In this column each week, I dip into the best products the industry has to offer. Usually, the focus is from a problem-solving perspective – make-up is a practical tool, after all – or about enjoyment. Sometimes, however, a collection will come along that brings art screaming into the everyday. These are incredibly rare and incredibly special.

Le Rouge Collection No 1 (launching August 5th) is make-up artist Lucia Pica's debut collection for Chanel, and it is a collection of such shocking, subversive beauty that it will have die-hard fans of make-up and of Chanel weak at the knees.

Red is a colour that was a favourite of Coco Chanel’s and it is synonymous with the brand. What makes this collection so unique, however, is that it brings Chanel’s philosophy of comfort and wearability to a controversial shade which most of us wouldn’t dare wear anywhere on the face but our lips – and that’s on a brave day.

Chanel originally dispensed with corsets and took inspiration from the soft, functional fabrics of men’s tailoring. Now the brand has taken the boldest and most intimidating of shades and made a collection of products with red undertones which bring out the life in every face.

The idea of Éros – a rich metallic cranberry eyeliner (€25) – might terrify on paper, but pop it along your waterline and watch every eye colour sparkle audaciously. Greens and blues suddenly become more vivid. Browns are instantly warmer. Eyes are whitened.

I’ve long lamented eyeshadow quads that limit the user – “this is the highlighter shade, this one goes here, or there”. Make-up doesn’t have rules. Pica’s 4 Ombres eyeshadow palette – Candeur et Experience (€51) – is an exercise in freedom. The four supremely wearable matte shades with a warm undertone (they don’t look red) can be worn however you please. Alone or in combination, they work beautifully.

The lipsticks are as sumptuous as you might expect. Four mattes and two with a soft, sheeny finish (all €34), they range in tone from Rouge Ingénue, a divine nude – neither too pink nor too yellow, perfect for the Irish complexion – to Rouge Audace, a violently daring deep plum red. The shades in between cover every iteration of red your heart could possibly desire.

The collection also contains two pots of velvet-textured shadows (€31 each), two shades of red nail polish (€25 each) including an unprecedented but wonderful limited edition nail gloss which looks translucent but applies to nails as a vivid orange red, and lasted on my nails chip-free for six days.

There’s a silky blush that has the effect of a walk in the snow when it’s on the cheeks, a mascara, and two lip liners to work with the lipsticks. Actor Kristen Stewart, the face of the collection’s striking campaign, brings rough-edged elegance to the imagery, and brings to mind Coco Chanel’s famous statement: “Put on lipstick and attack.”

This is an historic collection, but its beauty is that it doesn’t belong in a glass case. It is the face of feminine power. Arm yourself with it.