Chanel Travel Diary AW17 Collection

I love the story behind Chanel’s new AW17 Travel Diary collection more than the collection itself I think! It’s one of those you read that makes you covet someone else’s job. I want to go on a Californian road trip and create a collection of beautiful cosmetics, inspired by what I see.

But could I do it as well as Chanel’s Global Creative Makeup and Colour Designer, Lucia Pica?

You can be inspired by a photograph that already exists, but creating your own inspiration gives another dimension to the process – it gets much more exciting. I wanted to make my own mood board; to be inspired by what is happening in the moment – Lucia Pica

To find inspiration for the Travel Diary collection, Lucia set of on a Californian road trip. Her idea was startling in its simplicity: to experience afresh the lights and colours of the outside world, creating a complete starting point for her creative process.

So, from the dawn mists and sun dappled coastline to the city lights and gritty noir of downtown LA, Lucia embraced the serendipitous creative possibilities afforded when the journey becomes the destination.

The collection is great, and has some lovely products, all in a very muted, understated autumnal palette that is in no way predictable – another reason I like it so much.

The centrepiece of the collection, the Palette Essentielle (£52) is all about effortless beauty. It’s a 3-in-1 highlight/blush/conceal palette, and it comes in three shades – Beige Clair, Beige Médium, and Beige Intense.

The three products combine to create a fresh, glowy complexion – something Lucia decribes as her ‘signature for skin.’

“I wanted a product that could achieve that fresh skin look I do on shoots,” she says. Chanel also launch two new brushes – the Retractable Dual-Tip Concealer Brush (£38), with a flat side at one end with which to pick up the concealer, and the soft tip at the other end with which to blend.

The new Retractable Dual-Head Face Brush/Blush and Highlighter (£28) is also two-sided – use the white side with the highlighter and the black side for the blusher.

There are two new Les 4 Ombres Eye Quads (£42) – City Lights and Road Movie, and both are inspired by tones of deep water, harmonising with shades of cool air. There are also two Ombre Premiere Creme Mono Shadows (£25) in Urban and Memory.

There are lots of new Waterproof Eyebrow Pencils (£30), and a new Eyeliner Pen (£31) to complete the eyes.

The lips are the ‘bright pops of colour’ to complement the eyes.

There are new Matte Liquid Lip Colors (£28) in Lost, or Rouge Coco (£28) in Daylight for nudes, Rouge Allure Ink (£28) in Highway – a bold orange, or Rouge Coco (£28) in Experimental, a classic coral. There are reds too – Rouge Allure Velvet (£28) in Firelight and Nightfall.

Finally, the lovely nails – Le Vernis (£20) in two new shades – Horizon, a soft greenish grey, and New Dawn, a muted taupe grey.

The Chanel Travel Diary AW17 Collection is available now at Chanel counters, and chanel.com