Just when you think you’ve figured out makeup—YouTube tutorials checked; Kardashians clocked; Sephora scanned; contour, lip liner, and brows sculpted in tasteful neutral tones and textures until your face is as smooth and matte as a box-fresh Loro Piana sweater—along comes a counter-trend, and then one to counter that. Is “snatched” still a thing?
Such are the hazards of living in the golden age of makeup. Choice is abundant; ideas are everywhere. You can fashion yourself as Chappell Roan one day and Megan Thee Stallion the next. Slap on a Taylor Swift red lip or a pair of Cardi B lashes if you’re feeling it. The makeup counter has become an all-you-can-eat buffet on a Celebrity Cruise, where the only hazard is gluttony (also, seasickness and norovirus).
Peter Philips, the Belgian makeup artist and Dior Makeup’s Creative and Image Director, has had a hand in many of these ideas, bringing them to life backstage at fashion shows. When they hit the runway, style-watchers everywhere would take notes. You’d eventually see the particular shade of lip color or shape of eyeliner on the pages of magazines and then in Hollywood, the information flowing in a carefully ordered sequence until the products hit the sales floors.
Inspired by these goings-on, Philips created a line for Dior seven years ago called Backstage. Now the sequestered world of backstage is less literal—it doesn’t necessarily start in the dressing area behind a catwalk—and more visible. “People are looking for ideas in the front row of the show and the photo-call before the show,” he says.
Looks are also devised in hotel rooms, where an actor or a performer records themself getting ready for an event. “They all have their own little backstage because all those people are prepped, made up, and groomed and glammed,” he says. “When we do the Dior show in the Tuileries, people come at six in the morning to get a good place to wait outside and see Anya Taylor-Joy or whoever’s been invited. And sometimes this has more exposure than the actual show.”
This shift has also changed the makeup Philips creates. When he started the Backstage line, he aimed to appeal to a young consumer who was increasingly drawn to indie brands: Glossier, Huda Beauty, and Milk Makeup, among others. “The C.E.O. at the time asked, What can we do to stay young?” Philips recalls. And the challenge was how to accomplish this “without bringing danger to the whole Dior range, because the danger when you do something to make it younger is the rest can look old.”
The results were lightweight, easy-to-apply, mistake-proof shades in transparent packaging with oversize Dior logos. “You don’t have to worry about color combinations, about textures. It’s a no-brainer.” It was also, by all accounts, a huge success.
But doesn’t 2018 seem like a lifetime ago? That was the year TikTok entered the U.S.—ancient history! Now, given the consuming public’s level of makeup literacy, Philips is rethinking and updating the line. “This generation grew up with tutorials at the age of 10. They know more about makeup than I did when I started doing it as a job. They know about contouring before they even know how to ride a bike.”
This group of sophisticates “wants to be seduced and challenged with a more yummy, more colorful range that’s not basic. I mean they are basics in a sense, but these people are not afraid of color,” he says.
They’re also not afraid of shine. Despite cultural and regional differences in taste, there’s one unanimous desire, Philips has found, and that’s for glow. “Not so long ago, shiny skin was not done because it looked sweaty or oily,” he says. “Now, everywhere we look, we’re seeing pearlescence, gel, or gloss on skin. There’s a playfulness to it.” A matte lipstick, unless it’s applied with surgical precision, reveals each tiny mistake. “With glowing textures, everything blends into each other. It blurs the lines. It accentuates the plumpness.” It’s also kind to those with skin that’s well beyond peak plumpness. Philips has a trick for them (us): Apply highlighter to the inner corners of the eyes. “If you look at a child, the eyes are wide open, and there’s always light in the inner corners. Glow makes you look alive.”
Glow and shine are irresistible. “We’re like magpies,” says Philips. “Looking at the sea with the sun sparkling, it’s hypnotizing. Looking at a diamond or a shiny fabric is more entertaining. And I think that’s true with makeup—adding glow and shine and sparkle is magical. It’s like Tinker Bell.”
That reference is no accident. “People used to play with dolls, but now they’re dolls themselves. They dress up and they play with their hair. It’s a game now.”
The transparent Dior packages are showered with logos—I counted 44 on just one blush compact. They’re raised silver on the outside and printed in shadowy lettering through a transparent sheath, like a secret message; they’re etched on the surfaces of the sticks and powders. One silver logo charm dangles jauntily, like a pierced earring, from the edge of a lip gloss. Everything smells like vanilla ice cream or a frappuccino.
It’s more than a little giddy, it’s a full-blown burst of happiness. “Makeup is one of the joys of life. It’s a luxury because we don’t need it,” says Philips. “It’s like good wine or a delicious meal. You can survive on dry toast and water, but do you want to?”
Linda Wells is the Editor at Air Mail Look
