Inge Grognard went for a masculine look for Haider Ackermann’s spring 2020 show. She gave models flawless skin and a no makeup-makeup look, save for their eyebrows that were painted “longer and straight,” she explained. “When you see them coming in, you don’t see it. It’s only when they turn that you say ‘hum, there’s something happening with the eyebrow.’” – Jennifer Weil
Isamaya Ffrench, working with the MAC Cosmetics team, decorated a dozen or so models’ faces with live flowers applied in an arc. – Jennifer Weil
Pat McGrath said Givenchy’s creative director Clare Waight Keller wanted the models to have a natural look. “She just wanted the girls as they are,” said McGrath, explaining that meant barely any makeup was used. “No mascara, no highlighter. Just beautiful and fresh.” McGrath was using her eponymous color cosmetics line backstage. – Jennifer Weil
Backstage at Balmain RTW Spring 2020
In keeping with the “effortless, beautiful” feeling of the Issey Miyake show presentation, replete with skateboarders and acrobats, Gregoris Pyrpylis created three makeup looks. “There is a batch with a very graphic eye, but only on four girls,” he said. “There is another team of girls, four, who have these beautiful hats…and they have a very nice orange-y lip stain. [Another look is] super natural.” – Jennifer Weil
Inge Grognard fashioned the barely there, natural makeup look for the Nina Ricci fashion show. Models walking down the house’s catwalk had a dusky pink-orange-y hue applied to their lips. – Jennifer Weil
Lisa Butler crafted a minimal makeup look for models’ faces at Isabel Marant, whose spring 2020 theme was Brazil. “We just groom these girls, really,” said Butler, explaining she was using a bit of red color brushed on to models’ faces and a tad of foundation. Right before the models went on the catwalk, their cheeks would be pinched and some water sprayed onto their faces “so that they look really beachy,” said Butler. “It’s not really makeup.” — Jennifer Weil
Fara Homidi described the Off-White spring collection as being pared-back, with beautiful pastel colors. “The word that comes to mind is ‘pure,’” she said. “So I’m keeping the girls’ skin looking untouched.” She filled in their brows for a naturally full look, and Homidi applied a nude gloss on models’ lips. “The show has a nod to a meteor shower, and so a few of the girls are getting different sizes of silver-gold glitter on the bridge of their nose and the inner corners of their eyes.” — Jennifer Weil
“It’s just about natural, gorgeous beauty,” explained Lucia Pieroni of the makeup look she created for Rochas. “It is the essence of Nineties minimalist…a beautiful and slightly polished natural look. Pieroni was using products from RMS Beauty, including Living Luminizer and Uncover-Up Cover-Up Foundation. — Jennifer Weil
Inge Grognard said she took a cue from the Mugler spring fashion collection, which she described as “sharp. It’s quite sexy.” So the idea was to craft a glam makeup look that’s modern, not of yesteryear. “The first thing you think about is the eyebrow,” she said, adding she gave them a partially perfect brow. That translated into a line drawn under their actual eyebrows, which were brushed upward. Transparent gloss was applied to lips. — Jennifer Weil
In keeping with Dior fashion show’s green theme this season, Peter Philips, the house’s creative and image director for makeup, opted to give models a natural look. Speaking of Dior’s creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri, he explained: “She said maybe a little bit of an eyeliner, so there’s a bit of a French touch to it. It’s subtle eyeliner; we don’t go bold…it goes slightly up. This is a toned-down version of a French woman’s classic eyeliner.” Philips prepped skin, curled lashes, enhanced eyebrows when needed, scrubbed lips and added some moisturizer. — Jennifer Weil
The collection’s floral frills, floaty fabrics and overall romantic feeling were toned down by simple makeup telegraphing a slight sense of toughness and masculinity. Using MAC Cosmetic products, Lynsey Alexander created a Peter Lindbergh-inspired androgynous look focusing on fresh skin, boyish eyebrows and a hint of brown shading under the eyes. — Sandra Salibian
Giorgio Armani Beauty’s international makeup artist Linda Cantello offered a delicate yet upscale take on the glittery eye trend that dominated this season’s beauty looks. Cantello took clear sequins from the designer’s collection and applied them in a thin veil onto the eyelids, which resulted in a transparent, shimmering effect once the sunlight hit the models strolling down the outdoors runway. “I like this kind of femininity that is just a little bit pushed but easy to do. It’s something believable and very comfortable to wear,” said Cantello. Before layering sequins, she prepped the skin mixing the brand’s Designer Lift and Prima Balm to have a tinted liquid moisturizer, she then sculpted the face with A-Contour and smudged shades of the new Color Sketcher pencil on the eyes, cheekbones and lips. — Sandra Salibian
MSGM’s 10th anniversary collection celebrating the brand’s signature colorful aesthetics inspired Lynsey Alexander to play with acid, neon and primary shades in the makeup as well. On a selection of models, she drew a graphic, sweeping liner in bold yellow, pink, green, blue and black shades using MAC Chromaline gels. “It’s very straight and constructed, definitely not a sweet and pretty cat-eye but a little bit punkish, so it adds toughness to the beauty,” she said. On girls with no eyeliner, she focused on delivering a fresh and radiant skin applying MAC Strobe Cream and Waterweight concealer. — Sandra Salibian
Nodding to the collection’s vibrant Murano glass-inspired accessories, Fara Homidi punctuated the fresh, natural skin look of the show, adding eccentric touches of color on a selection of models. Using MAC products, she created an abstract expressionist eye by painting lids with strokes of different solid colors, before lacquering the arty makeup with clear MAC Lipglass for a high-shine effect. — Sandra Salibian
“A classic liner look, done a little bit camp” is how John Stapleton described the makeup he conceived for the show. There were actually three different takes on the concept: one involved uber-long fake lashes in pastel tones, neon and shimmering shades or even rainbow colored options. The main look involved rhinestones laid along the lash line “just to add a little extra fun,” while an upgraded version also featured a strip of rhinestones as a teardrop. Skin was prepped with the MAC Studio Fix Soft Matte stick foundation to deliver both coverage and a satiny finish, layered on the apple of the cheeks with the brand’s Glow Play Blush in the rosy “No Shame” shade. — Sandra Salibian
Kabuki kept things all natural, compensating the intricate and arty hairstyles created for the show via a fresh skin treated with barely there lightweight foundation. He added a hint of color on the cheekbones with a rosy blush but avoided to use of mascara to focus on grooming eyebrows instead. — Sandra Salibian
“With Antonio [Marras] there’s always a storytelling. Here, it’s a Japanese princess who is traveling and she lands in Sardinia, but that’s his story. My story is what happens between departure and arrival,” said Tom Pecheux. He wanted the makeup to echo the collection’s sense of freedom and mix of references with boldness, so he focused on the eyes applying a pastel pink eye shadow all over the lids and carrying it on the temples to the hairline. On top of that, Pecheux drew a liner mixing blue and green pigments, and another extended red line under the corner of the eye to go high and follow the shape of the pinky shadow. He finished off the look applying multicolor glitter in the inner corner of the eye and toning down the natural lip color with a drop of foundation. — Sandra Salibian
“The inspiration for the collection was [Pablo] Picasso. When I arrived at the Moschino showroom…it was just like an art gallery, I was amazed. Every piece was interesting, so I realized it wasn’t really about doing crazy makeup but about unifying that feeling of Picasso in a very chic and minimalistic way,” said makeup artist Kabuki. He matched the slicked middle-parted hair updo by putting soap in the brows to make them flat and exaggerating their arch to almost evoke a stroke of the Spanish painter. He then compensated bold dark red lips created mixing MAC Retro Matte Liquid Lip Color in ‘High Drama’ and ‘Carnivorous’ shades with an essential eye shape. Using MAC Liquidlast Liner’s small paint brush, he drew a very thin, precise extended stroke along the upper and lower lash lines for a delicate effect and “a good unifying makeup for everybody.” — Sandra Salibian
Peter Philips played with shine in the makeup look that echoed a key beauty moment seen in HBO’s hit series “Euphoria.” Yet in his vision, the glittery makeup came with a hint of toughness courtesy of a black Khol line as he wanted to reference “girls after a weekend at festivals or out having fun.” To channel those vibes, Philips worked with Dior Backstage products, including the Diorshow Khôl liner that he heated before applying it on the inner upper and lower lash lines. He then asked models to squeeze their eyes to get a slightly smudged effect, which was completed by the haphazard way silver glitters were glued under the eyes. — Sandra Salibian
There was no big makeup statement but rather an overall summery feeling at Emporio Armani. “We just wanted very healthy, young, pretty girls, [appearing] very simple and natural, as they had just come back from the holidays,” said Giorgio Armani Beauty’s international makeup artist Linda Cantello. To achieve the result, she first diluted the Designer Lift foundation with the Prima Balm to deliver a luminous skin. After applying the Neo Nude powder and sculpting the face with the A-Contour and A-Blush products, Cantello finished off the relaxed look by selecting — and often mixing — Lip Maestro Matt Nature shades matching models’ different skin tones to mark the lips, cheeks and, in a diluted version, the eyes. — Sandra Salibian
Lucia Pieroni was able to break the minimal, natural makeup tradition the brand had been diligently passing on season after season by introducing pops of bold, dark lips on some models. She applied a combination of MAC’s Retro Matte Carnivorous liquid lip color and MAC’s matte lipstick in the Diva shade with a brush. The rest of the girls had natural lips while the entire cast’s eyelids and cheekbones were warmed up with amber and delicate earthy tones. — Sandra Salibian
Tom Pecheux worked with MAC products to create a hippie, sun-kissed look reminiscent of summer days in Ibiza and its sister island Formentera. “It’s all about enjoying life and feeling gorgeous but in a very natural way,” he said. To channel the idea, he kept skin clean using barely no foundation but applying concealer when needed. A bronzer was used on the cheekbones to illuminate the face, while sparkling eyes further enhanced the effect. Pecheux used the Natural Wilderness gold taupe eyeshadow on the lids and topped it with the Spellbinder shadow in the “Swing on a Star” glittery tone along the lash line. At the end, he tapped a drop of foundation on the lips to tone down the natural lip color of the girls. — Sandra Salibian
The beauty look at Prada played on the duality between natural and edgy makeup. For the latter one, seen on about ten models, Pat McGrath used a black wet eyeshadow from her line’s Mothership VI palette and greased it with the PermaGel eye pencil to draw a bold, dark arch under the eyebrow. No mascara was added but some brows were bleached to get an even stronger and more graphic effect. For the lips, she went full red applying the Elson MatteTrance lipstick. “It’s really about the woman that has no fear of makeup. Strong and with her own identity,” said McGrath. — Sandra Salibian
“A festival look, but a little more chic” is what Inge Grognard recreated focusing on dewy skin and touches of color on the eye. She worked with the Code8 brand to develop customized, highly pigmented creamy eyeshadows inspired by the colors and prints in the collection. Neon pastels as baby blue, orange and lilac were applied with a thin brush along the upper lash line and under the eyebrow arch via random shapes, almost reminiscent of clouds, on both female and male models. Skin was prepped with MZ Skin masks before being perfected with Code8 Radiate balm and Seamless concealer. — Sandra Salibian
Lucia Pieroni wanted her girls to have luminous skin but also to look “a little bit cool and naughty.” She hit the former target applying Nars Radiance primer both in the skin-prepping phase and during the final touches to add shine on the nose, cheekbones and even eyebrows, which were bushy and wet looking. To score the second goal, she smudged a Nars grey eye pencil all over the lid and blended a black one along the lash line, in addition to tapping Nars Rouge Insolent and Immortal Red lipsticks on the lips. — Sandra Salibian
Erdem’s seasonal muse Tina Modotti — an Italian photographer and silent movie star — and outdoor show venue informed Val Garland’s makeup choices. “It’s a take on realism…and it’s about her on a sort of trip to Mexico,” she said. This resulted in a natural skin prepped with toner and groomed, brushed-up brows. Instead of a blush, Garland opted for Nars Laguna Liquid Bronzer to create a rush of flush to the cheeks, applying it also on the eyelids and on the cheekbones. To further mimic “when a person is a bit cold for being outside,” Garland pushed Nars Pigalle lipstick with a Q-tip in the center of the lips. — Sandra Salibian
Rocha’s roots and seasonal inspiration of Irish wren boys were celebrated with three beauty looks created by Thomas De Kluyver. The most striking one involved six kinds of hand-painting feathers — all belonging to Irish birds — on the middle of eight models’ foreheads and down the bridge of their nose. Another 10 girls sported a punkish gaze created smudging an eyeliner pencil in black or white. In this case, De Kluyver additionally switched to a liquid eyeliner to draw a messy shape and pulled out the lines with a dry cotton tip, while another layer of product delivered extra texture. The rest of the models were sent down the catwalk with a natural makeup, while everyone’s skin was left raw “to counterbalance all the strong details.” — Sandra Salibian
“Victoria wanted everyone to be clean, gorgeous and always minimal,” said Pat McGrath, who created a simple look using products of the designer’s newly launched makeup line. In particular, she opted for the collection’s blue and burgundy eye pencils to draw a graphic line in the eye socket of some models. This added a hint of color to the overall beauty look, which hinged on a fresh, radiant skin prepped with Caudalie products and lightweight foundation. “If you look at the clothes, there’s a slight nod to the Seventies but with the makeup and hair, everything feels ultra modern,” concluded McGrath. — Sandra Salibian