MOODY & MODERN
Julie Cusson isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty.
On a sunny day in May in a Vancouver hotel room, the Montreal-based makeup artist enthusiastically picked up and swatched the new products from the fall collection from Chanel Beauty (for which she is the Canadian makeup artist), titled Noir et Blanc.
Though she’d likely seen, touched and even tried most (if not all) of the products several times before, she chatted happily about the new collection, picking up each product as she went along, and testing each one on her own hands, and mine, as though it was the first time she’d encountered each.
“You can play forever,” she says with a smile of the products, each one packaged in the house’s trademark black-lacquer design (save for a few new all-white offerings), the telltale interlocking Cs emblazoned on each new release. Her excitement surrounding the new product offerings was, to say the least, contagious.
Cusson’s enthusiasm made talking about the latest trends for fall makeup a fun, easy task, though she’s the first one to remark that it’s less about a trend for the iconic French brand, and more about telling an overall story.
“I don’t like to use the term ‘trends’ because at Chanel we don’t have trends. It’s a style. It’s an allure,” she says.
But, when pressed to pinpoint a concrete set of highlights — OK, I’ll be the one to call them trends — she did so with, again, an enthusiasm that matched her hands-on, show-and-tell of the brand’s latest lineup.
“For fall-winter, in general, the trends are very black, white, pearls. You have red, too,” she says. “For colours, it’s really classic. But it’s the way that you wear the colours with the shade and the texture that will be more edgy.”
While beauty fans can expect to see deep, moody hues for lips and subtle touches of shine this fall, Cusson says the overall feel will be one of balance.
“There is a very natural balance,” she says. “So, it’s not crazy, but it’s strong.”
The new collection dreamed up by Lucia Pica, Chanel’s global creative makeup and colour designer, is borne from a tie-in of two iconic Chanel colours: black and white. The range is a “manifesto of modernity,” Cusson explains.
“It’s like fantasy-stylish, but it’s also a very day-to-day, wearable makeup collection,” she says. The products also represent a nod to the art of stage, cinema and photography, Cusson explains.
And that influence sees the collection play up the power of light, in both obvious and unexpected ways.
Cusson pointed to the new limited-edition Le Gel Pailletéle ($62), a shimmery transparent gel that “melts” into skin, as the best example of this, and the one she’s most excited to add to her own makeup kit.
“If you apply it on the cheeks, the lips and the lids, with black mascara, on a beautiful, flawless complexion, it’s really natural but edgy at the same time,” she explains of the petite pot. “I like the idea that if you put it on the collarbone or the décolletage, instead of shimmer, it’s very modern.
“I really believe that every woman can wear this.”
Shine is also back for lips after seemingly season after season of mostly mattes.
“Glossy is still a texture that we are into,” Cusson says.
At Chanel, that sees the introduction of a deep-cherry colour (Laque Noir), as well as a clear version with a subtle sparkle (Crystal Clear) to the Rouge Coco Gloss line.
“You can apply it on top of lipstick. It’s a statement,” Cusson says.
Graphic eyebrows are “done,” according to Cusson, and blush is either nonexistent or is a barely there pop of soft pink.
“But the complexion is very important,” she stresses. “It’s really more about the eye makeup and the lips, and the skin texture.”
Good skin, after all, is always in. But the idea of perfecting the canvas of the face is something so intrinsic to French beauty practices, Cusson says, making it a particularly fitting feature perspective to come from a French beauty brand.
“The Parisian woman, she never looks made up. There is always a fresh complexion,” she explains.
The key to a perfected complexion is proper skin care first and then a good foundation. And Cusson says that when applying a favourite foundation, it’s important to avoid going too easy on one’s application.
“People are too precious,” she says of the process. “You literally cannot make a mistake.”
Instead, Cusson suggests using sweeping and buffing motions to better blend products into the skin.
“You turn and you turn,” she says. “It’s OK to stipple, but in general, this technique is very nice. And then you can stipple after and add spot concealer.”
Et voila!