MAKE A SPLASH
YSL’s anticipated lip colour launch might feel as weightless as water, but it packs a punch where colour is concerned. Legendary French make-up artist and YSL Beauty creative director, Tom Pecheux, reveals what all the fuss is about.
Perhaps you’ve reached for your favourite shade of lipstick and wished it were just that little bit sheerer. Or maybe as much as you love that lip gloss in your handbag, it’s a tad on the tacky side, and the colour payoff isn’t quite what you would like it to be.
Enter YSL Beauty’s latest creation – Vernis À Lèvres Water Stain – which combines the best of both worlds. It’s glossy without being sticky, and longwearing without being drying. And the real magic of it, says YSL Beauty creative director Tom Pecheux, is that you can build up the colour intensity easily. “It is luminous and can be more or less intense according to how you apply it,” he explains.
One subtle coat gives your lips a light hint of colour, or you can glide on two or three layers for a full-colour look that won’t dry out lips. Pecheux says that another point of difference for the revolutionary new lip colour is that it’s incredibly hassle-free to apply. While he often has to use a lip brush for application with other lipsticks, he says that because this formulation is watery, it doesn’t take much precision to apply – and he loves the applicator. “It works really well with the formula, scooping it up and placing it just
where you need it, somehow giving a voluptuous finish to the lips even though the texture is so watery.”
Renowned fashion photographer David Sims shot the campaign for the Vernis À Lèvres Water Stain – which is being fronted by model-slash-musician Staz Lindes and Big Little Lies actress Zoë Kravitz. “I wanted the girls’ lips to complement their skin tones, but also complement each other,” Pecheux says.
“Staz is pale-skinned with blonde hair and I wanted something bright, but lighter than the colour I used on Zoë – which was more of an intense red.” And of course it wouldn’t be a YSL Beauty campaign without their signature smoky eye. “I did a little bit of a smoky eye on each girl, kept it to the upper lids,” explains Pecheux. “But I kept the skin looking very glowy and transparent.” He calls the finished look pretty but polished. “The stain is more than just a leftover of colour – it’s a polished finish.”
Pecheux admits that narrowing down the collection to just a limited number of shades was quite difficult. “When it comes to creating lipsticks and powerful colours, it can be very challenging,” he says. “Particularly at the end of the process when the table is full of lab samples, your wrists and arms are covered in swatches, and you have to edit down a collection to just 16 shades.”
Rather than creating a single make-up look that suits one trend, Pecheux says he aims for a palette when creating colours. “[As] I have been working in an industry that embraces beautiful women from all around the world, when I create a colour collection I think of every woman – every skin tone, every colour – and I am always hoping they will like them as much as I do.”
As for the shade that is just perfect for the season ahead, Pecheux says if he had to pick just one, it would be In Berry Deep. “I love a nude lip in general. Even though it won’t be nude on everyone, I would choose In Berry Deep … it works on all skin tones.” The new YSL Beauty Vernis À Lèvres Water Stain ($69) is available now from department stores and pharmacies.
“I think of every woman – every skin tone, every colour.” TOM PECHEUX