Go With the Glow: Makeup Artist Lucia Pica on Her Dreamlike Approach to Beauty

Most beauty shoots start with a trend: big hair! Goth vibes! Disco drama! But Lucia Pica takes a more personal approach to her work as one of the fashion world’s leading makeup artists. “When I formulate products or create a look, I’m often inspired by a mood, a memory, or an emotion,” says Byredo’s creative image and makeup partner, who joined the fragrance brand in 2022 after a six-year stint as global creative makeup and color designer for Chanel. “Maybe it’s an interesting conversation I had, or a museum show I liked, or a trip I’ve taken. It could be a flashback to the light in the afternoons of my childhood, or that heady feeling you have in the early stages of romantic love,” she explains.

For this story, the Paris-based artist wanted to explore inner sensuality and nuanced ideas of head-to-toe beauty. “I thought about a woman in her skin, and how makeup not only enhances but becomes part of us,” says Pica. She combined a soft palette of sheer pastels with accents of strong color and reflective materials like gold leaf, fine glitter, and tiny crystals to highlight various parts of model Karolina Spakowski’s body and face. “Colors, textures, and shine travel into each other, so it feels like they are part of the skin, or at least that’s how I imagined it,” says Pica. “The whole thing is not too structured—there’s a bit of technique, but also a sense of freedom and experimentation.”

This mash-up of classicism and subversion is a Pica signature, one she attributes to her upbringing in Italy and subsequent years spent living abroad. “I come from this classic background in Napoli, and of course there was all the tension that comes with being from there,” she says. “Then I moved to London, which is a bit more free and modern and minimalist, so I feel like my work always incorporates that play between what you choose and what you don’t choose.” A constant that echoes through every image Pica creates, however, is her desire to move the viewer. “I really want them to feel the moment behind the makeup.”

Hair by Claire Grech for R+Co at Streeters; makeup by Lucia Pica for Byredo at Art Partner; manicure by Cam Tran for Manucurist at Artlist Paris. Model: Karolina Spakowski at Elite Model Management NYC. Casting by Piergiorgio Del Moro and Samuel Ellis Scheinman at DM Casting. Set design by Olivia Aine at MA+ Group. Special thanks to Stella Studio in Paris.

Produced by LOCK.; Executive Producer: Louise Bolze; Producer: Victoria Orozco Gicquiau; Photography assistant: Vassili Boclé; Lab: LSD Lab Paris; Retouching: IMGN London; Fashion assistants: Silke Holzschuher, Luna Clara Aurore Andrieu; Production assistant: Dany Demble; Hair assistant: Yuri Kato; Makeup assistants: Tabitha Thomas, Magdalena Winska; Set assistant: Nathan Genestier.