The truth is, whenever you guys hound me for a makeup tutorial as to what I wear on my face on a day-to-day, I’m at a bit of a loss. I don’t own foundation, the concealer I do have for emergency jetlag circumstances is definitely not the correct shade for my skin, and I’m not too sure of the difference between BB, CC and DD (I did see this at the airport on my way into Manila last week) creams. Every shoot I’ve been on has always involved my grilling the make-up artist on duty as to their personal assessment of my skin and the
most compatible makeup products, where everything they’re using on me is from, whether I can buy it online, whether they would recommend that I buy it online, et cetera, et cetera.
And yet, in front of camera, I become increasingly particular about what beauty looks work with the construction and composition of my face – where a lot of Sudanese models have been vocal about the adaptability of fashion week make-up teams to their skin tones, Asian eyes also seem to be a bit of a
mystery to a lot of artists to the point that hesitation of a brush on that region of my face has become my litmus test for who I would like to work with again.
Of course, this adaptability is only one of many reasons that Lucia Pica is the new creative director and colour designer of Chanel Beauty, and why Victoria Baron is the official artist for Chanel Australia. Both of them are also stellar human beings, intensely passionate about their craft, which is pretty clear in the results of this beauty story we
produced while in London last month. The day before, Lucia had taken us through a visual exhibition at Somerset House about her visceral experiences and inspirations associated with the colour red, culminating in her deftly opening my mind about the realm of colour possibilities on my own face. I can’t even tell you the number of runway and editorial images of blush eye make-up I’ve referenced in creative proposals over the past year, but save the odd shoot on a model, that’s where the conversation ends: editorial and runway environments, never the real world. Nobody was
more surprised than me at the compatibility of reds, rusts and pinks with just about any skin tone and eye colour.
Red is, after all, a naturally occurring colour in our skin to varying degrees.
All of these real life applications seemed to make our crack-of-dawn shoot with Vic and Fredrika all the more engaging. I, for one, was taking so many more notes knowing that deep rust red lips, spider lashes and red around the eyes were, somehow, universally palatable – and I kid you not, since this shoot, I
have admittedly foregone my usual nighttime cat-eye for a dusting of red and brown.
PHOTOGRAPHY & STYLING // MARGARET ZHANG
MAKE-UP // VICTORIA BARON
for CHANEL (using Le Rouge Collection No 1)
HAIR // SVEN BAYERBACH
