3D makeup artist Ines Alpha is shifting the landscape of modern beauty. After collaborating with Charli XCX on her recent album art and promo campaign, now the young artist has partnered with Selfridges for its latest campaign, The New Order. Alpha joins the project as one of the many digital creatives that have joined forces with the brand to re-imagine what shopping, style, and department stores might look like in the near future.
For beauty, Alpha employs her own expertise within 3D makeup to question how the industry will evolve and adapt to a world that's already being dominated by beauty filters and online avatars. As part of The New Order campaign, Selfridges asked the artist to take some of the brand's favorite beauty products by the likes of Dr Jart, Bobbi Brown and Atkinsons, envisioning how they might look in 3D.
"For The New Order campaign, I imagined a photo booth from a near future in which technological progress has enabled people to wear 3D make-up in real life," explains Alpha." In this photo booth, people are able to choose between different products, which each have a 3D design inspired by their ingredients, benefits, packaging, colours, etc. In this new world, make-up, skincare and perfume can be worn as a virtual augmented accessory, in 3D dimensions, which is both fantastic and alive."
Elaborating on the process of working on the campaign, Alpha added: "The most challenging part was to find the key words and concepts to illustrate each product, without using the ingredients in a literal way — like making 3D flowers for a perfume that contained floral notes. I had to think of other ways to approach it — like the brand's story, aesthetic, the product's benefits, packaging... But as soon as the design is done and everybody is happy with it, it's very rewarding!"
With cosmetic procedures and the use of prosthetics in makeup becoming more commonplace than ever, many designers are no longer afraid to incorporate these types of bold beauty looks into their work.
At Paris Fashion Week this season, Balenciaga Creative Director Demna Gvasalia showcased ultra-enhanced cheekbones, botched lips, and hollowed cheeks, while Rick Owens sent out models in bald caps, horns and cheek implants.
Still, even 3D or digital makeup itself has its limitations. "3D make-up can sound a bit abstract; for many people it has limitations because it's not real," Alpha says. " But where do people spend most of their time? On their phones, the internet — it's all digital and it's all very real. 3D make-up is only relatively new, but it's limitless — you can defy nature, gravity, textures, light..."
Photo via Instagram