During fashion week, we’re always psyched to see something going down backstage that we can do right now—no waiting until next season's new colors, no stalking of makeup professionals required to execute the look. Pat McGrath’s electric-blue lashes for Stella McCartney's Fall 2012 show were a monster hit, and McGrath kept the momentum going for spring with clean, glowing skin and bright emerald eyeliner along the lower lid of the eyes. The effect was just the right level of intense, and still extremely alluring.

“Stella’s very natural, she doesn’t want too much color,” McGrath told us backstage. “We tried so many things but, in the bright daylight, she just said, ‘I want the girls to look really fresh, really natural.’ And liner is a really subtle way to play with color. We did that colored eyeliner at Dior couture—bright colors—and there was the yellow liner at Kenzo. It’s all about color, isn’t it? Stella loved the blue last season, that little bit of color, so this time we’re doing it with green.” McGrath and her team swept CoverGirl Queen Collection Vivid Impact Eyeliner in Jade neatly along the lower eyelids, for a pigment-heavy pop of color, which accented the iris in all the right ways. “It’s all about the black mascara on the top lashes and colored eyeliner on the bottom, like the girls did it themselves. It’s really easy,” McGrath noted—and let’s hope she’s right, because we’re trying it out tonight.

Photographed by Emily Weiss at the Opera Garnier in Paris on October 1st, 2012.