BEAUTY HALL OF FAME: THE RED CARPET EDITION

Fact: Rihanna slayed the red carpet at the Met Gala last year. Seeing that the honouree of the evening was Rei Kawakubo, the singer/makeup mogul showed up in a Comme des Garçons creation and complemented the avant garde dress with equally bold makeup. Rihanna rocked a vibrant fuchsia blush that ran from her cheeks to her cheekbones, before blending seamlessly into her fuchsia eyeshadow. And let’s not forget that highlight, which is to die for.

 

The R&B singer showed up at the VMAs sans makeup, and boy, lots of people had opinions about it. Alicia Keys took to Twitter to clarify that just because she chose to go makeup-free doesn’t mean she’s anti-makeup. She later explained that she’s embracing her bare face because she wanted to stop her insecurities from manifesting in unhealthy ways. “Every time I left the house, I would be worried if I didn’t put on makeup. What if someone wanted a picture?? What if they POSTED it??? All of it, one way or another, was based too much on what other people thought of me,” she wrote on Lenny Letter. At the end of the day, her barefaced appearance on the red carpet sent out a strong message to all of us – it’s OK if you want to wear makeup, and it’s also OK if you don’t.

 

First of all, can we please talk about how chic that half-blonde ’do is? Secondly, can we just declare Janelle Monae queen of the underline? The songstress is known for her androgynous style and rocking eye-catching underliner during her red carpet appearances, and the Grammys is no exception. We’re definitely using this as inspo for our next party look!

 

You can take the girl out of Coachella, but you can never take the Coachella out of the girl. Vanessa Hudgens, the undisputed queen of music festivals held in deserts, turned it up for the VMAs last year by wearing red glitter on her eyes. So extra, but so worth it for the Kira Kira shot.

 

Guild (SAG) Awards Let’s just say that if our 14-year-old selves had to do our own styling for a red carpet appearance, we’d like to look like Millie Bobby Brown at the SAG awards this year. The Stranger Things star was pretty in pink in her sequinned Calvin Klein dress, which she matched with the cutest shade of pink lipstick. There’s also pink glitter on her eyelids (fun!), and her hair twisted into cute double buns (double fun!).

 

Green eyeshadow isn’t easy to pull off, but we were green with envy – pun fully intended – when we saw Deepika Padukone’s emerald smoky eyes at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

 

Any look that sparks a conversation on beauty standards and pushes for greater acceptance of diversity in beauty deserves a mention on this list. Zendaya’s dreadlocks on the Oscars red carpet two years ago may have raised the eyebrows of the so-called “fashion police”, but the actress handled the incident with so much grace, using the opportunity to point out that the comments made were incredibly offensive to the African American community. In the wake of this controversy, Mattel then honoured Zendaya with her own Barbie doll, which recreated her Oscars look – locs and all.

 

The corset braid was all over Instagram last year, and Lady Gaga gave us a masterclass on how to wear this festival trend for a more “adult” occasion like the Grammys. The key is to keep the hair accessories simple, and complete the look with strong eye makeup and nude lips.

 

Besides wearing sunblock to use her computer and using sheet masks at least twice a day, Chinese beauty icon Fan Bing Bing is also a big fan of lip balms and lipsticks – she says she always has one of each in her bag. “Lips are the most beautiful feature of anyone’s face,” she told CNN in a 2010 interview. It’s not surprising then that some of our favourite red carpet looks from her feature a strong red lip, which contrasts beautifully against her flawless, porcelain complexion.