Chanel make-up artist Lucia Pica on the rules to break now

Since make-up artist Lucia Pica was tapped as global creative make-up and colour designer for Chanel three years ago, the beauty world has watched on as the Italian, who up until that point had discreetly flown under the beauty radar, has lent a modern voice to a heritage brand. Here, she decodes contemporary colour, the French beauty aesthetic and her long-held admiration for women.

On the wearability of bold colours
“Coloured eyeliner, like blue eyeliner, is a good way to start using colour. I think when people are looking at colour in a palette, they almost feel like they have to do a very complicated and strong look. But you can just take a little bit of your eyeshadow and put it in the middle of the lids – just there to start with. You don’t want it to look 80s, so you don’t want to put too much colour on your eyelids; you want to blend its oftly around your eye areas in a round shape, or you want to use an eyeliner or just apply a little bit of colour with your fingers. The use of texture, that is what defines modernity for me. That’s why you don’t want to go too powdery, heavy or chalky.”

On the French beauty aesthetic
“Looking at the Parisian women, now that I’m spending a lot more timethere [Pica is Italian and lives in London], I feel like they have really beautiful strong features, and they seem pretty strong in their decision making and they must apply the same to their beauty routine. French women leave their hair quite relaxed, so they have a good balance between strong and relaxed. I think that they really own it. It’s about having that nonchalant attitude.”

On the beauty rules that should be broken
“What I find really hard to see is this strong contour and highlight trend that has invaded, and not because there is something wrong with contouring and highlighting at all – I do it in my work as well – but it’s the fact that it makes people think that they should be doing that in order to look a certain way and to look like everybody else.

I think make-up should be used as an enhancer of beauty and I think it should be a joyful way of expressing yourself and spending time with yourself. We sometimes forget that women all have something to say individually, and even though I’m creating products for Chanel, it’s very democratic and it’s actually inviting women to play and to try to be inspired and to not feel intimidated. My collections seem quite strong, but they’re very open and welcoming, and I always think of pairing bold things with more natural things. It should be more about expressing individuality and not having to follow rules: there should be more freedom of expression and more acceptance of differences.”

This story originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Vogue Australia