Peter Philips Beauty for Chanel Womenswear A/W12

Peter Philips is the global creative director for Chanel make-up, known for his creative runway and editorial looks that tread the artistic side of theatrical – often incorporating pearls, feathers or jewels. Here the Belgian beauty maestro talks backstage about the look he created for Karl's crystal odyssey, Chanel's ready-to-wear Autumn/Winter 12.

"The inspiration for the makeup look came from a few key words and a sketch that Karl Lagerfeld provided: minerals, shading and eyebrows were the key words and the sketch showed a face with stone-lined eyebrows.

So the focus is on the eyebrows, which led me to interpret Karl's drawing and the 'mineral' emphasis by creating straight, graphic eyebrows.

I worked with the Maison Lesage to create sets of embroidered eyebrows. Each eyebrow consists of an anthracite gray sequins and pearl base, embroidered with several sorts and shades of mineral stones and crystals.

For the make-up in general, I wanted a matte finished skin and used CHANEL's Mat Lumière foundation. The shading and sculpting of the face was achieved with Ombre Contraste, a compact specially created for this show. The compact powder is a lavender/taupe coloured shade called Notorious that I applied to the eyelids and then straight down on the side of the face, in a contouring style. The rest of the face I kept nude, so as to keep the focus on the eyebrows.

For the nails I chose the new shade of Le Vernis called Frenzy (2012 Autumn Collection), which is totally colour coordinated with Notorious."


Photography Vincent Lappartient