For the Dior cruise show in Los Angeles, Peter Philips treated glow with the restraint of good lighting.
“It’s all about great-looking skin,” said the creative and image director of Dior Makeup backstage ahead of the show on Wednesday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Healthy, luminous skin.”
Philips — leading the beauty direction for the house — prepped the skin with the Dior Capture collection before applying Forever Skin Glow Foundation, keeping coverage light. Eyes were softly defined with brown shadow worked into the lash roots, while lids were set in beige tones and slight shimmer using the Nude Dress palette.
“More as a setting powder than as an eye shadow statement, just to keep it natural and solid,” Philips explained.
Then came the touch of Hollywood fantasy: individually glued Swarovski crystals traced the eyes in a warm peachy-pink tone, inspired by “the warm evening sky of Los Angeles,” Philips said. It nodded to Old Hollywood glamour and a “David Lynch-y, Hitchcock-y” mood. “It’s a little sparkle of magic with weirdness to it.”
Cheeks were finished with washes of pink and berry blush depending on skin tone, while lips were topped with the Dior Addict Lip Maximizer in clear for what Philips described as an “opaque shine.” He then added extra glow using Dior Backstage’s Glossy Jelly stick on the eyelids and tops of the cheekbones. Meanwhile, nails were largely kept nude in Muguet 108, with select manicures featuring newspaper-print motifs and tortoiseshell finishes that echoed the collection’s accessories.
Philips, who has been with Dior for more than 12 years, described working with creative director Jonathan Anderson as a different process from past collaborations.
“All have their own way of communicating,” he said of designers he’s worked with over the years. “Some are obsessed by makeup…some think very abstract.”
With Anderson, the process is “organic,” Philips added. “There’s not a strict direction. There’s a lot of ideas and a lot of little stories everywhere.”
Beauty evolves naturally through fittings and rehearsals.
“It’s very organic, very playful.”
