studied to be Professor of English, but her passion for art, color and aesthetics led her career towards brushes and makeup. Today he is one of the international artists most recognized, creative director of makeup Hermes.
Between the excess of perfection (too much for many makeup artists) of contouring like the Kardashians have popularized and absolute absence of makeup which has defended, for example, Pamela Anderson it would seem that the color It has no place among trends, beyond a helpful red lip. Doesn’t stop Gregoris Pyrpylis, creative director of Hermès Beaute from January 2022.
Since arriving at the house, the firm has launched the skin range – foundations and powders – and ‘Le Regard’, the chapter dedicated to eye makeup, with some shadow quartets and colored mascara (not just black and brown) first, and some eyeliner pencils, now (in 24 shades). A greater demonstration of the artist’s love for color is impossible.
It comes from breed to the greyhound. She remembers during her visit to Madrid, where she attends Yo Dona, that her childhood has a lot to do with all this. She grew up among ointments, creams and powder formulas (and colorful) of the ingredients that his parents kept in the hundreds of little drawers in their pharmacy in a small town in Greece, “the most beautiful palette to play with.”
From a Greek pharmacy to making up the world
Passion for aesthetics is what Gregoris Pyrpylis has had since his earliest childhood: “I have always been very sensitive to beauty. When I was five years old I saw my mother while she was getting dressed and I said to her: ‘Mom, those earrings don’t suit you very much, You have to wear something else.”
With his colored pencils always nearby, almost the same ones that he handles with mastery today to color looks, he spent his childhood, and it was in the middle of adolescence, at 14, when he understood that he was very interested in fashion, “I would stay standing at the kiosk On the way to school, I was attracted by the magazine covers, the photography, the light, the clothes, everything in general, aesthetics”.
All this information seemed to guide him towards a very clear professional future, “but I grew up in a small town in Greece and I didn’t see it as something close or feasible,” admits the makeup artist. So English Philology (“I was going to be an English teacher”) It was the option she chose in college, something that was decisive for her future, not because of the degree itself, but because there, in Athens, she met what is her best friend to this day, who gave her permission to do her makeup… “and I felt something. “Everything happens in life for a reason, I went to school and started working as a makeup artist.”
Ending up at Hermès was a natural fit. His love for colors -“I adore them, of course”- connects with the chromatic passion of the ‘maison, which can be seen in, for example, the 75,000 colors that he uses to paint his appreciated carrès. “My job is to understand how each woman I do makeup feels, how they understand the world… and I interpret it with colors and textures.” Textures also very Hermès: the silks, the skins of their leather goods…
The French house is just the latest port where the Greek artist has anchored: he began his career in Greece in 2006 at MAC; He worked for Bioderma in 2015, where he was the first makeup artist to represent a skincare brand in the world, and in 2018, he was named an ambassador for Shiseido in Europe.
All women can wear makeup with color…
The genius of color owes a lot to its origins. “The light of the Mediterranean, which affects Greece equally, but also Spain and Italy – I am not going to keep it all for Greece [ríe], has a sublime and even spiritual appearance and has been defining in my becoming a makeup artist. “You can have great makeup that in the wrong light won’t look good or pretty.”
On her visit to Madrid, to the brand’s boutique, she was not surprised that the best-selling makeup was lipsticks in vibrant shades. In Mediterranean areas, color is less scary.
But can any woman at any age wear makeup with bright colors? “It’s interesting to see how you feel when you wear neutral colors and add a scarf or colorful nail polish, how it lights up your look.”
The eye pencil collection which is now presented in Madrid, Le Trait d’Hermès, Like the previous eye shadows, ‘Le Regard’, is proof of this. “They are very rich in colors, but they are not there by chance,” says Pyrpylis. She works each color, the bright and the dark, so that they create harmony. For example, there is the ‘Ombres Marines’ shadow palette, where a vibrant blue is offset by brown, gray and ivory that illuminates the look.
“To women who are afraid of color, I invite you to discover it in a subtle way. There is no reason to put makeup on the entire eyelid, which draws too much attention, and may be too obvious, but you can opt for an eyeliner, blue for example. If you draw it thinly, flush with the lash line, delicately, it adds a little modernity to your makeup. without excesses or exuberance”, points out the makeup artist.
Another option is to play with a burgundy mask that enhances the natural color of the eyes, especially blue and green: “These are details that are not seen much, but the viewer who ‘guesses’ you, intuits the color and the role it plays in the look, without intimidating the wearer.” It’s like that “with a little sugar, that pill they give you will pass better” from Mary Poppins in a slightly colored version.
“We have been wearing neutrals and nudes for a few years, but playing with color is what is going to come in the coming years. I firmly believe in it,” he confesses.
Makeup, yes or no?
The makeup of recent years is so neutral, or natural, that sometimes it doesn’t even exist. A stream of ‘washed faces’ led by several celebrities (at the beginning of this report we pointed to Pamela Anderson) seems to decree that makeup is dead or, at the very least, it is an ‘enemy’ rather than a friend. “Betting on natural, raw beauty, without makeup, is totally acceptable as long as it is not something imposed by society. When it is done to be present in the media, not for a genuine reason, that is also noticeable,” he reflects. Gregoris Pyrpylis.
For the makeup artist, the important thing is to follow personal taste and not try to impose our aesthetics on others: “You choose not to wear makeup or paint yourself in full color, as long as it is something yours, it’s fine. If not, it will be a mask and we will not be happy,”
Another reflection from Pyrpylis is that makeup is like painting and all kinds of art, “it looks good when the artist is free to create what he wants.” He tells the anecdote of Mark Rothko one of his favorite artists, “when he saw that some of his works ended up in a New York restaurant without him knowing what they were intended for, he felt deeply offended.”
Add who was destined to be an English teacher who freedom of expression It is the most important thing if we talk about makeup (and everything) and that one of her mottos in her work is “Expression comes before perfection; you don’t have to have the perfect eyeliner or the most symmetrical face, As long as you tell the story of who you are it will be perfect.”
He remembers from his years as students the different philosophical theories of beauty, from Plato, to Socrates and Aristotle… “Even then there was a debate about what beauty is, which continues today. For me, personally, there is a connection very strong between the inner world and appearance, There has to be an alignment for someone to look handsome and genuine.”
Authenticity is so important in this matter of beauty and makeup that Gregoris Pyrpylis defends that “you can wear strong makeup, eye and lip makeup at the same time, which if it reflects your personality can even look natural.” It may sound like ’boutade’, but the makeup artist illustrates with very visual examples: “If you think about Sofia Loren or Brigitte Bardot, with their smoky eyes and bouffants, you can’t imagine them without their iconic and strong makeup and hairstyle, it seems like they were born that way,”
Everything goes about being faithful when expressing how you are, is the conclusion reached by the Hermès creative. And makeup is a tool to achieve this.
