Beauty comes in all colors—but runway makeup looks? Not always. That's why we were so thrilled with Dior's beauty team for addressing a central backstage issue—how to make catwalk looks work for all ethnicities—with really stunning results. "Raf Simons told us the two words he was using this season were 'pastel' and 'transparency,'" says Peter Philips, the creative and image director for Dior Makeup. "An inspiration was lingerie, and how it's both lightweight and sensual." He translated that idea with blush on the eyes and cheeks, plus a new product called Lip Glow Pomade on the lips.
"We actually developed that [product] to boost your lips' natural shade," he explains, "and just to bring out the flush of your lips. So no matter what color your skin is, the color comes from within—just really beautiful, with lots of glow."
As for the runway look's central color, "it's a cloud of pink," Philips says, explaining that "pink works as that pretty, dreamy color on all skin tones. Peach shades are beautiful on some women, but with Asian girls, or girls with olive skin, peach is often hard. Everyone can wear pink." To that end, he developed a new Diorblush 'Glowing Gardens' Vibrant Colour Powder to go over Dior's best-selling Star Foundation, then added a swipe of platinum powder—another shade that works on a global skin palette—to the cheek and brow bones for a tiny bit of highlight.
Hair maestro Guido followed suit with an off-center ponytail that showcased a single Dior earring, then wrapped around a ribbon choker at the neck. "I think it calls back to those days in the '60s where some women were all about free love, but they wore those Victorian smock dress tied all the way up." His star product (besides the Dior jewelry, of course): Redken Diamond Oil, which softens all hair types for the ponytail's required blowout, "but in particular [can work well on] coarser textures and thicker hair."
The good news: the beauty looks were a smash hit on the runways—and even more important, on Instagram. But we don't get to see how stunning they'll look on a rainbow spectrum of models, at least not today. Despite the impressive number of gorgeous girls on the catwalk, a scant few of them were any shade other than pale—even though the label's current face is Rihanna. In the context of such flawless clothes and incredible runway beauty, it's a bit confusing. After all, with so many to-die-for looks, and a catwalk show live streamed around the globe, why make it harder for all women worldwide to dream of their future style moments?
