YSL Beauty has named Charli XCX as its newest US local ambassador, adding the pop star to a growing roster that includes Lila Moss, Amelia Gray and Laura Harrier. The move continues the brand’s focus on cultural figures who sit at the intersection of music, fashion and digital influence.
Charli’s appointment builds on a creative relationship that has been developing behind the scenes for months. YSL Beauty has already been involved in shaping some of her recent red carpet and visual moments, and this formal ambassador role now brings that collaboration into the spotlight.
In her own words, she describes the partnership as a way to “evolve how I express myself through beauty,” pointing to a process that has been collaborative rather than purely promotional.
At the centre of the new campaign is YSL Beauty’s Skin Affair Soft Glow Cushion Foundation, designed to create a lightweight, radiant finish often described as “glass skin”.
It’s positioned as a product that fits into everyday routines rather than sitting purely in the luxury category, with a focus on ease, glow and wearability. The foundation anchors Charli’s look throughout the campaign, paired with a softly modernised smoky eye that reflects her signature aesthetic.
Renell Medrano directs the campaign and unfolds inside a music venue, structured around four stages of transformation. Rather than a traditional beauty narrative, it moves from quiet backstage moments to full performance mode, using makeup as the thread between each shift.
YSL Beauty describes the project as a “manifesto for unfiltered femininity”, a phrase that captures its focus on makeup as expression rather than concealment. The looks, created by global makeup artist Sam Visser, lean into luminous skin, diffused colour and updated smoky eyes that sit somewhere between runway polish and lived-in realism.
More broadly, the campaign reflects where the beauty industry is heading: towards artist-led storytelling and personalities who already shape culture beyond traditional advertising.
For YSL Beauty, Charli XCX fits that shift — a creator whose influence moves between music, image and online culture, and whose aesthetic doesn’t sit neatly in one category.
The campaign rolls out across digital and social platforms, aligning with the launch of the new cushion foundation and Charli’s track “Rock Music”.
