There are dream jobs and then there are dream jobs like Lucia Pica’s.
Italian-born Lucia Pica has indeed one of the best jobs on Earth. As CHANEL’s Global Creative Designer for Makeup and Colour, Pica?s job is, well, to dream in pigments. She travels around the world several times a year in search of colour inspiration and returns to Paris, where she calls home, to identify the 50 or so lucky colours that eventually get made into a CHANEL beauty collection. Did you put yellow varnish on your nails earlier this year" Yep, Pica came up with that.
It’s 6:30PM in Sydney and 9:30AM in Paris when Gritty Pretty phones Pica. “Hello, bonjour,” she says in that creamy French accent. Instantly, Pica’s warmth and friendliness is felt ? she says “it’s a beautiful, sunny morning here in Paris” and she is “so excited” to be speaking with me. “I really wish I was with you in Australia though,” says Pica. Instead, we suffice with a chat that feels between friends ? both of whom are passionate about beauty. Here, Pica reveals what her job is really like and the exploration of matte texture that inspired CHANEL?s new Le Mat de CHANEL collection.
If you aren’t already a fan of Lucia Pica, prepare to become one…

For your 2017 collection, you took inspiration from a road trip you took in California and for your spring 2018 collection, you went back to...