Chanel’s longtime Global Creative Makeup and Colour Designer, Lucia Pica credits ‘The cinematic woman’ as the basis for her make-up look that cascaded the Paris runway for the Maisons spring-summer 2021 show this month.

In true Chanel form, this cinematic woman was every bit as chic as you’d expect. Her signature bold black, smokey eye added mystic and intrigue and gave an edge to her classic Chanel tailoring that made me want to go out and blend my eyelids as I’ve never blended before.

So, if you’re anything like me and all of a sudden feel an urge to buff and blend a dark smokey eye come Monday morning, then read on as we take it directly from Lucia Pica herself on how to recreate.  

What were your sources of inspiration for this makeup?

“The makeup look is a very exquisite masculine and feminine with a minimalist glamour feel to it. It’s an all-over matte look. It’s very finished and matte in a pristine kind of way. The girls feel slightly untouchable,” tells Lucia.

Can you describe the fashion show makeup?

“All the finishes are matte, like on the eyes, lips and skin,” continues Lucia.

On the eyes, I used two colours from LES 4 OMBRES mixed together, a grey from Blurry Grey’s palette and a black eyeshadow from Modern Glamour, to create a smoky effect all over the lids with a matte finish.

Do you have any professional tips and tricks to share with us?

The trick to getting this look right is to put a base of LE CORRECTEUR DE CHANEL concealer all over the eyelid and then put the grey-black eyeshadow directly on the lid, using the flat brush and patterning on all over the eyelid. Then blend it in the socket line to create that blurriness around it.