At Marc Jacobs, makeup artist Diane Kendal, colorist Josh Wood, and hairstylist Guido all paid homage to the fifties with coordinating pastels and over-the-top bouffants. To give the makeup a modern vibe, Kendal skipped blush and swept a matte eye shadow onto models’ lids that didn’t have even the slightest hint of frostiness to it. The shade used on the eyes perfectly matched the metallic pastel hue Wood colored the models’ hair. Thirty-seven, in total, underwent dye jobs days before the show, and a couple even buzzed off all their hair. For those who keep their hair long, Guido either pulled up models’ hair into a voluminous ponytail or knot or styled it into an egg-shaped graduated bob.
I’m a Barbie girl, living in a Brandon Maxwell world… OK, that’s not how the song went, but it certainly felt like it backstage at the designer’s spring 2018 show, which was inspired by Mattel’s most famous toy, as well as his home state of Texas. That meant pretty pink shadow, blush, and lip gloss (layered over lip liner), big, voluminous blowouts on some of the models and low knots on the others. Not pictured? The gilded bottlecap/corkscrew in the shape of a “B” that hairstylist James Pecis stuck into the chignons.
Monochrome makeup seems to be shaping up as a trend this season, as the look came up once again at Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty show, which closed NYFW out not just with a showstopper of an event, but also with an important message of inclusivity and representation in the fashion world. Makeup artist Priscilla Ono used tubes of Fenty Beauty Mattemoiselle Lipstick and swiped the bullets across eyes, cheeks, and lips to create matchy-matchy makeup looks that were as colorful as they were sensual.
Makeup artist Pat McGrath created two distinct looks for Anna Sui. You could spot models like Gigi Hadid and Kaia Gerber on the runway with a holographic twist on no-makeup makeup. Soo Joo Park, on the other hand, was selected for the colorful, fantasy look. Washes of pink, purple, yellow, and orange were seamlessly blending together along her eye area to create a watercolor-like effect. Then, VR Fire Opal from the Pat McGrath Labs Mothership V: Bronze Seduction Palette was tapped on her lids to give the bright makeup the same multidimensional green vibe as the more neutral look.
The glitzy pink lips at Jeremy Scott weren’t of the glitter variety — they were “foil lips.” To achieve the metallic effect, professional makeup artist Kabuki started off by lining models’ lips with the thin brush of the Ardell Duo Brush-On Adhesive With Vitamins. Then, he filled in the rest of their lips with the same glue. Precision was key because a top-secret foil was placed on top, and it cling to wherever the glue was painted on. After the foil was applied, glitter was tapped on the spots where the foil didn’t adhere to, like the outer corners of the lips. For the brows, arches were filled in with the M.A.C. Shape + Shade Brow Tint, which helped give them natural-looking definition.
Backstage at Escada marked the first Pat McGrath Labs appearance of NYFW. The legendary makeup artist broke out her MatteTrance Lipstick in Forbidden Love and painted it precisely onto most of the models’ lips (she also used her 2018 Best of Beauty-winner, the Skin Fetish highlighter sticks). For the many models with curls who walked the runway, hairstylist Guido further defined their spirals with a small curling iron, while models with straight hair got blowouts and an ’80s-style hair flip.
The Mulleavy sisters once again enlisted LA-based florist, Joseph Free, to create fantastical floral arrangements to be incorporated into the beauty look for their show. By threading a string through the base of (real) rosebuds, Free created gorgeous (and flexible) garlands that hairstylist Odile Gibert then arranged randomly in the hair. To complement the gorgeous blooms, makeup artist James Kaliardos broke out the blue, fuchsia, and yellow shades from Nars’s newly reformulated Single and Duo Eyeshadows and painted the models’ lips in the same vivid cherry-red hue: Nars Powermatte Lip Pigment in Don’t Stop.
While the models’ hair was covered up with neutral-colored head wraps at Tom Ford, their the eyes were on full display. Lids gleamed, with makeup artist Diane Kendal layering the classic Rosebud Salve over a mixture of both the twinkly and matte shades in the Tom Ford Eye Color Quad in Golden Mink, followed by lots of mascara. On the lips, she added the Boys & Girls Lip Color Sheer in Ava — one of the new shades that debuted backstage and was fêted that night with a star-studded after party.
Look closely and you’ll notice that the eyes are traced in shimmery shades of copper and violet — the former traced along the bottom lashes, and the latter traced along the top ones, as well as the waterlines — while a glittery gold eyeliner went along the inner corners of the eyes to brighten everything up. “We’re pulling out the liner past the outer corners in an almond shape to enhance the shape of the eyes,” said Tom Pecheux, the lead makeup artist backstage. If the hair was long, it was tied back in a ponytail to ensure the jewelry and makeup took centerstage. Otherwise, models with short haircuts or natural texture were left as they were.
Makeup artist Romy Soleimani has covered Sienna Miller’s lids in rhinestones and painted Bella Hadid’s lips in acid-bright pastels for recent Allure covers. This season she brought her ingenuity and love of texture to the runway, coating models’ lids with TK TK.
A dress designed by Carly Cushnie will set you back several hundreds of dollars. That traffic-stopping shade of red lipstick, however, costs less than a movie ticket. Makeup artist Grace Lee used Maybelline New York Color Sensational Lipstick in Red For Me ($TK) after prepping the lips with balm. As for the hair, Ursula Stephens slicked the hair back into a braided ponytail à la ’80s singer Sadé.
Those soft waves. That juicy stained lip. Those flushed, rosebud cheeks. Describing this romantic look is almost like writing poetry. But while constructing stanzas can be difficult, getting these gorgeous waves couldn’t be easier. Hairstylist Justine Marjan divided the hair into six sections, sprayed them with Tresemmé Compressed Micro-Mist Hair Spray Hold Level 1, then flatironed each section with the GHD Platinum+ Styler before letting them cool and undoing the plaits.
If Jackie O threw on a wetsuit and grabbed a surfboard, that would be the beauty vibe at Michael Kors. The designer and hairstylist Orlando Pita looked at pictures of Onassis and other fashion icons of the ’60s and ’70s wearing silk scarves in their hair and then infused it with a touch of 2018 surfer vibes. For the models with straight or wavy hair, that meant spritzing their hair with Pita’s soon-to-be-launched Beach Waves Spray and drying it in with a blow-dryer, and then running a bit of his Strong Bond Split End Sealant throughout to give the hair a “clumpy, slightly dirty feel.” For models with natural-textured hair, he also wanted to make it a little piece-y, which he did by adding his moisturizing Well Behaved Anti-Frizz Cream Serum and either drying it with a diffuser or letting it air-dry.
As for the makeup, Dick Page wanted to bring energy to the face, “so the models look like they’ve been active — like if they took the stairs instead of the elevator or they ran for the bus,” he said. “It’s really the sense of the blood under the skin.” Which he did by dipping into M.A.C.’s Editorial Lip Palettes and custom-mixing a rosy-red or rosy-brown shade for each model and buffing it onto the cheeks, down the bridge of the nose, and dabbing a touch between the eyebrows.
Brock Collection marked the runway debut of Gucci Westman’s new clean makeup line, Westman Atelier — the key products at the show being her Vital Foundation Skin Stick and the Baby Cheeks Blush Stick (in Dou Dou, Petal, and Poppet). And while James Pecis noted Liv Tyler as an inspiration for the romantic, half-up topknot he created, it’s giving me major Little Women vibes — if the story was written in 2018, set in Brooklyn, and everyone was wearing sundresses instead of petticoats.
There were several makeup looks for Alice & Olivia’s color-filled presentation, all of which were dreamed up by makeup artist Erin Parsons. It was this graphic teal eye, however, that really stood out — both literally, on the models’ lids, and figuratively, in our editors’ collective memory of the week. To break up the block of vivid color and add definition to the shape of the eye, Parsons lined the top lashes with black pencil (Maybelline New York Eyestudio Lasting Drama Waterproof Gel Pencil Eyeliner in Sleek Onyx, to be exact).
The hair at Alice & Olivia was also memorable, combining interesting shapes and neon color (which is shaping up to be a big trend off the runway this fall) into one unexpected style. The streaks of color were actually Hidden Crown Clip In extensions that Justin Marjan dyed before the show. Backstage, Marjan curled the hair, secured it into a low ponytail, secured the colorful strands, and grabbed two pieces of hair from the sides of the ponytail and tied them in a knot, pinning the strands to the base of the scalp. She repeated this knot-and-pin technique several times until there was a thick band of hair wrapped around the pony.
By now, most of us are familiar with the concept of floating eyeliner — eyeliner that follows the curve of your lash line, or the curve of your brow bone, but hovers ever-so-slightly above it. We’ve seen it on the runways for years, and more recently, in exaggerated forms, among makeup artists on Instagram. Self-Portrait’s spring show introduced us to a new idea: Floating lip liner. OK, so it’s not exactly floating; it follows the perimeter of the top lip to a “T.’ But when that’s the only thing on the lips, the effect is of a single, sharp line suspended over the mouth.
The neon trend continued at Chromat, where makeup artist Fatima Thomas created three electric looks – all focused on the eyes. Here, she actually used liquid lipstick on the lids, painting the wings on with M.A.C. Retro Matte Liquid Lipcolour in Tailored to Tease and topping it off with M.A.C. Pigment in Process Magenta to really make the color pop on the runway. A midnight blue pencil was traced along the waterlines for definition.
The second neon look at Chromat involved lime green pigment along the inner half of the eyelids (M.A.C. Pigment in Rock-It Yellow layered over the brand’s Chromaline in Pure White), and four dots of hot-pink paper — two placed right in the middle of the lower lines and two places at the tail ends of the brows.
At Gypsy Sport, hairstylist Laurent Philippon’s most important styling tool was foliage rather than a flatiron and greenery rather than hair gel (although, he used that, too). “The collection is a celebration of diversity and genderless people,” he explained of the multitude of looks he came up with for the show. “With the hair, we’re embracing each model’s individual style and the ‘natural state of being,’ so we turned to plants to symbolize our organic roots. It’s such a beautiful and positive message.”
For this glitter-encrusted look, Philippon adhered rhinestones to a nude cap that he placed on top of the model’s head. To lay down the edges, he used Bumble and Bumble’s Anti-Humidity Gel Oil.
Like many of the shows we saw in New York this season, there wasn’t just one, unified makeup look at Opening Ceremony, but rather numerous bold ones, which included this stretched-out metallic magenta shadow. That decision reflected the greater intention of the show. “Everyone who’s working on the show is LGBT, so all the hair and makeup team, the casting director, and all of the models so it’s a really nice thing to be a part of,” makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver told CR Fashion Book. “We’re celebrating how far we’ve come and celebrating individuality. It’s about everyone having their own look and being defined by themselves. I love the idea that people don’t wear makeup to cover up and hide behind a mask of makeup, it’s about celebrating the creativity that you feel in the inside.”
Real, pressed flowers were glued to a few of the models’ faces at Ozlana, bringing to mind Val Garland’s floral makeup feat at Preen by Thornton Bregazzi Spring 2017.
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