Taking the matte-lip trend to eyes, cheeks and nails

Coco Chanel once said, “There are no ugly women, only lazy” ones. So when I got a call early one morning from Rustan’s ad and PR manager Mica Agdamag to get a makeover from visiting Singaporean makeup artist Cathy Xiao, this non-morning-person hauled butt and went.

In retrospect I’m ecstatic I did, because Chanel will always be one of my holy-grail beauty brands. Global creative makeup and color designer Lucia Pica is a genius, IMO, and every season I’m eager to see what innovations she’s created.

For fall-winter 2018 it’s Le Mat de Chanel, which expands the wildly popular matte-lip trend to eyes, cheeks, and even nails. Matte is also a great texture for more mature skin, because shimmer, shine and glitter tend to emphasize lines and wrinkles.

The basis for any great makeup is a properly prepared canvas, so the makeup artist (MUA) started by swabbing my face with Chanel’s Eau Douceur, anti-pollution cleansing water for face and eyes. Even if I’d washed my face a few hours before, the cotton pad picked up a significant amount of dirt and pollution.

Meet your matte: Chanel’s fall/winter 2018 collection Le Mat de Chanel (from left) — Palette Essentiel, Joues Contraste blush, Les 4 Ombres eyeshadow quads in Clair-Obscur and Quiet Revolution, Stylo Ombre Et Contour eyeshadow/liner/kohl pencils and Le Rouge Crayons de Couleur Mat — is available at Rustan’s The Beauty Source.

For someone like me whose lack of sleep shows in droopy eyes with dark circles, her quick fix was Chanel Le Lift Flash Eye Revitalizer, under-eye patches that give you a mega-moisture boost and make you look as if you got a full eight hours.

While that was working its magic, she applied Le Lift lotion and masque with upward movements. “A good tip is to massage the lymphatic points around the face and especially on the neck under the ears,” she said, draining away all my puffy-making toxins.

Next came one of Chanel’s wonder products: Le Blanc Huile (The White Oil). Massage a couple of drops into the face and it smoothens, blurs pores, whitens and highlights! MUA tip: Mix it with powder blush to get an instant cream blush.

She also put Le Lift Lip Care as a mask on my lips. While you can use it as a quick balm, if you slather on a thick layer it smoothens, lessens lines and makes your lips look more youthful. Ten minutes later I’d miraculously gained a plump rosebud pout.

After the skincare she applied Chanel UV Essentiel SPF 50 to protect my face before proceeding with the makeup.

‘Feel the glow, not the foundation’

I love Chanel’s philosophy of not covering your face with a mask of foundation but letting the skin breathe, and only applying foundation where needed. Their tagline, after all, is “Feel the glow, not the foundation.” That’s what I felt with Le Blanc de Chanel Le Teint Tenue Fluide, a remarkably weightless formula that you don’t even need to set with powder because it dries to a powdery finish.

Another product I’m going gaga over is Palette Essentiel, which is perfect for travel because it contains a concealer, blush and highlighter — everything you need to look glam and polished at the end of the journey, or a busy day at the office.  All the products are creamy so you can just use fingers to apply, and the colors are coordinated with the concealer so that once you find your shade match, the blush and highlighter look so natural you’ll seem to glow from within. You can even use the blush as eye shadow!

Such multi-tasking products are a thing now and another is Stylo Ombre Et Contour, a pencil that functions as eye liner, eye shadow and kohl. The MUA drew a thick line above my upper lashes and started blending it upwards as eye shadow.

Lashing out: Xiao applies Chanel’s Inimitable waterproof mascara, which creates a lush, false-lash effect.

Then she used the darkest brown shade in the Clair-Obscur 4 Ombres eyeshadow quad on the outer corners as a contour, blending into the crease. As a subtle pop of color, she set the Stylo on my upper lashes with an olive green powder shadow from the Quiet Revolution eyeshadow palette.

Then she tight-lined my upper lash line with black Ebene Stylo Yeux Waterproof eyeliner, and finished the eyes by curling my lashes and coating them with Inimitable waterproof mascara. I knew I’d found my ultimate mascara when a fellow beauty editor commented at lunch that she loved my “fake” lashes — that’s how lengthening, thickening, volumizing, and curling this mascara is.

A powerful red lip finished the look: Le Rouge Crayon Mat in Subversion, a true red in the vein of Chanel’s universally flattering reds, and even if the crayon was matte, my lips felt comfortable, satiny and moist.

To set the makeup, she sprayed my face with Hydra Beauty Essence Mist, but I wasn’t done yet. To complement my lips my nails were polished with Le Vernis #508 in Shantung, a striking crimson that makes the skin look fairer and reaffirms my belief that there is nothing like a Chanel red… nothing.

As the literal capper a sales associate sprayed my hair with a fragrant cloud of Coco Mademoiselle Hair Mist, and I left the Chanel counter feeling like I could conquer the world.

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Chanel’s fall-winter 2018 makeup collection and skincare are available at Chanel counters in Rustan’s The Beauty Source.

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Follow me on Instagram @theresejamoragarceau.