The neutral eyeshadow palette is the make-up equivalent of water: essential, but often quite boring. At least, that was the case – before Byredo debuted its make-up line in 2020, and with it the ‘Dysco’ eyeshadow palette.
‘Dysco’ is a beauty product that deserves cult classic status. It manages to turn standard beiges and browns into shades that are as fun as their names suggest. From lightest to darkest, these include ‘Feather’, a pearlescent peachy beige; ‘Haze’, a shimmering copper; ‘Flare’, a deep gold; ‘Velvet’ a satiny chestnut, and ‘Faux Fur’, a deep coffee brown with a touch of shimmery gold.
Why Byredo’s ‘Dysco’ eyeshadow palette is a cult make-up classic
All hues are interesting enough to be used on their own. But they can, of course, also be paired together. For a subtle, frosty wash, try using ‘Feather’ all over the lid, and then applying ‘Haze’ from the outer corner through the crease of your eye to the inner corner. Alternatively, for a punchier option, use ‘Velvet’ as your base and apply ‘Faux Fur’ through the lid. (For both looks, a touch of the golden ‘Flare’ can be used in the corner inner eyelid.)
The shades suit all skin tones and their shimmering, high-intensity pigments amplify all eye colours. It’s the kind of product that, by the end of its life, is all scuffed from being in your bag all the time; one of the few that you’ll eke out until the container is empty of every last fleck.
When Byredo’s founder, Ben Gorham, came together with make-up artist Isamaya Ffrench to plan the vision for Byredo Beauty, an experimental approach to colour was their entry point. 'I remember looking at a lot of editorial images, landscape photography – all sorts of creative imagery – and literally picking pixels of colour that I really love,' Ffrench told Wallpaper* in our profile of the brand’s beauty launch. 'This then became the Byredo colour library. Ben and I would sit down together and see which colours resonated most with us and which would work for the make-up.'
This allowed Gorham and Ffrench to develop the atypical make-up shades we see in the ‘Dysco’ palette, for example, and to rethink the ways they could be applied to the face. The brand’s 'Colour Sticks' are the most extreme examples of this, since they are designed to be used anywhere and come in colours like ‘Medium Blue’, a vivid metallic aqua; or ‘Purple Stinger’, a super-glossy lilac.
In the almost five years since ‘Dysco’ first launched, Ffrench has since handed the reigns over to Lucia Pica, Byredo Beauty’s Creative Image and Make-up Partner. (Ffrench now heads up her own beauty line Isamaya Beauty, which sees her idiosyncratic vision taken to new heights: think lipstick tubes in the shape of penises and S&M-inspired eyeshadow palettes).
Pica, the former Creative Make-Up and Colour Designer for Chanel, began her tenure at Byredo in 2022 with a collection of liquid lipsticks that are also worthy of a place in the cult beauty product canon. This is particularly true of the matte versions Pica launched earlier this year, which make a perfect companion to the ‘Dysco’ palette. They achieve the holy trifecta of matte lip colour: non-drying, long-lasting, and highly pigmented, whilst also living up to the brand’s inimitable colour creation.
For your ‘Dysco’ partner, try using ‘Feather’ from the palette along with ‘Marriage’, a deliciously dark burgundy shade. Or use the ‘Velvet’ and ‘Faux Fur’ combo with ‘Muted Cry’, a warm mauve with which the Kaja pencil in ‘Bhoora Bhoora’ can also be used as a liner to create a muddy, grungy lip worthy of the 1990s.
