, soothing blue chamomile and vitamin E. Follow with a rigorous double cleanse.

Aesop Remove eye and lip make-up remover, £19, liberty.com.

In 2022, Chanel revealed the names of three make-up artists who would mark a new beauty chapter for the house: Ammy Drammeh, Cécile Paravina and Valentina Li. Together, they form the Cometes Collective, a trio of emerging and visionary talents assembled to ‘breathe new life into the Chanel art of make-up’ with work that would be ‘written in the present while paying homage to the past.’

Between Drammeh, who lives in London and was tapped as one to watch by the British Fashion Council’s New Wave Creatives list in 2019, the Paris-based Paravina (she studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and counts Serge Lutens as one of her mentors) and the Chinese-born Li – fluent in four languages and part of the BoF 500, her signature electric blue bob reflects the eclecticism she brings to Chanel – 2024 has been a standout year for the Cometes Collective

With four limited-edition, seasonal collections, each has demonstrated a fearlessness when it comes to using unconventional colour and texture, whether that be a matte eyeshadow palette in mustard yellow, avocado green and lilac or a dewy highlighter balm inspired by the appearance of a jellyfish. Here, the Cometes Collective reflects on the past 12 months in conversation with Wallpaper’s beauty editor, Hannah Tindle.

Chanel’s Cometes Collective: Wallpaper* in conversation with Ammy Drammeh, Cécile Paravina and Valentina Li

Wallpaper*: How long is the period between the idea for a collection and what we see upon its launch?

Ammy Drammeh: All the collections we’ve done this year have been two years in the making. So it felt like a very long pregnancy!

Cécile Paravina: That’s exactly it! So it’s great when you finally see people’s reactions. Because you sort of ‘get used to’ what you’ve worked on, almost, due to the length of time the collections take to create. It’s strange to have this latency. But when a collection launches and you receive feedback and people are so excited, it reminds you again.

Ammy Drammeh: My summer collection ‘Jardin Imaginaire’ had a lot of bright green in it. I had no idea, of course, that summer 2024 was going to be dominated by the colour [Brat green].

W*: Each collection draws from a broad pool of references. How do you arrive at a particular theme?

AD: The first step is deciding who is going to take which season; Valentina will do spring and holiday, I’ll do summer, Cécile will do autumn and so on. Then each of us has a very different approach to working.

Valentina Li: Yes, exactly. I think when I received the brief for a spring collection, I had a very clear idea in my mind. I like to tell a story with my work, so I almost created ‘characters’ in my head whilst referring to different species of marine life. So the Chanel Rouge Coco Baume in the shade ‘Anémone’ was inspired by a tiger fish. And the Baume Essentiel in ‘Mermaid Glow’, a jellyfish. This way of working helps me to work out the texture of products, too.

CP: There are two key collections I worked on for 2024: the autumn/winter ‘Clairvoyance’ collection and also a rework of the permanent Ombre Essentielle eyeshadows and liners. In terms of my starting point for ‘Clairvoyance’, I went to Patrimony, at 18, Place Vendôme in Paris, where you can go to do research when you work at Chanel. The historians and archivists who work there have such a vast knowledge of the house they can go into extreme detail. This was how I discovered that Gabrielle Chanel was very much into astrology and the divinatory arts. And I was so happy when I found this out, so I could centre the collection around the colour purple, which to me emphasises something spiritual.

AD: I always start with colour. But then, like Cecile, I wanted to make sure it had a connection to Gabrielle Chanel. She loved ballet and theatre and one of the items in her apartment was a copy of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. And this is where the idea of a ‘fairy tale’ garden came from for ‘Jardin Imaginaire’.

W*: What is the collaborative process like when it comes to the technical aspects of realising a collection?

CP: You learn how to work with the biochemists at Chanel very closely. Of course, you have about 1% of the technical knowledge they have, but it’s important to educate yourself on what happens in the lab so you can communicate your idea and be aware of what is achievable and what isn’t.

VL: I actually bought a book on make-up and chemistry to try and get my head around how it all works. It’s super difficult to understand but was still quite helpful in the end.

W*: And how do you work collaboratively together?

CP: After a certain point of working together, we began to naturally bounce ideas off one another. So we’d show each other the colour palettes we were working on for example. In this very organic way, the ‘collective’ really came to life.

AD: Working together is one of the best parts of what we do at Chanel. We all have different ways of doing make-up and so different needs for all of the products we create. It’s important to combine all of this in our collections, in a way.

W*: What are some of the standout products from the collections you’ve made in 2024? And, also products from the permanent make-up offering from Chanel?

CP: I like the Quatres Ombres palette in ‘Divination’ from the autumn/winter collection. I think the colours haven’t been seen at Chanel before. They’re quite experimental and unexpected, so I was at first a little concerned that they’d be tricky to use. But in the end, I saw so many looks that people had created using the palette on social media and I was so happy I stuck with the idea. I also love the Ombre Essentielle solo eyeshadow in ‘Jade Facetté’.

In terms of hero products, there is one I love: Rouge Duo Ultra Tenue. It’s a duo-ended lipstick that has colour on one side and a gloss on the other. It’s very waterproof and long-wearing. I also loved Ammy’s Stylo Ombre et Contour eyeshadow sticks: the green ‘Dream Leaf’ and orange ‘Atardecer’ shades.

VL: I love Ammy’s Stylo Ombre et Contour sticks too. I’m a big pearl and glitter fan. The texture of all of them is so smooth. In two swipes you get a great payoff and can just easily blend them out with your finger. From my spring collection, I’d have to say the ‘Rivage’ and ‘Coral Treasure’ Quatres Ombres palettes. Also the Baume Essentiel in ‘Mermaid Glow’. Baume Essentiel is one of my favourite hero products.

AD: I also love your ‘Rivage’ Quatre Ombres palette, Valentina. I think it’s the particular shade of blue that you used; a pearly, soft blue. From my collection, I love the blush and highlighter duos in ‘Light and Berry’ and ‘Gold and Peach’. The shades are very universal and the textures are so easy that they can even be applied with a foundation brush.

W*: What does 2025 hold for the Cometes Collective?

CP: It’s a secret at this point!

VL: Yes! So we can’t reveal anything specific, yet. But we’re working on some really exciting and playful projects. We do a lot of make-up for shows and campaigns, too, so I’m looking forward to that.

AD: For me, I’m just as excited to see Valentina and Cecile’s collections launch 2025 as I am my own.

VL: Yes, me too. I think 2025 is going to be an amazing year.

chanel.com

The introduction to a new book by make-up artist Marcelo Gutierrez is written by his close friend Lily-Rose Depp. ‘[Make-up] is the art that moves and breathes with us, that becomes us and helps us become who we want to be. It brings the inside to the very surface and becomes the skin we live in,’ the actor says in the forward to Nothing Precious.

Gutierrez echoes this sentiment when I speak to him over a call from the set of his latest photoshoot, ahead of the book’s launch at Climax Books in New York – the city he calls home. ‘Beauty is a lot less about changing something about yourself and more about putting a spotlight on the elements that make you who you are,’ he says. ‘Make-up, at the end of the day, reveals a lot about a person's relationship to themselves by what they decide to exaggerate, hide, or even change.’

Marcelo Gutierrez: ‘Nothing Precious’

Over the past eight years, Gutierrez’s work has illustrated how even a couple of coloured pigments can completely transform and embolden the person wearing them. It’s a talent that was spotted by Pat McGrath in 2016: upon seeing some of his portfolio on Instagram, she sent him a DM and soon became a mentor. Since then, in addition to Depp, he has painted the faces of Emma Corrin, Hari Nef, Caroline Polachek, Rosalia, Hunter Schafer, Alek Wek, Lourdes Leon and her mother, Madonna. He’s worked with brands including Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari and Kiko Constadinov and counts photographers Tyler Mitchell, Campbell Addy, Petra Collins, Aidan Zamiri, Renell Medrano and Jan Anthonio as frequent collaborators.

Zamiri and Medrano contribute to Nothing Precious. Also featured is Anthonio, clad in a leather vest and low-slung pants, with silver paint on his forehead and nose; the hairstylist Evanie Frausto, wearing a mask of red face paint; and Sonny Molina, who is transformed into a modern-day pieta, with plastic tears and skin glazed as if it was cast in an oven. Model Gabriette stares languidly from its pages, her eyes winged with black and silver liner, whilst Paloma Elsesser looks eerie in a black veil and colour-changing contacts.

Born in Columbia, Guitterrez immigrated to Florida with his family when he was a child. As a young adult, he pursued an art degree in Los Angeles, ultimately ending up in New York and becoming well acquainted with the struggles of making it as a creative in the city. ‘To be frank, I was an aspiring performance artist and painter but that doesn’t pay the rent in New York unless you come from a wealthy family,’ he says. ‘I knew I wanted to pursue make-up when I understood that it combined all these elements of performance, identity, fashion and image making while simultaneously being a potentially profitable job.’

‘The biggest challenge is getting through the door and in the room with the ones who previously didn’t think there was room for someone like you,’ he continues. ‘I’m proud of how tenacious and strong I am without compromising my morals. My best advice is – if someone says no, you’re talking to the wrong person.’

This uncompromising energy radiates in Gutierrez’ work. As I was flipping through Nothing Precious, my mind kept returning to The Warriors, a 1979 film that depicts gangs in flamboyant face paint and thrift store regalia battling it out for the streets of a post-apocalyptic New York. It took me a minute to figure out why. But then I realised it was because everyone in this book looks ready for battle, defiant in a wonderfully outlandish way. Even a simple, glossy lip has the same effect.

Because all of the figures in Nothing Precious are Gutierrez’s friends, there is a sense of intimacy displayed in its contents, too. The layout lends itself to a feeling of looking at something personal; something that is, despite the title, precious. Images are spliced as if you are scrolling through them on a screen. Some sit scrap-book-like, atop notebook pages or bits of ephemera.

Together, it creates the feeling of a ‘work-in-progress’, as though you were on set with Gutierrez and the photographers, deciding what images should make the final cut. It’s a snapshot of a current ‘moment’ in New York, where the city feels like it is teetering on the edge, but ripe with creative potential nonetheless. ‘Everyone involved in this book has either known me since I arrived in New York City at 20 years old or has been, in some form, a beacon of inspiration to me,’ he says. ‘This is a book about a universe – a New York universe during a very special time.’

Nothing Precious by Marcelo Gutierrez is available now.

nothingprecious.co

For Dries Van Noten, 2024 has been a year to remember.

In March, the Belgian designer announced his imminent retirement from fashion. Having risen to prominence during the 1980s as part of the Antwerp Six (a collective of graduates from the city’s Royal Academy, including Walter Van Beirendonck and Ann Demeulemeester), almost four decades on, he took his final bow on a runway, shimmering with silver leaf, during June’s S/S 2025 menswear shows in Paris. ‘I want to shift my focus to all the things I never had time for,’ he said at the time. ‘I’m sad, but at the same time, happy.’

Dries Van Noten: why the designer is growing his beauty line

Famously, one of Van Noten’s greatest pleasures is his 55-acre garden, in the grounds of the Palladian-style home he shares with his partner in Lier, near Antwerp. The garden – and the botanical world in particular – has provided him with boundless inspiration for his signature use of colour, print and texture. So when he launched Dries Van Noten Beauty in 2021 with a set of lipsticks and fragrances harnessing all nature has to offer, it felt like an organic move.

Perhaps, the beauty line’s intrinsic connection with the plants and flowers growing in his Van Noten’s garden has informed his decision to continue in an advisory role for this arm of the business, after stepping back from his position as the brand’s creative director and CEO. ‘At the beginning, I saw my garden as kind of an escape,’ he says. ‘But then I started to realise that escape is something that’s part of me. The garden balances me as a human being. In fashion, you try to control everything. But in the garden, you have to obey nature. It helps me to stay humble.’

Dries Van Noten Beauty is also built around the idea of ‘impossible combinations’ (a theme celebrated by Wallpaper* in the December 2023 issue) whether it’s the luscious reds and pinks of the lipstick collection punctuated with shades of deep violet and beige-toned nude, or the blend of notes found in its scents. Four of the most recent compositions include Bitter Splash, which marries tart grapefruit with powdery iris and vetiver; Vanille Camouflage, where resinous galbanum balances out the creamy sweetness of bourbon pods; Camomile Satin, containing soothing camomile and vanilla; and Crazy Basil – with notes of cedarwood – which Van Noten describes as ‘putting your nose in a pot of basil’.

When asked to choose a favourite flower from his garden, he says: ‘In summer, it’s the purple cyclamen, which flowers under the beech trees. I think it’s magical because it’s the last sign of summer. In December, I love the witch hazels, which are fantastic because they’re the tiniest flowers with the most delicate perfume. Next, you have the hellebores, before the first daffodils in early spring. Then in May, the peonies and roses. For me, it’s about the entire cycle of the seasons.’

The nurture of flowers and plants requires patience. ‘My life changed quite a lot this year,’ he says. ‘It’s an exciting time. We had some storms, with big trees falling over, so there is more work to do in the garden and some thinking to be done.’ And it would seem that Van Noten is approaching this new chapter in his life almost as he does his garden. ‘The quality has to be there, from the packaging to sustainability,’ he says. ‘But the good thing is we have time.’

A version of this article appears in the December 2024 issue of Wallpaper* , available in print on international newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

driesvannoten.com

No history-defining look is complete without hair and make-up, a sentiment that London’s ‘Blitz Kids’ pioneered to the extreme during the late 1970s and 1980s. Spearheading this movement was Australian performance artist and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, who had a strictly enforced code of entrance for his short-lived but infamous Soho nightclub, Taboo: ‘Dress as if your life depends on it, or don’t bother.’

Yesterday (4 October 2024) Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London opened at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey, paying tribute to Taboo and those who inhabited the world around it. Alongside Bowery, they included the likes of John Galliano, Pam Hogg, Stephen Jones and Judy Blame; musicians Steve Strange, Rusty Egan and Boy George; dancer and choreographer Michael Clark; and clubbing royalty Princess Julia, Philip Salon and Susanne Bartsch.

How Leigh Bowery and the Blitz Kids defined 1980s subculture with make-up

Taboo was held in a dimly-lit corner of Leicester Square between 1985 and 1986. It followed in the footsteps of Covent Garden’s Blitz Club, where the New Romantics and Blitz Kids originated.

The club’s name was particularly ironic, considering that absolutely nothing that went on inside was considered as such, with Bowery injecting an intoxicating blend of avant-garde sleaze, sex and chaos into the space. His rule for loud, all-out looks was enforced by the notorious doorman Mark Vaultier, who would hold up a mirror to those vying for entrance and ask: ‘Would you let you in?’

The Fashion and Textile Museum exhibition is curated by Martin Green and NJ Stevenson. Green, who was a regular on the 1980s club circuit, is the co-founder of Duovision Arts, a Liverpool-based organisation which produces exhibitions by undervalued artists, photographers and designers engaged with the LGBT+ community. Stevenson, is a fashion curator, author and lecturer at London College of Fashion.

Together, they have also produced a book to accompany the show titled Outlaws Fashion Renegades of Leigh Bowery’s 1980s London, which delves further into the role that make-up and hair played in shaping London’s counterculture.

‘Charles Fox, the theatrical costumier in Covent Garden, stocked Kryolan make-up which produced Aquacolour – a staple of club looks,’ says Stevenson. ‘In the early 1980s, Charles Fox had a huge sale and the Blitz Kids snapped up period pieces which raised the bar of club dressing up. Leigh Bowery used Aquacolour for his extreme looks at Taboo; the drips look was Copydex glue mixed with pigment.’

‘Make-up became another tool in the quest for reinvention and individuality. Clubbers practised at home until they reached professional levels of application and experimentation,’ she continues. ‘Competition and rivalry meant nothing was too extreme.’ This would range from artist Matthew Glamorre painting his teeth with nail polish to the experimental work of Swedish make-up artist Jalle Bakke, whose diaries are on show in the new exhibition. Bakke, who died of AIDS in 1996 at the age of 35, brought the avant-garde aesthetic of Taboo to Michael Clark productions, covers of I-D and The Face and music videos for ABC and Neneh Cherry.

‘Do you want to be a 1930s starlet or do you want to be Victorian punk? Make-up is the vehicle in that. It’s so important when turning looks,’ says icon of New York nightlife, Susanne Bartsch. Born in Bern, Switzerland, Bartsch moved to London as a teenager during the late 1970s, becoming a key player on the Soho scene.

It’s midday in the Big Apple when we speak over a call and the 59-year-old Bartsch is planning her look for a party she’s hosting later that night. ‘I often plan the make-up first. I’ll do the make-up and then I’ll see what I have in my closet,’ she says, with a Siouxsie Sioux-inspired wig at the ready.

Bartsch has lived in New York since the 1980s. On her return from London, she saw a gap in the market for the mischievous, maximalist spirit of the Blitz Kids. ‘People weren’t doing looks in New York. If you had a flower in your hair you were dressed up. It was very Calvin Klein, very minimal, very chic. People were well dressed but it wasn’t colourful and expressive,’ she says.

Through starting her weekly underground parties inspired by the energy of Taboo, the city’s own club kid movement was born, of which Amanda Lepore, Michael Alig and James St James were a part. ‘I think I brought that whole movement to New York, through what I experienced in London with Blitz and the New Romantics,’ says Bartsch.

She also introduced New York to London’s most extravagant club kid of all, Bowery, who was by then a close friend of hers. She vividly remembers Bowery’s singular looks, which ranged from those signature drips of coloured Copydex running down his bald head like candle wax to absurdly spiked wigs and gimp masks with lightbulbs for ears.

‘I first met Leigh in his apartment. His face was painted blue and he had off-centred, abstract lips,’ she recalls. ‘We just clicked. I asked to buy some of his stuff and so he started making things for me. I took him to Japan, then I introduced him to New York. [His look] was very strong. His personality and charisma had a lot to do with it. But the look was very new to me, I hadn’t seen anything that was put together like he put it together.’

The important role that Taboo played in the time of Thatcher’s Britain cannot be overstated. LGBT+ people faced rampant homophobia and discrimination, the AIDS pandemic was sweeping the globe, and the introduction of the 1988 Section 28 law preventing councils and schools from ‘promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’ was on the horizon.

Spaces like Taboo provided a dark, dingy, but beloved queer utopia. Those who were unable to express their truest self during daylight hours could become whoever they wanted to be under the cover of nighttime. Through fashion, make-up and hair, wearers were able to experiment with different – and perhaps more accurate – representations of their inner beings, with a vital sense of playfulness.

Though Bowery died in 1994, his and The Blitz Kids’ influence on culture has endured to this day. Make-up artist Val Garland has frequently referenced his overdrawn lips and fearsome face paint in runway shows for Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens and Gareth Pugh. Dame Pat McGrath – who as a twentysomething used to follow Bowery, Strange and Boy George down the King’s Road in awe – has dedicated make-up palettes from her namesake beauty line to the club kids of the 1980s and beyond.

‘It’s an art form; it’s embracing yourself and using your body as a canvas,’ says Bartsch, of the ritual of dressing up. ‘It’s a lot of work putting together a look, then executing it is like making a sculpture. It’s a way to show your talents and have fun. The bottom line is that it’s fun. You’re reinventing yourself and seeing how far you can go.’

Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London is open at the Fashion and Textile Museum from 4 October 2024 to 9 March 2025.

fashiontextilemuseum.org

The neutral eyeshadow palette is the make-up equivalent of water: essential, but often quite boring. At least, that was the case – before Byredo debuted its make-up line in 2020, and with it the ‘Dysco’ eyeshadow palette.

‘Dysco’ is a beauty product that deserves cult classic status. It manages to turn standard beiges and browns into shades that are as fun as their names suggest. From lightest to darkest, these include ‘Feather’, a pearlescent peachy beige; ‘Haze’, a shimmering copper; ‘Flare’, a deep gold; ‘Velvet’ a satiny chestnut, and ‘Faux Fur’, a deep coffee brown with a touch of shimmery gold.

Why Byredo’s ‘Dysco’ eyeshadow palette is a cult make-up classic

All hues are interesting enough to be used on their own. But they can, of course, also be paired together. For a subtle, frosty wash, try using ‘Feather’ all over the lid, and then applying ‘Haze’ from the outer corner through the crease of your eye to the inner corner. Alternatively, for a punchier option, use ‘Velvet’ as your base and apply ‘Faux Fur’ through the lid. (For both looks, a touch of the golden ‘Flare’ can be used in the corner inner eyelid.)

The shades suit all skin tones and their shimmering, high-intensity pigments amplify all eye colours. It’s the kind of product that, by the end of its life, is all scuffed from being in your bag all the time; one of the few that you’ll eke out until the container is empty of every last fleck.

When Byredo’s founder, Ben Gorham, came together with make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench to plan the vision for Byredo Beauty, an experimental approach to colour was their entry point. 'I remember looking at a lot of editorial images, landscape photography – all sorts of creative imagery – and literally picking pixels of colour that I really love,' Ffrench told Wallpaper* in our profile of the brand’s beauty launch. 'This then became the Byredo colour library. Ben and I would sit down together and see which colours resonated most with us and which would work for the make-up.'

This allowed Gorham and Ffrench to develop the atypical make-up shades we see in the ‘Dysco’ palette, for example, and to rethink the ways they could be applied to the face. The brand’s 'Colour Sticks' are the most extreme examples of this, since they are designed to be used anywhere and come in colours like ‘Medium Blue’, a vivid metallic aqua; or ‘Purple Stinger’, a super-glossy lilac.

In the almost five years since ‘Dysco’ first launched, Ffrench has since handed the reigns over to Lucia Pica, Byredo Beauty’s Creative Image and Make-up Partner. (Ffrench now heads up her own beauty line Isamaya Beauty, which sees her idiosyncratic vision taken to new heights: think lipstick tubes in the shape of penises and S&M-inspired eyeshadow palettes).

Pica, the former Creative Make-Up and Colour Designer for Chanel, began her tenure at Byredo in 2022 with a collection of liquid lipsticks that are also worthy of a place in the cult beauty product canon. This is particularly true of the matte versions Pica launched earlier this year, which make a perfect companion to the ‘Dysco’ palette. They achieve the holy trifecta of matte lip colour: non-drying, long-lasting, and highly pigmented, whilst also living up to the brand’s inimitable colour creation.

For your ‘Dysco’ partner, try using ‘Feather’ from the palette along with ‘Marriage’, a deliciously dark burgundy shade. Or use the ‘Velvet’ and ‘Faux Fur’ combo with ‘Muted Cry’, a warm mauve with which the Kaja pencil in ‘Bhoora Bhoora’ can also be used as a liner to create a muddy, grungy lip worthy of the 1990s.

byredo.com

The Chanel Beauty Summer 2024 collection has launched today (July 15 2024). Suitably titled ‘Jardin Imaginaire’, it has been dreamt up by make-up artist Ammy Drammeh, who created a range of shades inspired by fairy tale landscapes, where familiar aspects of the natural world take on a phantasmagorical glamour.

‘Jardin Imaginaire’ marks Drammeh’s first launch as a member of Chanel’s Cometes Collective. Launched by Chanel at the end of 2022, the collective also includes Cécile Paravina, and Valentina Li. All three make-up talents have been identified by the brand as names that will shape the future of beauty. Throughout 2024, each member of the collective launched their own Chanel make-up collection, designed with the input and guidance of one another.

Chanel Beauty Summer 2024: ‘Jardin Imaginaire’ by Ammy Drammeh

‘I grew up listening to folk tales and fables from both my West African and Spanish sides of the family,’ Drammeh tells me over email. ‘The creation process for the Summer 2024 collection started with colour; the colour was the carrier of the story. I remember being a teen and discovering A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare. I found the cross-over between reality and illusion in the story was perfect as a starting point to illustrate some of my ideas. Then during the research process, we even discovered that the book was part of Gabrielle Chanel’s library.’

The resulting colours are a bit more outré than the typical Chanel catalogue, but they still maintain the brand’s signature refined, curated aesthetic. ‘I felt that for my first collection, I should do something that felt true to myself,’ says Drammeh. ‘I thought about creating a collection with bold metallic colours that would serve as an accessory to the existing range of Chanel make-up. There is something very alluring about the little black dress and the idea of transforming a staple garment with the right accessory.’

‘Jardin Imaginaire’ is indeed bold enough to function as a standalone accessory, with colours that add a punk edge to even the simplest outfit. Drammeh has developed seven new shades of the Stylo Ombre et Contour eyeshadow sticks that range from robin’s egg blue and acid lime to bright tangerine and metallic violet.

There are also two new Baume Essential sticks in ‘Moonlight Kiss’ (which adds pearlescent radiance to cheekbones, brown bones and the corner of eyelids) and ‘Solar Glow’, a copper bronze shade that can be used as a subtle highlighter on darker skin tones and a contour tool on lighter ones.

The Complexion Creation Blush and Highlighter Duos come in ‘Gold and Peach’, a sunset-inspired palette designed to give a subtle glow, and ‘Light and Berry’ which leaves a slightly brighter kiss of pink on the skin.

Then, of course, there are new editions to Chanel’s beloved Le Vernis nail polish line. The boldest shade is our favourite: a shimmering light green that makes the tips of your fingers look like the wings of tropical insects. But for those who want something a little more subtle, there is also a nearly transparent pearlescent rose shade and a rich chocolate brown colour. (All products have been used to dreamy effect by Drammeh on Lily-Rose Depp, who stars in the campaign for the collection).

‘Collaboration is at the core of the Cometes Collective,’ Drammeh says about working with Paravina and Li. ‘The three of us were used to working alongside other creatives but never other make-up artists. Working with Cecile and Valentina has been enriching, fun and almost therapeutic. I am learning a great deal from both of them and I am excited to continue this exchange of knowledge with them.’

The limited edition Chanel Beauty ‘Jardin Imaginaire’ collection is available now.

chanel.com

It goes without saying that waterproof make-up is essential for hot weather; not only for languorous swims on balmy holidays, but also for simply existing during a heatwave. And, although perspiration is seemingly the must-have accessory of late (thanks to Luca Gudagnino’s Challengers, and the erotically charged tennis matches played by Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist), when sat sweltering on public transport during the commute home from work, it can feel decidedly less stylish.

From the luxury of a creamy yet immovable Chanel eyeliner and smear-safe Dior lipstick, to the dressing table staple of a Kryolan fixing spray, the below beauty products will see you and your face through any torrid climate this summer.

The best waterproof make-up for hot weather

1. Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof

With its Stylo Yeux Waterproof eyeliner, Chanel has created a product that not only packs a huge punch when it comes to colour payoff but also has a creamy yet budge-proof formula. Resisting water, humidity and sebum, the eyeliner is packaged as a slimline retractable pencil (plus it has an integrated sharpener so you never get caught out with a blunt tip at inopportune moments). The liner itself contains silicone resin and softening waxes, whilst film-forming properties mean that it sets quickly. So, to work deftly with a waterproof pencil liner such as this, time is of the essence when it comes to application, particularly if you want to smudge it around the lids, rather than creating a precise line.

Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof, £27, is available at Harrods.

2. Tom Ford Emotionproof Mascara

As someone with oily and hooded lids, I need waterproof or tubing mascara year-round, lest I end up with product transfer up to my eyebrows and also down half of my face. So of course, when a heatwave arrives, it is a non-negotiable. The issue with many waterproof formulations is that they can feel quite drying and spidery on the lashes. Tom Ford’s Emotionproof Mascara, however, has remedied this issue with a lengthening, creamy, carbon black product that contains olive oil, alongside all the ingredients that make it stay on throughout sweating, showering, or indeed, crying.

Tom Ford Emotionproof Mascara, £40, is available at Fenwicks.

3. Estée Lauder Double Wear Concealer

The Estée Lauder Double Wear range was introduced by the storied beauty brand in 1997, a time when matte make-up was highly coveted. Unlike many other products on the market, Double Wear foundation and concealer allowed for a natural and soft finish, rather than a cakey and chalky appearance. Today, the formulas are still incredibly long-lasting, with the foundation still contained in the same matte glass, gold-topped bottles, in an incredibly diverse range of shades. In general, I tend to forgo a heavy base when I apply make-up, relying on concealer buffed into the skin with a brush to even out stubborn pigmentation or cover blemishes. So, in warmer weather, I will always switch over to Double Wear Concealer, in either a liquid or cream formula.

Estée Lauder Double Wear Concealer, £31, is available at Selfridges.

4. Dior Rouge Dior Forever Lipstick

Dior’s Rouge Dior Forever is the first 16-hour transfer-proof lipstick from the house in a bullet, rather than liquid formula. Launched in 2022, under the direction of Peter Philips, the lipstick is resistant to water and even to fabric transfer, meaning there is no risk of it melting off or staining the light hues of summer clothes. Created in the Dior Beauty laboratories via meticulous research and testing, the blend of ingredients means complete colour uniformity and suppleness on the lips (a rarity when it comes to kiss-proof lip products). There are 30 colours available, my favourite being the classic 999 Rouge Dior, a shade that dates back to 1953.

Rouge Dior Forever Lipstick, £37, is available at Selfridges.

5. Shiseido WetForce Sports BB Cream SPF 50+

Again, as someone who prefers a lightweight make-up base erring on the dewier side, Shiseido’s WetForce Sports BB Cream SPF 50+ is the ideal solution, with the benefit that it has been specifically formulated for working out and contains a high level of sun protection. It harnesses the brand's WetForce technology, meaning that when the UV protection is exposed to water or sweat, it actually increases in potency, rather than washing it away. In addition, amino acids lock moisture into the skin, where white pearl powders serve to highlight facial contours.

Shiseido WetForce Sports BB Cream SPF 50+, £36, is available at Harrods.

6. Kryolan Fixing Spray

Not all setting and fixing sprays are created equal. And, they all serve different purposes. Where certain make-up mists can aid in ridding an overly powdery finish, or refreshing it throughout the day, a true setting spray will fix make-up in place, creating an invisible, transfer-proof film on the face, and delaying the deterioration of the products beneath. The brand Kryolan was founded in post-war Berlin in the mid-1940s. Its products soon became a make-up artists’ staple for film, television and on-stage productions, known for its incredible performance under the heat of lighting, and in scenes involving water, or sweat. The Kryolan Fixing Spray is one of my must-haves for hot weather, as it even works on body make-up if I want to set concealer I use to cover up the odd bruise when going bare-legged.

Kryolan FixingSpray, £10.80, is available at Guru Make-Up Emporium.

7. NARS Light Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder

Alongside a fixing spray, a translucent powder goes hand in hand with setting make-up in place. NARS Light Reflecting Powder is one of my favourites, as it never feels too heavy on the skin, but also prevents excessive shine in humid environments, with a soft focus, and luminous finish. (Its Photochromic Technology also ensures that there won’t be any dreaded flashback in photos). While the product comes in both a loose powder and pressed powder formula, I prefer the pressed, due its compact and transportable packaging with a mirror attachment, ideal for touch-ups during a sweltering day. I dip a triangular-shaped powder puff into the product and apply it across my T-zone in a rolling motion to ensure I don’t disturb any of the make-up underneath, and use a soft, smaller make-up brush for the corners of my nose and mouth, and under my eyes.

NARS Light Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder, £34, is available at Space NK.

Byredo never ceases to think outside the beauty box. Case in point: its recently launched light green Liquid Lipstick Vinyl, studded with pearlescent particles of gold glitter. Said lipstick forms part of Creative Image and Make-up Partner Lucia Pica’s latest collection for the brand, Mineralscapes, which takes inspiration from ancient geology and the natural landscape of Sweden, the brand‘s birthplace.

‘Mineralscapes is not strictly about where we come from geographically, it’s about something more ancient – our DNA, a cellular memory,’ says Pica. ‘It’s about how landscape and memory have shaped us over millennia. It’s a story that starts before you and ends after you.’

Byredo’s Frozen Memo green liquid lipstick is surprisingly subtle

Whilst eyes are the central focus of the range - anthracite greys, amethyst purples, moss greens, and glacier blues all feature in a highly pigmented, limited edition eyeshadow palette, alongside fine-tipped brow pencils in an array of 18 shades such as charcoal, slate, and sand - the hero lip product, called Frozen Memo, is perhaps the most curious of all. Although it sounds - and looks - as though it would provide a Martian-like pallor, having tried it myself, the effect is surprisingly subtle.

More of a gloss than a lipstick, once applied, the effect is a cool toned-glassy wash. Described by the brand as having an ‘addictive shine and long-lasting comfort with its creamy blend of oils and shea butter,’ it certainly lived up to these claims and was also devoid of that overly sticky, cloying finish that attracts windswept hair like a magnet.

I wore it alone in daylight and didn’t detect a hint of frostbite. Neither did anyone else, for that matter, as I wasn’t once asked if I was cold and needed to borrow someone’s jumper. For an evening out, I opted to slick Frozen Memo over the top of Byredo's Liquid Lipstick Matte, in my favourite colour, Space In Between.

The following night, I decided to get even more creative, patting the lipstick over a pale Mineralscapes eyeshadow, in keeping with Lucia Pica’s playful philosophy. As she says of Frozen Memo: ’[the colour] might feel strange, but [it is] a natural colour – colour we live with. The transformation comes in them becoming part of you.’

Well, reader, she’s right. As I never thought green lipstick would become a regular staple in my beauty product rotation, until now.

Byredo Liquid Lipstick Vinyl in Frozen Memo, £45, and the rest of the Mineralscapes collection by Lucia Pica is available now.

byredo.com

Biba’s make-up and cosmetics line, launched in 1970, was pioneering in every sense of the word. Alongside the likes of Mary Quant, another iconoclastic fashion label emblematic of the late 1960s and early 1970s subculture, it revolutionised how make-up was designed, marketed, and worn, speaking to a new generation pushing against mainstream conventions.

And, it’s hard to imagine that the beauty industry, which is now estimated to be worth $599.33 billion as of 2024, would look anything like it does today, without the risk-taking of Biba founder, Barbara Hulanicki.

Biba’s make-up and cosmetics sparked a beauty revolution

‘At the time, there was nothing like it,’ says Hulanicki, who was born in Warsaw, the daughter of a Polish diplomat. She is now 87 and living in Miami, Florida. After moving to Brighton in 1948, and gaining a degree in illustration from Brighton College of Art, Hulanicki went on to work freelance upon graduating. After meeting her late husband, advertising executive Stephen Fitz-Simon, the pair founded Biba in 1963, as a small mail-order fashion store.

‘By the time we had opened our biggest store on Kensington Church Street, we had the counters for our perfumes and things. And Fitz [the nickname of her late husband] said to me: “Well, where are the cosmetics?” So we did some research and found this big factory in East Grinstead, just outside of London, that made all the products for Revlon. And we went to see what we could do with them. On our first meeting, we faced this huge table with about 20 businessmen sitting around it. And I thought: “fucking hell!”’

Hulanicki understood right away that said businessmen weren’t going to buy into her unconventional vision, as her then-assistant Delisia Price (who ended up heading up the make-up line before make-up artist and hairdresser Regis Huet) remembers. ‘Barbara had amazing ideas about cosmetics. She wanted to, and eventually did, create a huge range of colours. Because at the time, you could get nothing: no foundation with any different undertones except yellow. No colours for darker or Black skin tones at all,’ she says. ‘She also wanted bright colours, pastel colours, colours that pop… magentas and blues. And when we first put these colours to them, the factory managers said no, it wasn’t possible. Fortunately, the girls who were working in the laboratory were so excited by the ideas and convinced them that it was going to be possible. So we we able to go ahead.’

‘From the earliest days of Biba, Barbara wanted to introduce a range of cosmetics so customers could create the complete Biba look,’ says Martin Pel, curator of a new Biba retrospective opening this month (22 March 2024) at London’s Fashion & Textile Museum. ‘It was the first company to create a full range of cosmetics for both Black skin, and men. Within two years of its launch, Biba cosmetics were sold in over 30 countries across three continents.’

The keys to Biba’s success story lies in its ability to speak authentically to its target audience: both aesthetically and fiscally. Any advertising was created in-house and tapped into the zeitgeist, allowing organic growth through word of mouth. As such, prices for products were always kept affordable, without skimping on quality or efficacy. There was even a name coined for the Biba make-up look, the Dudu Look, worn by Twiggy and copied by all. The look referenced stage and screen make-up, the kind worn by Clara Bow in the 1920s: pencil-thin brows, dark lips, dark eyes, huge doll-like lashes. (One can’t help but imagine how many TikTok tutorials for the trend there would be, had the app been around at the time).

As Delisia Price says: ‘We weren’t like Mary Quant or Ossie Clark – I loved them, but it was impossible to be able to afford it.’ This meant that the young people it was marketed to could buy into a slice of the Biba world, even if it was through a pair of extravagant false lashes, or lipstick in an unusual shade of green that would cause intentional unease to their parents and the general public. Even launch party events – now commonplace in the world of beauty – were made part of Biba’s repertoire.

‘We had a big party to open the cosmetics line, and all the girls were dressed and made up in Biba make-up and clothes, head-to-toe,’ says Hulanicki, recalling the Kensington tea dance that introduced the make-up line to the world. ‘We all got into this taxi to head over to the venue, and I wish I’d taken a picture of the driver’s face. He looked horrified! He didn’t know what to do with himself.’

‘It’s fascinating to watch how the make-up and cosmetics industry is today,’ concludes Hulanicki. ‘I go into the big Sephora in Miami, as I’m friendly with some of the people who work there, and all the young ones are looking at the make-up and skincare. There are now queues of thousands of people when make-up lines launch in department stores.’ But undoubtedly, Biba did it first.

‘The Biba Story: 1964-1975’ is open at the London Fashion & Textile Museum, 22 March – 8 September 2024. 

fashiontextilemuseum.org

There is a scene in Poor Things – the latest film by singular Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, winner of Best Makeup and Hair at the Oscars 2024, as well as on the BAFTA 2024 stage – where the hair of protagonist Bella Baxter (played by Emma Stone) is described as ‘silk on a translucent, glowing egg’. 

The dark comedy is an adaptation of Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Grey’s 1992 novel – which blends surrealism and sci-fi with political and social commentary. Set in Victorian London, the Frankensteinian story recounts the tale of Bella being brought back to life by surgeon Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) after jumping from a bridge to end her life, pregnant with a child she does not want. Dr Baxter ultimately swaps her brain with that of her unborn child, leading to Bella having to learn about the world she inhabits anew.

Poor Things: Nadia Stacey on the Oscar 2024-winning make-up and hair

The film opens with Bella’s suicide, with a close-up shot of the back of her head, showing hair pinned up in the fashion that was popular for women of polite society, unruly tendrils escaping their coiffured cage. Throughout her narrative arc, as the character travels the world, Bella’s hair becomes symbolically longer and more unruly. As Nadia Stacey, chief hair and make-up artist for Poor Things, explains: ‘Her hair was left down intentionally as a marker of her non-conformity to society, as we see all the women around her with period hairstyles. As the film goes on, the hair grows at an accelerated rate, too. So I changed the length as she moves through her journey ending up with 44-inch hair wefts.’

When Stacey signed on for the project, she was given simple instructions as to how the hair should be created almost immediately. ‘I received an email early on that just said “no wigs”! So I ended up using micro braids in Emma’s hair and attached real hair wefts of different lengths for different parts of the story. They were made in a natural brown and dyed black to match Emma’s hair.’ (Stone had accidentally dyed her hair black in real life; the initial plan was to take her red hair to a deep shade of brown). ‘The black hair wasn’t originally intentional; we knew it would be dark, but it went almost black. But it was a happy accident because it’s exactly what Bella should be. It makes her stand out in amongst this colourful world she enters and continually shows her as almost otherworldly,’ Stacey says.

Bella’s face is purposefully kept make-up-free for the first half of Poor Things. ‘Yorgos always insists on no make-up when it’s not specific for a character and in this instance that is completely right,’ says Stacey. ‘When we first meet Bella she’s a baby and even if you saw make-up that was just applied for screen it would pull you out of the story. We concentrated on Emma’s skincare instead and used clear brow gel and matte lip balm just to polish her for the screen.’

It is when Bella arrives in Paris and meets brothel owner Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter), taking up a job at her establishment, that make-up comes into play. ‘Madame Swiney and the brothel girls all have make-up in the anatomical colours that our production designers were using in the Baxters’ house from medical references: blood red, pinks from skin, blues and purple from veins. I felt at that point Bella is learning something new, that make-up is part of the process of presenting herself to the men visiting the brothel and also what that means.’

It is when Bella arrives in Paris and meets brothel owner Madame Swiney (Kathryn Hunter), taking up a job at her establishment, that make-up comes into play. ‘Madame Swiney and the brothel girls all have make-up in the anatomical colours that our production designers were using in the Baxters’ house from medical references: blood red, pinks from skin, blues and purple from veins. I felt at that point Bella is learning something new, that make-up is part of the process of presenting herself to the men visiting the brothel and also what that means.’

Alongside her work with Stone, Stacey created the monstrous (in all senses of the word) prosthetic worn by Willem Dafoe, which involved layering several pieces together, even glueing some of them directly onto Dafoe’s face. The character the actor plays was experimented on by his father, also a surgeon, leading to disfigurement and bodily dysfunction. Outwardly terrifying, Dr Baxter (or ‘God’ as Bella calls him) is a complex and compassionate man.

‘The challenge was how to make this look on screen. It was a tough process because there could be so many different versions of that look,’ says Stacey. ‘There was a Francis Bacon painting that was a starting point. I worked with prosthetic artists Mark Coulier and Josh Weston to develop the initial ideas and we went through so many different versions because you have to strike the balance of shocking with seeing enough of the man to feel for him. And, when you have Willem Dafoe, you don’t want to cover his face completely. It was also important to tell the story of Dr Baxter and what his father had done to him through the scars on his face. Josh and Robin Pritchard, another prosthetic artist, applied the make-up daily and got it down to just under three hours in the end. Willem said it was six, but it must have just felt like that!’

Poor Things marks the second collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Nadia Stacey. The director is renowned for his post-modern filmmaking style as part of the ‘Greek Weird Wave’ cinematic movement, with his other work, including The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and The Favourite (Stacey provided hair and make-up for the last). ‘Working with Yorgos is the most creative you will ever be and the most scared! Not because of him, but because he allows the freedom to let you come up with ideas and feed them back. But there’s no limit to that, which is incredible but also scary, because you don’t know where the boundaries are. Essentially, there aren’t any. I watched Poor Things for the first time and felt the same as when I first watched The Favourite; I had no idea what the finished films would look like, but I was so incredibly proud that my name was on them. It’s exciting to work with someone so brave.’

Poor Things is in cinemas now, including Odeon

Obayaty is a new brand that wants men to explore the transformative potential of make-up. It launched in December 2023 with a line of seven cosmetic and skincare products. These range from the subtle (a tinted eye cream, a stick concealer, a lip balm, bronzer and highlighter) to the bold (coloured eye pens and nails polishes), all with forward-thinking yet functionally designed packaging.

The design-led vision for Obayaty’s make-up for men

Obayaty is following in the footsteps of brands such as Pleasing, Milk, and Byredo –which take a gender-neutral approach to make-up – and Chanel, whose Boy de Chanel range provides a slightly subdued version of the main cosmetic line.

However, Obayaty is trying to take men’s beauty one step further with a more varied range of products specifically designed to address the needs of men. ‘We understand that masculinity is no longer one-size-fits-all,’ the Obayaty team told us. ‘We’ve moved beyond the stage where norms are dictated. Modern men are characterised by their willingness to embrace transformation, a characteristic that lies at the heart of Obayaty.’ 

Both the make-up and the skincare are designed to respond to the unique challenges of men’s skin, which include larger pores, heightened sebum production, rough texture, dry patches and shaving irritation. Products such as Face Contour, a sculpting bronzer stick, and the Retouch Stick, a creamy concealer, provide buildable colour and are formulated with botanical oils to hydrate skin and prevent shine.

The eye pens come in five shades, including a traditional black, punchy pink and a shimmery silver, and can be used to line the eyes or smudged to create a shadow effect. The use of shea butter and natural waxes means the products melt into the skin to be wearable throughout the day and complement, rather than dominate, the wearer’s face.

All products come in gunmetal-hued packaging that is compact enough to be kept in a pocket and used throughout the day. Ultimately, it is a mixture of versatility and usability that defines the Obayaty mission. ‘What sets our products apart is their user-friendly design, making them easy to incorporate into any routine, and a formulation crafted to eliminate common mistakes,’ say the team. ‘Our commitment lies in offering a seamless and natural experience that enhances the wellbeing and confidence of men.’

obayaty.com

Wearing coloured eyeshadow can be a daunting prospect. But the only way to overcome any fear is to feel it, and do it anyway – and particularly when it comes down to make-up application, which is supposed to be a fun and freeing experience by nature.

Experimentation and practice here are key: approaching your face like a painter would a canvas, and testing out shades to see which suits your undertones are essential to the process of learning to pull off a bright and bold eye look. This can extend as far as layering lipsticks or smearing lip gloss onto eyelids, wetting a powder shadow to create a deeper and more vibrant finish to the product, blending eye tints to create a custom hue, or using opposite ends of the colour spectrum simultaneously on eyes and lips.

On the beauty pages of Wallpaper* 2023, this is the philosophy that was employed by three make-up artists: Peter Philips, creative and image director of Dior’s make-up line; Chanel’s UK beauty ambassador Marco Antonio; and the talents of Parisian make-up maestro Caroline Fenouil. Here, three looks to use as inspiration for your own daring makeup application, taking coloured eyeshadow into 2024 and beyond.

How to experiment with coloured eyeshadow, as seen in Wallpaper* 2023

Red

Marco Antonio went big on red for this look for the November 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, combining a glossy lip and dewy skin with a metallic garnet eye. The make-up artist made sure the base was fresh, letting freckles show through, so as not to overdo the final result. He also used Chanel’s Baume Essentiel glow stick in Transparent to highlight under the brow bone and high points of the face, before lining the eyes with a metallic red and brushing it up onto the lashes. Antonio combined Chanel’s 31 Le Rouge lipsticks in the shades Rouge Coromandel combined with the wetter-looking finish of the Rouge Beige colourway. For staying powder, always prime your eyelids and set the liner using a powder, unless you want to create an intentionally grungy, lived-in result that creases and shifts over time.

Blue

Dior make-up’s creative and image director Peter Philips launched an eye palette this year in the shade ‘Denim’, which includes azure, peacock, turquoise blue shimmer shadows And it’s this this is palette that was used here for this shoot with Charles Negre, published in the October 2023 issue of Wallpaper*. Slightly retro in feel, but neither pastiche or referential, this eye look works with the palette to blend and merge colours together, seamlessly diffusing the shadows to the outer peripheries of the brow bone and underneath the lower lid. Ground your look with smokey black liner and mascara: the products here include Diorshow Iconic Overcurl mascara in 090 and Diorshow On Stage Crayon eyeliner in 099.

Green

The look that Caroline Fenuil put together for this beauty editorial (published in the December 2023 issue of Wallpaper*) is not for the faint of heart. It celebrates the ‘strangeness’ of Dries Van Noten’s beauty range, as described by Van Noten himself. ‘I am a storyteller,’ he told Mary Cleary upon the launch of his make-up and fragrance line in 2022. My clothes make you feel certain associations and connections, because I work with all those contrasts, all those opposites.’ Fenuil cleverly played with this idea by teaming the brand’s Satin lipstick in Favorite Red with a metallic, slime-green eyeshadow, blended right up and outward, to create a contrasting and beautifully jarring make-up look befitting of Antwerpian design sensibilities.

Boxing Day is a distinctly British tradition. No matter where you are in the country, or how you celebrate the holiday season, the general consensus is that it’s considered a national day for doing not very much at all, if possible. Whether you’re currently spending today on the sofa, eating, drinking, and relaxing, or even if you’re on your way elsewhere, take a moment to scroll through the Wallpaper* shortlist of seductive beauty packaging from the past year.

There’s Lucia Pica’s First Emotions collection for Byredo (which won Wallpaper’s 2023 design award for best use of colour), Hermès’ debut eyeshadow launch (captured by photographer Ivona Chrzastek on the pages of our November 2023 art issue, alongside an interview with the creative director of Hermès Beauty, Gregoris Pyrpylis), and more.

Boxing Day: seductive beauty packaging from 2023

Byredo’s First Emotions collection by Lucia Pica

Okay, so if you want to be pedantic, Byredo’s First Emotions collection, designed by the brand’s creative image and make-up partner Lucia Pica, was technically launched in 2022. However, for the Wallpaper* 2023 design awards issue, we gave the range of products the top spot for ‘best use of colour’. It goes without saying that the packaging also deserves a mention, which includes designs for a Kajal eye pencil and mascara in burgundy, a five-colour eyeshadow palette with gold, auburns and metallic pinks, and two lipsticks.

Celine’s bath and body collection

Inspired by the ritualistic Parisian art of bathing, Hedi Slimane realised a new Celine bath and body collection in 2023. Infused with the scent of fragrance Cologne Céleste (which launched earlier in the year containing notes of orange blossom, angelica, sweet lemon essence, petitgrain, neroli, ambrette, and orris butter) the bottles are also pieces of art unto themselves, with weighty glass bottles and metal lids that turn any bathroom into a little slice of luxury.

Hermès’ eyeshadow debut

Designed by Pierre Hardy in keeping with the entire Hermès Beauty range, the packaging for the first collection of eye products was highlighted on the pages of Wallpaper* November 2023, celebrating form as well as function. Called ‘Le Regard’, the selection of products is comprised of eyeshadow palettes and brushes, and a selection of mascaras in six different shades. As Greek make-up artist and creative director of the storied house’s beauty line Gregoris Pyrpylis told Mary Cleary: ‘I don’t want to impose a certain look on someone … I want them to amuse themselves and have a nice moment. Make-up shouldn’t feel like an obligation.’

Rabanne’s new make-up line

‘The nice thing about the products is that they’re very interchangeable. You can mix them, and there’s a lot to play with. There’s definitely that playfulness, that avant-garde spirit and a little bit of sophistication, while still being playful and young,’ said make-up artist Diane Kendal, in a Wallpaper* interview marking the launch of Rabanne’s gender-neutral make-up line, and her subsequent appointment as its creative director, in August 2023. ‘People want to have fun and have products they can play with.’ Of course, a Rabanne product wouldn’t be a Rabanne product without design references to the iconic chainmail that the Spanish brand is renowned for, evidenced in the metallic packaging for foundations, lipsticks, eyeshadows, amongst others.

Ann Demeulemeester’s first ever fragrance

September 2023 marked a first for Belgian designer Ann Demeulemeester (her namesake brand was founded in Antwerp in 1985), when the label put out its first-ever fragrance. Simply titled ‘A’, and described as ‘darkly romantic’ with notes of clove, cumin, Ceylon cinnamon, Sicilian lemon and Calabrian bergamot, and ‘narcotic’ jasmine, the bottle played into the gothic minimalism inherent to the fashion line, with a sleek black design crafted from glass. ‘The box itself – evocative of a blank canvas – is designed to recall the designer’s Antwerp boutique, while a portrait of the designer by husband Patrick Robyn in 1992 is fixed to the interior,’ wrote Wallpaper’s fashion features editor Jack Moss upon the perfume’s arrival.

During the festive season, there is a collective tendency to overindulge in glitter-based items. From gaudy sweaters to interior (or exterior) decor, while a bit of sparkle can be fun, there is a limit that is so often exceeded.

When it comes to make-up and hair, avoid this issue entirely by playing with a subtle nod to glittery textures, here and there. Focusing on individual parts of the face or body, can be all you need to provide any social situation with a suitably celebratory yet sophisticated aura.

Here are five beauty products that give glitter a grown-up spin, from hairstylist Guido Palau’s new Zara Beauty collection, Chanel’s iridescent Coco Mademoiselle gel lotion, and Giorgio Armani’s shimmery liquid eye tint.

Five sophisticated ways to wear glitter make-up textures this winter

The lips

Tom Ford once quipped that ‘glamour is something more than what you put on your body. It has to do with the way you carry yourself and the impact you have on others’. Whilst being correct in this assertion, this glitter lip balm by his namesake brand (now owned by Estée Lauder) provides a little help along the way. Formulated without parabens, mineral oils, and silicones, and described as a product that ‘mimics the look of a lustrous sunset over the sea’, a slick of this lip balm over the top of a matte lipstick, or simply worn alone, is a decidedly elevated approach to pulling off glitter make-up.

Tom Ford, Soleil de Feu Lip Spark Balm, £44 at Harrods.

The eyes

The versatility of this liquid eyeshadow by Giorgio Armani knows no bounds: it can be used as a shadow, liner, or even highlighter. With a polymer formulation that is both smudge and sweat-resistant, yet creamy and blendable, the liquid tint (which comes in several runway-inspired shades) is enriched with pearlescent pigment and finely milled glitter particles. It can be applied as a solo, sheer wash of colour over the lids, or densely smudged around the entirety of the eye and smoked out with powder for a sultry finish that is rather reminiscent of make-up looks worn by the likes of Amber Valetta and Nadja Auermann in Giorgio Armani’s 1990s campaigns by Peter Lindbergh and Paolo Roversi.

Giorgio Armani Eye Tint, £30 at Selfridges.

The cheeks

In September 2023, Apple TV+ released a documentary on the life and work of legendary make-up artist and photographer, François Nars. Called Unknown Beauty, it takes a look at his inner world, following the trajectory of his career from the 1970s to 1990s New York. Narrated by Charlotte Rampling, the documentary opens with a shot of Romy Schneider the 1964 film L'Enfer by Georges Clouzot, her face entirely covered in glitter. This became one of Nars’ most ensuring inspirations, so it’s no surprise that products in his namesake make-up line often focus on this texture. This limited edition cheek palette from the brand’s latest holiday collection contains buildable hues of its signature Light Reflecting Blush in cinematic shades titled ‘Silver Screen’, ‘Vertigo’, ‘Sabrina’, and more.

NARS, All That Glitters Light Reflecting Cheek Palette, £59 at Harvey Nichols.

The hair

Earlier this month (December 2023) Zara Beauty released a holiday hair collection in collaboration with Guido Palau, the hairstylist behind runway and campaign looks ranging from Marc Jacobs, Prada, Versace and Fendi. Called ‘Glitter in Gold’, the range of products includes a ‘Give Me Glitter’ hair make-up spray and ‘Give Me Gold gel’, to provide your locks with a luminous lustre. With extra fine textures, they can be applied sparingly or layered liberally, depending on how editorial you want your desired look to be. The set also includes a gold-tone styling comb and set 12 bobby pins, for a playful and practical finishing touch. ‘We’ve developed a bobby pin that doesn't fall out of your hair,’ says Palau. ‘It's the most simple hair accessory, but I wanted to make it more aesthetically pleasing.’

Zara Beauty by Guido Palau hair holiday set, £35.99 at Zara.

The nails

As with everything Dior Beauty produces, thanks to the masterful eye of creative and image director Peter Philips, this limited edition Dior Vernis nail polish (as part of a collection called Atelier of Dreams) brings the world of Parisian haute couture right to your fingertips. Infused with extracts of peony and pistachio, the formula is gentle and protective, whilst providing a mirrored gel-like finish. Whether worn alone or as a top coat, this polish provides any manicure with just the right amount of festive pizzaz. Once your nails are dry, finish with the brand’s silky multipurpose balm product, Le Baume, which is the ideal protectant against winter temperatures as you make your way from holiday party A to holiday party B.

Dior, Dior Vernis The Atelier of Dreams Limited Edition nail polish, £27 at Harvey Nichols.

The chest

Wallpaper* reported on Chanel’s latest Coco Mademoiselle campaign in February 2023, which stars Canadian actress Whitney Peak. The now classic fragrance, which first launched in 2001, has been described as an ‘ode to youth’; the younger relative of Chanel No.5, if you will. This body gel, imbued with the scent, is a playful take on this dynamic, and is distinctly Parisian take on body glitter. The shimmering formula with its suspended pearly particles inspired by ‘Mademoiselle's penchant for pearls’. It illuminates the skin whilst being fresh, subtle and lightweight. For off-the-shoulder cuts, this product is the ideal finishing touch when worn on the décolletage. (When pairing it with backless garments, you may require a little assistance in application).

Chanel, Coco Mademoiselle Pearly Body Gel, £85 at Selfridges.

Filmmaker Susannah Farrugia began Instagram account @makeupincinema almost five years ago. Predominantly focused on scenes in film that feature the application of make-up – with screengrabs from works by Pedro Almodóvar, Derek Jarman, and David Lynch, and from a period spanning from the mid-20th century to the present day – the project started as a personal, research-based archive. But today, the page has around 30,000 followers from all over the globe.

Make-up in cinema

Farrugia, who hails from Malta but now lives in Manchester, was initially focused on when and how a character would apply make-up in a scene, realising how many parallel shots appear across media. ‘This element of capturing and comparing parallel shots was the driving force behind the channel for a couple of years,’ she explains. ‘Until I expanded the criteria to also consist of interesting, noteworthy, and culturally impactful make-up looks and designs, which did not necessarily have to feature the application or appearance of a particular cosmetic product.’

With Farrugia being an avid cinephile and collector of screen-capped films and television shows since she was around 12 years of age, it’s no wonder her account is such a broad point of cultural reference. ‘I have even broken two separate print-screen buttons by excessive use,’ she notes. With arthouse and Blaxploitation genres appearing in conjunction with the Netflix-backed series’ The White Lotus, and film noir juxtaposed with the campy, acid colour palettes of Gregg Araki’s New Queer Cinema, there are behind-the-scenes applications of grotesque and disquieting prosthetics (such as those of child actor Linda Blair in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and Mia Goth in Ti West’s Pearl).

‘The majority of what I find is based on my knowledge and viewing of each film, as well as seeing movie posters or lists that circulate on Instagram, Pinterest, or Letterboxd. I also receive suggestions from followers.’ 

Farrugia’s favourite on-screen figures include Divine, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich, Pam Grier, and Angelica Huston. ‘I would say every time I wear red eyeshadow I try to channel Lady Vengeance; when I put on winged eyeliner, I think Anna Karina, and when I put on red lipstick in the centre of my lips, I am consciously referencing Padmé Amidala.’

‘My most interesting finding is that make-up not only plays an important role in the narrative and characterisation in a film, but it often functions for a structural purpose,’ continues Farrugia. ‘Many make-up montages happen in the prime real estate of the three-act structure: the beginning, the midpoint, and the climax. Make-up inherently offers symbolism and subtext to the narrative – whether the characters are putting it on, crying it off, or stealing it from the mall – it significantly signposts character arcs and plot points.’

Farrugia is currently working on a proposal to develop the @makeupincinema account into a coffee table book, immersing herself in further research. ‘There are no visually-led books exclusively on the subject of make-up in cinema, so I’m looking to create one. I’m watching every film possible. In the meanwhile, if any publishers are reading this, you know where to find me.’

@makeupincinema

With her new Byredo holiday collection, ‘Self Illusion’, Lucia Pica continues to do what she does best: create off-kilter make-up that suits modern beauty. As a make-up artist and creative director at Byredo Beauty (where she won a Wallpaper* Design Award 2023), and Chanel Beauty before it, Pica has endorsed the idea that the most captivating faces are made through subtle eccentricities.

Make-up, as Pica tells me over Zoom from her Paris apartment, ‘should always be asking a question’ by having some element that is slightly off in a barely perceptible way. It has to do something on your face that moves you,’ she says. ‘And that moves the person you’re meeting.’

Byredo holiday collection by Lucia Pica

A prime example of this is her popularisation of red eye make-up, which transforms a traditional marker of illness or sadness into a dramatic way to brighten your eye colour and complexion. The same is true of the clear lip gloss she created for Byredo last year, which can be placed over eyeliner to make you look on the verge of tears.

‘Self Illusion’ continues this approach with four holiday-themed products. The brand’s signature oyster-shaped eyeshadow palette eschews the gold, silver and black found in most holiday collections for gunmetal grey, washed denim blue, pearlescent silver, deep mustard and chestnut brown. The pigments are, as with all Byredo shadows, so intense that a single brush of the finger provides high-impact colour, while the creamy texture makes blending the shades easy.

The colours are complemented by the collection’s Kajal eye pencil in a shimmery brown, and mascara in a peculiar, but subtle, blue-grey that, as Pica puts it, ‘is going to add some character but in a very sophisticated and very elevated way’. 

The collection is rounded out by a matte terracotta red lipstick that ‘is not necessarily a full-on red but still gives you that festive feel’. For colour inspiration, Pica was looking at Georgia O’Keefe’s landscape paintings where ‘warm colours were mixed with cool colours’, as well as Wim Wenders’ desert polaroids, which have an otherworldly bluish tint to them. While desert landscapes might not be obvious choices for a holiday collection, they felt right to Pica ‘because it is about being transported into a different state which can be unreal, which can be dreamy, but at the same time makes you expand’.

Dreams are the touchpoint of this collection, underscored by campaign images that depict models in abstract spaces with their faces slightly out of focus or reflected in mirrors and pools of lapis water. This is holiday make-up for people who want to leave people guessing; and who want to cultivate an individual version of beauty that is immediate but also slightly confusing. As Pica herself puts it, ‘Byredo is a luxury brand but it also has a cool, modern side to it, a vibrating energy. So there has to be that something a little off or maybe a little unexpected, but at the same time there’s such a sophistication to the brand that that interesting aspect looks sophisticated and elevated.’

byredo.com

Dries Van Noten Beauty has always embraced surprising combinations. As Van Noten told us when the brand launched in 2021, with lipsticks and fragrances that ‘can tell a different story. Because with my fashion collections, I am a storyteller. My clothes make you feel certain associations and connections, because I work with all those contrasts, all those opposites.’

The inspiration behind Dries Van Noten Beauty

So, for our December issue story, we took a note out of the Van Noten beauty playbook and mixed clashing colours with bold textures to create six riotous looks that tightrope between brashness and elegance. Paris-based photographer Eva Wang captured these ‘impossible combinations’ (including electric pink lipstick smeared on eyelids or a classic bordeaux-hued shade lined with a bright shock of shimmering gold) in her signature high-gloss style.

The playful ethos of Dries Van Noten Beauty extended to the makeup application, as seen in the lilac eyeshadow applied with a measured messiness beyond the lid, or lip colours that subtly peek outside of the lip line. The same goes for the fashion, by Wallpaper’s fashion firector Jason Hughes, where 1980s exuberance is channelled through a combination of lacquered Barbie-pink lips paired with a gold foil turtleneck, or a furry pastel pink coat contrasting with the texture of a slime green eye.

It’s jolie laide makeup at its very best or, as Van Noten himself puts it, ‘what is beautiful for me may be very ugly for you, and vice versa. Something that is considered by a lot of people as beautiful I think is boring. That’s why I like so much to work with contrasts. I like to have strangeness in my beauty.’

All make-up and clothing by Dries Van Noten, driesvannoten.com. Make-up is also available at Selfridges, selfridges.com.

Beauty & grooming editor: Mary Cleary. Fashion director: Jason Hughes. Models: Migoa Guol at Elite Paris, Julia Lamarque at Blow Models. Casting: Ikki Casting at The Art Board. Make-up: Caroline Fenouil. Hair: Sayaka Otama at Walter Schupfer Management. Digital assistant: Tony at Dope Paris. Photography assistant: Fred Barlet. Make-up assistant: Shin Fenestre.

A version of this story appeared in the December 2023 Entertaining Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print from 9 November, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today!

Sylvie Legastelois, the head of Packing and Design Creation for Chanel Beauty, designed some of the most iconic products of recent times, with her creations appearing in movies and TV advertisements, department stores and billboards the world over and, of course, on bathroom shelves and in the handbags of countless women.

And yet, few people know her name. Since joining Chanel in 1984, Legastelois has kept a low profile, offering only a few interviews in the course of almost 40 years. On the rare occasions she does speak publicly, the lessons, as I learned during a recent call with her, are intriguing. Here is a woman who has developed the aesthetic codes for one of the most iconic brands in the world – so how has she done it?

When I ask this over a video call, she holds up a sheet of paper for me to view on the screen. It shows a yin yang diagram, one side representing ‘consistency’ – the roots, heritage, codes and, as Legastelois puts it, ‘the temple’ of the brand – and on the other side representing ‘creativity’ – encompassing innovation, inspiration and daring.

 For Legastelois, this chart illustrates the challenge behind every Chanel product: to create an object that is both modern and timeless. ‘I have a mission to respect the past,’ she tells me, ‘and, at the same time, to reinvent new codes, to go further the same way Gabrielle [Chanel, the company’s founder] did. So she left us this mission: to balance between the past and future.’

That balancing act tends to be a slow and gradual process, with incremental changes tested out on products over the course of years, before they are officially adopted as a new code. The result is an aesthetic treasure hunt for the Chanel aficionado, with a look at Chanel Beauty launches past revealing subtle clues of what’s to come in the next. Take the brand’s latest, and one of its biggest, launches: the 31 Le Rouge lipstick.

Chanel 31 Le Rouge lipstick

It is Chanel’s most luxurious lipstick ever, with a glass and metal case that took four years to develop. It looks distinctly different from the rest of the brand’s packaging, but Legastelois had actually been planting similar details in other products for years prior. A precursor to the gold band around the middle can be seen in the Rouge Coco lipstick, and a hint of the glass packaging appears in the transparent lid of the Rouge Coco Bloom lip tint.

That said, 31 Le Rouge stands out from its forebears. The glass case is designed to be ultra-light while still durable enough to last a lifetime. A master glassmaker from Japan was called in to carve its perfect, sleek lines that together recall the signature staircase of the rue Cambon store in Paris. Meanwhile, the metallic bands at the centre link together with a satisfying click that recalls the closing of a luxury car door. The lipstick bullet itself comes in a recyclable aluminum case with a shiny finish enhanced by its glass casing. It makes 31 Le Rouge both the most sustainable and striking Chanel Beauty launch yet.

A big launch like this always marks a meaningful time for Legastelois to look back at her long, illustrious career. Thinking about her nearly 40-year tenure with Chanel, she asserts that the most meaningful lesson she learned over the course of it all was to ‘never give up.’ 

‘If I believe in something, even if it's not possible to do it now, I continue to work [on it]. I believe when I have an idea and it’s too early, it could one day be the right timing. Sometimes, I have to reinvent and just keep thinking of the future. So never giving up is part of my DNA. And even if you fail, continue, because maybe next time will be better.’

chanel.com

Ceramics sourced from galleries and shops around Paris are the catalyst for make-up looks in this story from Wallpaper* October 2023, with the creative and image director of Christian Dior Makeup, Peter Philips. The result is an aesthetic dialogue between solid design objects and malleable human faces that is dynamic, bold and unabashedly glamorous.

There is a kind of magic to make-up’s transformative ability and Philips is the industry’s Houdini, its most deft practitioner of astounding illusions. On set for this shoot, Philips would look at the selected ceramic and turn to the barefaced girl in the chair, gradually transforming her with the steady swipe of his hands into someone radically new.

Through the lens of photographer Charles Negre, the texture, shape and colour of the ceramics became an abstract canvas for the models' painted faces, and a testament to the creative brilliance that can come from unexpected combinations – in this case, design and make-up.

Getting up close and personal with objects of beauty

All make-up by Dior. Make-up: Peter Philips, Creative & Image Director for Dior Make-up. Beauty & grooming editor: Mary Cleary. Models: Stinne Trappeniers at Girl Management, Anaïs Lunch at IMG. Casting: Ikki Casting at The Art Board. Hair: Sebastien Bascle at Calliste Agency. Manicurist: Beatrice Eni at Saint Germain using Dior Manicure Collection and Prestige La Crème Mains de Rose. Interiors: Lune Kuipers at Lambert Lambert. Photography assistant: Frederic Congiu .Digital assistant: Martin Varret at Imagin Productions. Make-up assistants: Sayuri Yamashita, Isabelle Pain.

This article appears in the October 2023 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

In an industry flooded with make-up products promising to sculpt, shape and ultimately transform the way you look, the indie brand Kosas has built its business about making the most of what you’ve got. While it doesn’t sound revolutionary, Kosas was an early adopter in creating inclusive shade ranges and colours that suit a wide array of skin tones since its earliest days. Its hit Revealer Concealer, a self-described concealer meets eye cream, comes in 28 shades, while its Revealer Foundation, a clean formula that boasts skin-improving ingredients and SPF 30, comes in a staggering 36 shades. 

Kosas’ trademark combination of skincare efficacy, healthy formulas and make-up that actually feels good and works as it promises is a testament to founder Sheena Zadeh-Daly’s vision. When she was growing up in 1990s Southern California, a microscope kit and an art kit were the mainstays of Zadeh-Daly’s childhood, which led her to pursue a degree in biological sciences and embrace a deep love for colour and art. It was actually while mixing colours in a portrait painting class that Zadeh-Daly created her first lipstick shades – the perfect earthy blends of neutrals and pinks that enhance natural lip tones. And thus, Kosas was born in 2015, with just four lipstick shades.

‘It was always my dream to create a beauty brand that solved what I felt was missing from my own make-up. I wanted my make-up to function as skincare. I wanted my make-up to feel comfortable on my face, not heavy. I wanted the shades to be flattering and look like me but better,’ Zadeh-Daly says. ‘I incorporated those philosophies into creating four lipstick shades and since then, Kosas has evolved into a full-face make-up brand with a focus on creating complexion products like concealer and foundation with the most beautiful finishes and clinically backed skincare efficacy.’

She adds, ‘Kosas is make-up for skincare freaks. I believe that make-up is a huge opportunity to take care of your skin, and so I make sure every product is loaded with clean, healthy, effective ingredients that make a big difference. Kosas is the result of my passion for ingredients, obsession with comfort, and love of colour.’

Since then, the brand has gone on to build its user-friendly collection and the cult following shows. From its DreamBeam SPF 40 mineral sunscreen, which moisturises and smoothes skin with peptides and ceramides and serves as a perfect base, to its Brow Pop Nano pencil, a ultra-fine miniature brow pencil that allows users to fill in their brows, fuss-free, and its upcoming debut eyeshadow palette, Undressed, that will convert even the most prejudiced of users, Kosas’ easy, feel-good philosophy actually pays off.

‘Every product we formulate not only has to look amazing but also needs to do great things for your skin, so when we hear from our community that not only do they love how beautiful and natural Revealer Concealer looks, but that it also helped brighten their undereyes, or that they love the fluffy effect of Air Brow Lifting and Volumizing Gel and that it’s truly supported the health of their brows, that’s the most gratifying,’ Zadeh-Daly says. 

‘As a beauty brand, we deal directly with body image, and it is our core mission to shift the mindset of the beauty industry away from the idea that we need to drag people down to sell them products, and instead lean into the truth that when we feel good, we want to look our best and celebrate ourselves. We don’t have anything to hide or fix, instead we want to reveal the things we love about ourselves and ultimately feel totally comfortable in our own skin.’

kosas.com

The forward-thinking spirit of the fashion house Rabanne (more of which in our recent Julien Dossena interview) takes a fresh shape with the launch of Rabanne Beauty: a dynamic, gender-neutral make-up collection that exudes the same boundary-breaking spirit of its sartorial sibling.Designed to challenge convention and support radical self-expression, Rabanne Beauty offers a comprehensive range of colours and textures that can be wielded to drape the eyes, lips, face and body. Ranging from mascaras, lipsticks and lip balms to handbag-inspired eyeshadow palettes in two sizes, 30 shades of foundation and innovative art-inspired products that invite users to experiment, customise and adapt existing products to create a finish that’s entirely one’s own, Rabanne Beauty leaves nothing on the table.

Overseen by make-up maestro Diane Kendal, who serves as the brand’s creative director, Rabanne Beauty draws from the distinctive identity of its namesake. ‘The nice thing about the products is that they’re very interchangeable. You can mix them, and there’s a lot to play with. There’s definitely that playfulness, that avant-garde spirit and a little bit of sophistication, while still being playful and young,’ she says. ‘People want to have fun and have products they can play with. 

Each of the pieces in the Rabanne Beauty collection nods to the signature metal details and kinetic silhouettes of the fashion house – for example, the ‘XL Link’ jewellery and ‘1969’ bag – in its packaging and product design. Conceived like accessories in their own right, the pieces have a collectible feel, while remaining easy to transport and use. 

Intended to prompt limitless creativity and experimentation, Rabanne Beauty is characterised by a malleability that speaks to the modern age. This is particularly reflected in its Art Factory product suite, which offers metallic and glitter finishes that can be added to other colour products for a transformative effect. Metal Shot, a liquid multi-use highlighter that is dispensed with a dropper, can be used alone or to amplify the look of an eyeshadow or lipstick. Shimmer Bomb, a glitter spray, produces a thin, refined veil of iridescence all over the skin or body, while Pure Metal, a vial of biodegradable, metallic silver powder, can again be used on its own or combined with Rabanne Beauty’s other products. 

The formulations are all vegan, dermatologically tested and committed to sustainability. Ninety-eight per cent of the ingredients are of natural origin, while still ensuring high-performance wear and maximum pay-off. 

‘You can put a tiny bit of the Color Shot in silver on the inner corner of the eye and that’s your look, if you wanted,’ says Kendal, of the tubes of highly pigmented cream-to-paint liquid eyeshadow, that come in 12 metallic shades. ‘Or you can do a gorgeous lip and throw glitter all over your face. It’s just easy and accessible. There’s no beauty, only beauties.’

pacorabanne.com

Isamaya Ffrench’s pioneering work as a make-up artist includes seashells glued to models’ skin, alien prosthetics, AI amalgamations of ‘beautiful’ Instagram images applied to a supermodel’s face, and many more elastic interpretations of beauty that snap from the classically appealing to the radically strange.

As global beauty director of Burberry and the original creative director of Dazed Beauty and Byredo Makeup, Ffrench has created strikingly visceral images, sometimes disturbingly so, but beneath their arresting surface are always serious questions: how is our perception of beauty formed? How can we subvert those perceptions? Is there any such thing as beauty anyway? Can that which is ‘ugly’ or ‘grotesque’ not be beautiful too? 

Isamaya Beauty

Those questions are at the forefront of Ffrench's own beauty line, Isamaya, which debuted last year with 'Industrial'--the first in a series of themed, limited drops--followed by 'Rodeo'. This month, Ffrench is remixing the original 'Industrial' collection with an expanded range of shades, new chrome packaging and a new campaign featuring Ffrench alongside Julia Fox and Richie Shazam.

To commemorate the debut, we revisit our interview with Ffrench on the ocasion of the first launch.

Wallpaper*: What creative limitations were you able to transcend with Isamaya Beauty that you haven’t been able to in your past work?

Isamaya Ffrench: The freedom not to speak to an existing customer base but to create a new one. I’m so passionate about creativity that doing my own brand finally means that I don’t have to compromise on the integrity or message of the brand. 

W*: What were your essential inspirations and references during the creation of Isamaya Beauty?

IF: There are not precise inspirations behind the creation of the brand. After years of working in the industry, seeing countless visuals, doing massive amounts of research, it’s more [about] unconscious references. When everything you have done informs what you do now, but you can’t pinpoint a precise element. I’ve always loved hardcore underground scenes as beauty references and many of them made their way into my moodboards. 

W*: Do you remember a specific moment when your conception of beauty changed? How has it impacted you?

IF: Launching Dazed Beauty in 2018 was a turning point – I realised not only how many underrepresented people there were out there in the beauty community who needed a voice, but that these kids were the ones who were helping shape and define new beauty ideals and they needed to be given a platform to do that credibly. 

W*: How do you foresee make-up being used in our increasingly technological world?

IF: Technology is evolving by the second, so it’s complicated to keep up and see clearly what the future holds. Maybe skincare and make-up are going to become little science wonders, like a transparent foundation that would match and even any skin colour, like a chameleon? Maybe people are going to lead 100 per cent virtual, filtered lives and won’t actually need to leave their houses and therefore won’t wear any make-up at all? Who knows? 

W*: What do you want people using your products to see when they look in the mirror? What do you see when you look in the mirror?

IF: I hope they see themselves and how they can take care of themselves so that they look and feel their best, without trying to look like someone else. Individuality is the sexiest, most unique quality somebody can have.

W*: What is one piece of advice you’ve carried with you through the creation of this line? Who gave it to you? 

IF: ‘There’s always a way around or through the wall’, which wasn’t given to me by anyone specifically but has always been my motto in life and work. Once I felt the creative impulse was ready, I started to do deep research with my art director for every aspect of the first drop. Then we hired a few people whose expertise I trust to do specific things. The process is always the same and is that of a creative director: I’ll give them the moodboard and let them do their thing, then we’ll have several rounds of discussions and feedback to keep going until everyone agrees on the best result. I also love to ask my friends for their opinions when I feel stuck on something, it helps me see clearly.  

W*: What do other beauty brands lack that you hope to provide with Isamaya Beauty?

IF: Innovative packaging, an honest and progressive approach to sustainability and a no-filtered artistic direction. 

W*: What is your most valuable make-up tip for those using the Industrial collection? 

IF: Don’t be afraid! Try things out to get familiar with the products and see how they work on you. There is no way to go wrong when you have fun experimenting.

W*: What is the most exciting change you’ve seen in the beauty industry since you began your career?

IF: Seeing how people respond when they’re presented with something new. I’ll take any reaction as long as it’s not indifference. But generally, you’d be surprised to see how consumers engage with a creative project, the industry just doesn’t give them enough options that break conventions.

W*: How can make-up be used as a tool of self-discovery?

IF: There’s a very fine line between using make-up to cover versus to reveal. Choose the latter always, that’s how you bring out the best in you.  

W*: Which product from the Industrial collection are you most proud of and why?

F: The Rubberlash mascara! On top of being the deepest shade of black, that you can layer several times, it contains curling agents and hair conditioning ingredients to keep the lashes healthy over time.

farfetch.com

Scroll through the portfolio of London-based make-up artist Ana Takahashi and you will find looks that recall 1990s rave kids (plucked eyebrows, frosted lips, sparkly shadows), Kabuki performers (masks of coloured foundation, eyeshadows that fan out from lids to brows) and something of the space-kitsch of Mars 2112 aliens (if you’re not familiar with this long-gone Times Square tourist trap, look it up now). Takahashi is the choice collaborator of Chopova Lowena, KNWLS, Marc Jacobs’ Heaven, Caroline Polachek, and other progenitors of those emerging subcultures – folklore maximalism (Chopova), modern 1990s rave kid (Heaven), swampy futurism (KNWLS) – that are shaping up to define our era’s conception of what is ‘cool’. 

And while Takahashi is tuned into the aesthetics of our time, doing in cosmetics what those other names have done in fashion and music, her greatest creative strength perhaps lies in her distinctive manipulation of colour – in one look, for instance, baby pink, orange, yellow and black eyeshadows are paired with a glossy slime-green lip; in another, a gradient of light blue eyeshadows is accompanied by burgundy cat eyeliner and an ochre lip.

When asked what her favourite beauty trends of the moment are, Takahashi says, ‘I’ve been really into the wet glittery eye trend that I’ve been seeing a lot on TikTok. It almost replicates the look of a wet lid, or tears, when it’s put under the eye. I’m pretty sure this trend is influenced by Japanese and Korean beauty; it’s cool to see it become popular in the West.’ 

Ana Takahashi and the draw of Japan

Japan is a recurring influence for Takahashi, who has already taken two trips there this year alone. ‘My mum is Japanese but I always felt the least connected to this part of my ancestry,’ she says. ‘It’s been amazing rediscovering it, and I’ve realised that it’s actually been a huge influence on my creative subconscious. I especially love going to countryside regions like Gunma, where you get a taste for old Japan. You see so many beautiful colours and patterns within architecture, nature, clothes, even trips to the supermarket. It’s all so stimulating for anyone that is interested in visual communication and aesthetics.’ 

Travelling and, in particular, getting off technology are hugely important for Takahashi, especially when she finds herself in a creative slump. ‘Getting off every form of technology helps,’ she says. ‘Focusing on finding photo books and art books in person in shops is a great way to find little treasures that I’d never have known about had I spent that time scrolling on Instagram and TikTok. It’s even better if you do this in a different country.’ 

Make-up challenges and the future

From the outside, though, creative slumps seem to be a rarity for Takahashi who has racked up a dazzling catalogue of projects in the past year alone. 

Asked which projects she’s most proud of, she responds: ‘I’m very proud of the Acne personalised denim campaign I did featuring Lily McMenamy. Lily was in full head-to-toe body paint, with a blue denim texture body and white stitch elements. This project was so challenging as I hadn’t done much body painting at that point, and we were shooting on the hottest day of 2022, when it was 40 degrees in London. Body paint in that sort of heat is an absolute nightmare, so I’m shocked we managed to pull it off, whilst creating some really beautiful images. That shoot was sweat and tears and wouldn’t have been possible without my wonderful assistants.’ 

Another notable collaboration is her work with Harley Weir on Weir’s self-portrait book for Beauty Papers. ‘Harley has a very spontaneous way of working, and I tend to be more structured with my creative approach. I always love working with her on beauty imagery because she encourages me to work in a more improvised way, which can push me to do things I didn’t think I could do. For example, she asked me to do make-up on sex dolls and masks, which pushed me to use new techniques and materials. In a way, it was more exciting than working on a human, because you can use materials that you wouldn’t be able to use on skin.’ 

When it comes to future endeavours, Takahashi's dream collaborator is photographer Donna Trope. ‘She is someone I’ve admired for a very long time. Her work has been a great influence on me as there always seems to be a twisted take on beauty within her imagery. I also love her Instagram captions, they’re jokes.’ 

Since launching in 2020, Byredo Beauty has been at the forefront of bringing a niche interpretation of beauty to a commercial scale. The beauty industry ‘was very dictating, it was very linear in saying, “buy this or this, and look like this”, which I didn’t relate to,’ Byredo founder Ben Gorham told us ahead of the brand’s debut. ‘So my idea was to be inclusive, to the point of saying that this can be anything to anybody. That’s how we approached it from the start.’

The result was a five-product range created in collaboration with make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench, which came in space-age packaging and placed an emphasis on the expressive power of colour with multi-purpose ‘colour sticks’ in unusual shades like car-key green and glossy lilac, and high-pigment eyeshadow palettes with inspirations ranging from a corporate workplace to experimental musician Yves Tumor. 

Now, a year after winning Best Grooming Product in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022, Byredo Beauty is embarking on its next chapter under the guidance of former Chanel make-up and colour director, Lucia Pica. It is a fitting match, considering Pica has always been a champion of idiosyncratic glamour and, above all, an expert on colour. 

Red in particular has always been her favourite colour to work with, notably, while at Chanel, popularising the use of it around the eyes, so what is often seen as a marker of sadness or sickness became a provocative way to brighten the eyes. For Pica, joining Byredo certainly felt like the logical next step. ‘I felt like it was really the right place for me to land at this moment in time, where I could still work with a luxury brand, but with the freedom of a creative brand as well.’ 

Best Use of Colour for Byredo Beauty First Emotions

The melding of luxury and creativity has produced First Emotions, Pica’s first collection with the brand, and one heavy on reds – recognised with the nod for Best Use of Colour in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023. 

The collection comprises five products: a Kajal eye pencil and mascara in burgundy, a five-colour eyeshadow palette with gold, auburns and metallic pinks, and two lipsticks. ‘The primal power of emotions is reflected in the colours,’ says Pica. ‘There is light and excitement in the gold and something darker in the burgundy. There are the different tonalities of love; the different facets – erotic, sincere, unconditional, even unrequited.’

For Pica, emotions felt like a natural theme for this first collection. 'After meeting Ben,’ she says, ‘it became clear that [Byredo] is about a personal story, working to evoke an emotion or a memory within a person. He was talking about this transparent medium he does with [perfume] and I thought ’this is perfect,’ because [to me] colour has always been about evoking emotions as well. Colours are super important in make-up to help you express yourself and also to change your mood.’

And therein lies, for both Byredo and Pica, the power of beauty. It’s about ‘giving people a medium to have fun, to express themselves, and to enhance what is unique about them. That is what beauty ultimately means.’ 

The winners of the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023 are revealed in the February 2023 issue, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

byredo.com

This story starts in 1856, when the chemist Sir William Henry Perkin discovered the first synthetic dye. It began as an accident – Perkin was working on a treatment for malaria when he realised the coal tar-derived oil he was experimenting with was capable of dying silk purple – yet, that serendipitous invention soon turned into an expansive and enduring industry that has radically shifted our relationship with colour.

Now, nearly every colour we see, from the dye used in clothes, to the paint on cars, and the pigments in make-up, is created thanks to fossil fuel derivatives, which have been harnessed to create cheaper, broader ranging, and higher performing colours for almost every man-made product. 

Make-up pigments from fungi

Fast-forward to 2022 and a recent graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins’ MA in Material Futures, Jesse Adler, is looking for a new method to create colours, one that will be less detrimental to the environment we have catastrophically damaged since Perkin's well-intentioned discovery. When seeking an alternative, Adler felt that going back to the way colours were produced pre-1856 – via plants, animals or minerals – wouldn't work.

Simply put, plants offer a limited colour range with limited performance and, since they have to be harvested during a particular season under favourable conditions, are subject to limited availability. Animals that could be used to produce colours pose obvious environmental and ethical issues, and minerals are non-renewable (cannot be regenerated at the same rate we consume them). So, like many of the sustainable innovators of today, Adler turned to fungi.

'Fungi are an underexplored source of sustainable colourants,’ says Adler, ‘that are non-toxic, biodegradable, light-fast, and some even have cosmeceutical benefits, such as anti-oxidant [properties] and UV protection. Mycology [the study of fungi] is a relatively new field and it is estimated that we’ve only discovered about 1 per cent of the fungi on Earth, yet within that 1 per cent there’s a wealth of research into the potential applications and industrial importance of pigments extracted from fungi.'

Jesse Adler: mushroom magic from a mycological alchemist

Adler calls herself a 'mycological alchemist' and for her graduation project at Central Saint Martins, she has used her background in chemistry and biomolecular science to develop a method of extracting pigments from fungi (including mushrooms, lichen, yeast and mould) that can be used as a renewable replacement for industrially produced dyes.

Theoretically, these colourants can be applied to almost any substance, but to illustrate their effectiveness and scope, Adler's project focused on using them creating make-up pigments. She collaborated with a cosmetic formulation chemist to bring the colours to life through beauty products. The resulting lipsticks, eyeshadows, and tinted skin creams are the initial prototype versions of what will, hopefully, one day become purchasable products. 

When discussing the products, Adler notes that it's important to acknowledge that she is not the first to use fungi-derived pigments, but her methods for doing so are different. 'There is a rich history of dyeing with fungi that goes as far back as the Romans,' she says, 'but we haven't heard much about it before now because it wasn't clear how to produce those dyes on a scale that wouldn't lead to the extinction of certain fungi species. Something that I'm trying to design from the outset with my process is a way to extract the organism from nature only once, and then cultivate and reproduce in the lab forever so that the ecosystem in nature can function as normal with no interference from me.' 

Ongoing research

To further her research, she travelled to Oaxaca, Mexico, after graduation to study pigmenting fungi. Next up, Adler will be starting a five-month fellowship with Maastricht’s Jan van Eyck Academie in collaboration with Central Saint Martins to  develop an oil paint from one of the deep brown pigments she previously used to make sunscreen and continuing to work at Central Saint Martins on a species of mould that produces food-safe and medicinal pigments. 

'The beauty industry is focusing a lot on “clean” beauty but within that topic no one is asking where our colour comes from. You can buy a product because it is vegan and doesn't use animal-derived ingredients but that, to me, is meaningless in terms of sustainability efforts. We buy beauty products because of their colour, it’s the backbone of the industry, so we need to become more aware about where it comes from.'

INFORMATION

jadlerdesign.com

Inge Grognard, Makeup 1989-2005 is a new book from the young publishing house  Zegris Books that showcases the early career work of make-up’s great iconoclast. Inge Grognard’s career launched in the mid-1980s when she became the make-up artist for the Antwerp Six, including Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, as well as her childhood friend Martin Margiela. 

Inge Grognard make-up explored

Since then, Grognard has worked with Balenciaga, Haider Ackermann, Hood By Air, Vetements and more; but the new beauty book primarily focuses on her work in the Antwerp fashion scene of the late 1980s to the early 2000s, where she pioneered her signature subversive, do-it-yourself style.

Images show models with a bold painted-on unibrow, or deliberately misapplied mascara, or blanched, monochromatic features. The results are captivating and also challenging; they pose philosophical questions about our perceptions of beauty as much as they titillate our aesthetic sensibilities. 

As Olivier Zahm, co-founder of Purple magazine, writes in his introduction for the book: ‘Grognard’s beauty revolution is essentially feminist. She uses make-up as an artistic gesture, an intimate revolt, one that allows each woman to reclaim her beauty, her inner turmoil, her hidden conflicts, her fragility and to reach beyond the masculine imperative of seduction.’ 

He continues, ‘Her work marked both a brutal break with traditional beauty conventions and a leap into the future with an aesthetic that is still defining the beauty of tomorrow.’ 

Indeed, as Grognard’s recent work with Balenciaga, in particular, has shown, she is still one of the most innovative forces in the industry, constantly reconfiguring our definitions of beauty. 

Inge Grognard, Makeup 1989–2005, £20, zegris.media

Make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench has just unveiled the latest edition to her Isamaya beauty line. Titled ‘Wild Star’, the new drop is tribute to the kitsch and swagger of the rodeo, with five new products packaged in gold and emblazoned with rhinestones and horses. 

The collection includes a pearlescent highlighter stick with a moisturising, but non-sticky, finish that is great for cheekbones, lips and lids, not to mention collarbones and shoulders.

The Lash Lasso mascara is designed to create chunky, curved lashes, while lipliners in shades of brown are perfect for creating the 1990s lip trend of the moment or for use as an eyeliner. 

There are also three lipsticks in glittery copper, red, and pink that, with their capacity to complement any skin tone, demonstrate Ffrench’s mastery of colour (which also saw her called upon to help create the debut Byredo make-up line in 2020).

The showstopper of the Isamaya Wild Star collection, though, is the Pressed Pigment Palette for eyes, which looks like a glitzy belt-buckle. Inside are 12 glittery shades of eyeshadow that range from subtle beiges and ruddy browns to electric pink and Barney purple.

For those unsure of how to use such colours, Ffrench recommends creating a smoked-out wing using the matte neutral shades and highlighting the inner corner of the eye with one of the bright metal foil colours for a multi-dimensional eye look. 

'The Wild Star collection pays homage to our inner cowgirl,’ says Ffrench. ‘Sexy, powerful yet always aligned with the spirit of the natural world.’

She enthuses about the collection’s ‘vibrant hues of pink and baby blue that glitter against matte nudes to create a feminine, gorgeous look. Bold lip liners outline burnt bronze shimmering lipsticks that sparkle with seduction. Release your inner cowgirl!’ 

Wild Star follows the leather- and fetish-themed Industrial collection with which Ffrench launched Isamaya earlier in 2022, and another collection with a new theme will be debuted in a few months. 

Isamaya Wild Star is currently available for pre-order with an on sale date of December 2022/January 2023.

isamaya.co.uk