Beauty Looks at Dior’s Cruise 2026 Collection Were Inspired By Marble Statues—And Ghosts

For its 2026 Cruise collection, Dior headed to Rome. And while the show was inspired by cinema, the “Bella Confusione” presentation itself was a full-on production. Models walked the extravagant gardens of Villa Alabani Torlonia in a dreamy mix of cruise and couture pieces, while actors and dancers roamed the expansive 18th-century private property in white wigs and historical costumes. Guests like Natalie Portman, Rachel Brosnahan, Ashley Park, and Alexandra Daddario adhered to the strict all-white dress code, turning out to honor Dior’s Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri in her hometown as she presented her latest collection, a celebration of the arts—and the reopening of Rome’s famed Teatro della Cometa, or Comet Theater—that influenced every aspect of the show, right down to the hair and makeup. 

According to Dior Makeup’s Creative and Image Director Peter Philips, who spoke with L’OFFICIEL backstage before the show, the overarching theme of the night was theatrical in nature. “It’s an interaction between living personalities and ghosts,” he says. “The ghosts are represented by a cast of about 20 actors, who are all dressed in white costumes from a very famous Italian costume house [called Tirelli] that’s linked with Italian cinema. We got costumes from the Roman period, medieval, 1700s, ‘20s, ‘30s…all kinds of different styles. The idea was for it to be a performance, with the models and the actors interacting with the audience and walking the catwalk.”

When it came to the beauty looks, romantic braided chignons and dramatic lace eye masks were paired with simple, natural-looking makeup. “The shape of the hair is very much like a Roman sculpture, [reminiscent of] Roman ladies in toga-style dresses,” says Philips. “The skin is meant to look very pure and luminous, with the girls made up not in a ghostly or scary way, but more like they’re marble statues. Because there’s so much happening with the set design and the whole environment—the costumes, the music, the other performers—we wanted to keep this very simple, so [the focus is on] the girls and the clothes.”

With so much to take in during the elaborate show, Philips and Chiuri wanted to ensure that the beauty looks didn’t compete for attention. “Once you start adding [in more] elements, it becomes too gimmicky and fragmented,” said Philips, explaining that it was important for the looks “to be in harmony” with the events of the evening on the whole. For that reason, “we did a little bit of glitter on the eye to make sure the eyes don't disappear, and our gorgeous luminous skin; that's it.” 

To achieve the models’ clean complexion, Philips prepped their skin with Dior Eye Patches and Dior Capture Le Sérum. He then applied the Dior Forever Skin Perfect foundation stick, followed by Dior Forever Glow Luminizer 06 Opal Sequin to highlight the skin with iridescent hues (for final pre-runway touchups, he used Dior Forever Skin Correct full-coverage concealer). To create a bright-eyed look, Philips accented the models’ lids with pearlescent highlights, a look achieved by using the lightest shade of the Diorshow 5 Couleurs 557 Brown Cachemire eyeshadow palette. He topped things off with the Diorshow On Stage Crayon 594 Brown eyeliner pencil, Diorshow Brow Styler eyebrow pencil, and Diorshow On Set Brow gel. 

Lips had a subtle shine, thanks to the new Dior Addict Lip Glow Butter 103 Toffee, which easily lent itself to the look that Philips wanted to create. “Toffee is one of the shades that has no pearlescence in it, and we didn’t want [a pearlescent lip] for this show,” he says. “We used this one because it blends into the natural lip color and gives this nice, juicy, jelly kind of makeup result.” Nails were meant to look natural, too, coated in the barely-there Dior Vernis 100 Nude Look.

The final combined look was simple yet elegant. “In a way, it doesn’t feel like much makeup,” says Philips, who’s fully on board with the pared-back beauty looks that have become a staple of Chiuri’s tenure at Dior. “If you have to present a collection with a certain vision, sometimes makeup can complete it; but in Maria Grazia’s case, it doesn't. She's very much involved in the [model] casting, [choosing] strong faces and beautiful girls with this severe kind of confidence in them, so it's best to keep them [looking] pure. All the attention goes to her designs; the makeup doesn’t distract or take over the look.”