THE INSPIRATION

“I was looking for something poetic, like a memory – a natural filter that makes everything look dreamier.” Lucia Pica
If the eye is a camera with its shutter open – always recording, turning experience into image – it is Lucia Pica’s unerring instinct to train her lens on visions less familiar. Seeking inspiration for her Spring Summer 2020 collection, the CHANEL Global Creative Makeup and Color Designer took a photographic trip to the center of the ancient desert, an expedition that uncovered a completely new perspective on color.
Initially drawn to the desert for its famous orange dunes, sacred cave paintings and lunar plains, Lucia Pica was soon captivated by the uncanny silence of the vast nothingness she found there, its powerful stillness moving her to reappraise the landscape through fresh eyes. Shifting her gaze toward the quieter hues of the quartzes, basalts and shales scattered across the desert floor, and forests bleached by the relentless sun, Lucia Pica unearthed a muted palette that is surprising new territory for her. DESERT DREAM is characterized by peachy rose tones, cool browns and the romantic undercurrents of mauve, whose shimmering, at times metallic textures echo the desert’s hidden treasures.
“It was beautiful in the desert but quite unexpected,” Lucia Pica says. “In the desert, there is almost a universe of one single, dominant color – mauve – which really came to life with the particular photographic process we used.”

Like distant memories, the dreamy Polaroid pictures at the heart of DESERT DREAM lend their sensual soft focus and painterly abstractions to a makeup collection that is perhaps Lucia Pica’s most poetic take on femininity yet. Using the prints’ soft colors to bring subtle emotion to the face – mysterious, mauve intensity to the eyes, planes of warm light on the high cheeks and red-hot desert heat on the lips – Lucia Pica evokes a womanly state of inner calm, self-possession and utter contentment.

THE COLLECTION

A journey to the center of the ancient desert unearths a surprising new palette for the Spring Summer 2020 Collection, one of powerful, muted tones that echo the quartzes, basalts and shales found at the foot of giant sand dunes, quietly vibrating under the relentless sun.
“The energy in the desert was very calm and virtually silent – as muted as the colors.” Lucia Pica
“The muted colors of the desert and the muted tones of Polaroid came together to create a palette that exemplifies calm. Sometimes the references were quite literal – pink quartz lying on the ground, for example, giving off a shimmery pink light in the sun that immediately made me think of an eyeshadow or illuminating powder. Those combinations of pinks, purples and mauves opened up into grey-brown and peach, creating an entirely new color range.” Lucia Pica

THE FACE

Shimmering light is paired with intense heat in the DESERT DREAM exclusive creation. A pink-beige highlighter, the etched surface of ÉCLAT DU DÉSERT features the distinctive contours of the desert’s famous sand dunes – Lucia Pica’s initial inspiration for the Spring Summer 2020 Collection. The addition of BAUME ESSENTIEL in Golden Light brings a fresh, glowing complexion to the face and a healthy, sun-kissed air. Apply this highlighter to areas of the face the sun strikes first – high on the cheeks, the forehead, the bridge of the nose and the chin. The BAUME ESSENTIEL can also be used to cast soft light on eyelids and lips.
“It’s an all-over sun-kissed look,” Lucia Pica says, “really fresh and glowing.”

EXCLUSIVE CREATION Éclat du Désert: a satiny pink beige € 55,00

BAUME ESSENTIEL Golden Light: a bronzy caramel €42,00

THE EYES

The desert floor’s muted colors offer many options for eyes, thanks to Lucia Pica’s passion for layering and blending. The coffee bean brown and intense rosy Mauve STYLOS OMBRE ET CONTOUR can be used to line the eyes or be blurred and blended into creamy bases for LES 4 OMBRES eye shades. The soft mauves of Elemental and rich pink hues of Warm Memories may exude romance and stillness but these are powerful tones that only grow stronger with layering. Whereas added touches of OMBRE PREMIÈRE LAQUE in Rayon or Quartz Rose introduce accents of light to brighten and open the eyes – whether applied with the fingertip or the blender/shader brush – a full lid of violet-brown Vastness will take the glistening glamor up a level.
“Something blurry seemed appropriate,” Lucia Pica explains, “very feminine – super-soft – and at ease.”
“Color and texture have a really tight relationship, of course. You don’t realize how much until you really look at the details. In the Spring Summer 2020 collection, there is a combination of matte and shimmery textures – their subtle illumination reflects the semi-precious stones – in LES 4 OMBRES, which brings lightness. These are quiet eye shades. Sophisticated and perfectly still, brought into definition by the cold brown and mauve of STYLO OMBRE ET CONTOUR.” Lucia Pica
“The key colors of the collection are a beautiful mauve, a nice cold brown, a peach and a light pink, which are all found in LES 4 OMBRES. I wanted these colors to evoke a calm state of mind, but they are not neutral. It’s still a choice to create this muted, mauve mystery around the eyes. That will make the eyes stand out in an attractive way, just not in an obvious way.” Lucia Pica
“OMBRE PREMIÈRE LAQUE I love – from peachy tones to a sort of burnt mauve. Creamy metal. You can apply that all over the lid with the wand as a liquid eyeshadow or use the paler tones as a form of highlighter, adding a little accent of light here and there for intensity. Brightening and opening. ” Lucia Pica

OMBRE PREMIÈRE LAQUE Rayon: a metallic ivory beige Rising Sun: a metallic sweet apricot Quartz Rose: a metallic mauve peachy pink Desert Wind: a metallic warm mauve brownish grey Vastness: a metallic violet brown €32,00

LES 4 OMBRES Elemental: a matte mauve beige, an intense satiny taupe brown, a matte dusty pink beige, a satiny mauve caramel Warm Memories: a satiny peachy rosebud, a satiny brownish rosewood, a soft coral with pink reflection, a matte mauve rosewood € 53,00

STYLO OMBRE ET CONTOUR Contour Brun: a coffee bean brown Contour Mauve: an intense rosy beige € 31,00

THE LIPS

The desert’s extreme, hallucinogenic heat is captured in two lip color textures for DESERT DREAM. Rouge Brûlant comes in creamy ROUGE ALLURE – a vivid, orange pink – which becomes increasingly intense the more it is layered, blotting in-between. Endless comes in ultra-matte ROUGE ALLURE VELVET EXTRÊME. Its warm, rosewood tone can be heightened with a touch of Rouge Brûlant at the lip’s center for contrasts of color and texture: hot and cool, creamy and matte.
“The orange of the dunes was a bit brighter,” Lucia Pica says, “That brought warmth, intensity and character to the lipsticks.”

ROUGE ALLURE Rouge Brûlant: an intense warm orangey pink €34,00
ROUGE ALLURE VELVET EXTRÊME Endless: a warm rosewood €34,00

THE NAILS

Like the milky-mauve emulsions of the inspirational desert Polaroid prints for DESERT DREAM, LE VERNIS strikes a mysterious note. The opaque nail colors of Mirage and Daydream offer stabilizing depth and emotion to balance out the heady heat and dazzling light to be found elsewhere in this powerful, evocative collection.
“The extremity of the desert forced me toward a less overt palette, a kind of sub-color,” says Lucia Pica.

LE VERNIS Daydream: a mauve beige Mirage: a milky mauve €25,00

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