As if the matte lip trend needed another nail in its coffin, SZA made one more case against it. Last night at the Grammys (where she was performing and happened to be the top nominated woman in attendance) she used lip gloss—and her Versace dress—as a reference point for the entire beauty look. It's glam, but not too far off from your daily, dew-y makeup routine. Just ask Samuel Paul, the makeup artist behind the look. No—actually you don’t have to ask him, because ITG did it for you. We're full service like that. Samuel was kind enough to walk through the look last night in between touch-ups. Hope you’re paying attention:
“My inspiration for the look was in keeping with SZA’s natural glam aesthetic, but considering this was the Grammys and her dress is Versace straight from Milan with seamstresses in tow, I wanted to take her look up a notch” Samuel explains. This meant using SZA’s go-to look as a base, then adding what Samuel calls “an ethereal flush,” drawing inspiration from the couture itself. To do this, he started with Glossier Super Glow followed by Priming Moisturizer on the skin. “I used Glossier Balm Dotcom on the lips for extra moisture,” he says, getting them ready for gloss later on. Foundation had to be Hourglass Vanish since, he says, it’s SZA’s favorite, followed by Hourglass Hidden Corrective Concealer with a quick, all-over buff of Inglot Mattifying Loose Powder—just to even everything out. Now for the flush: Glossier Cloud Paint in Beam as a bright, creamy base shade, topped with Kryolan powder blush in Mandarin “for added staying power.” After some subtle highlighting on the cheekbones, Samuel patted a bit more Priming Moisturizer on top of it all “to keep a soft dewiness to the skin.” The more you know!
Lilly Lashes made the eyes. To open them a bit more, Fenty Beauty Killawat Highlighter went into the inner corners, which SZA added herself. After that, Samuel says, “I lined the lips using Nars Precision Lip Liner in Hyères, then filled in with NYX Lip Cream in Abu Dhabi and topped with Glossier Lip Gloss. It’s my absolute favorite for all my clients.” To finish—and to take advantage of the dress—“we used Melanie Mills Gleam Body Radiance all over. It’s a body lotion that has a nice, golden sheen to it.”
—as told to Anna Jube
