The Best Beauty Looks From Paris Fashion Week

The Look: Sexy Pool Hair How-To: You can always count on the Balmain show to serve-up sexy hair, whether it's in a super-high ponytail or soft wave. This year, like so many others shows, the sex appeal came by the way of a slicked-back wet 'do crafted by hairstylist Sam McKnight. "It's swimming pool hair inspired by '80s shots by Peter Linbergh and Helmut Newton. It's tough and shiny," says McKnight. He used a concoction of products to achieve the look: mousse, oils, creams—you name it. Each model got a mix of stylers to achieve the intense level of hold and shine. As for why wet hair is making such a splash (sorry, we had to), McKnight didn't really know. "It's just a thing that works with really sexy clothes—it's nice and tough and strong," he said.

The Look: Boyish Charm How-To: It's best to expect the unexpected from the beauty look at Givenchy. At any given show, a model could walk the runway with their face bedazzled or taped back. But this season's take on beauty took a decidedly fresher approach. Makeup artist Pat McGrath said the look had a "boyish" feel. In makeup, that translated to just grooming: touch-ups with concealer where needed and brows filled-in or fluffed. And that's it. It was the hair that really brought that message of boyish charm home. Combed forward and slicked across the face, hairstylists utilized a ton of gel to create the almost helmet-like shine seen from the runway. Even more shine was added by way of Redken Diamond Oil mist when the hair was twisted and pinned in the back into a low chignon.

The Look: Pink Glow How-To: Baby pink was the key colour for Rihanna's second Fenty Puma collection. The shade was used in head-to-toe looks and on everything from baseball caps to lace-up stiletto booties. It was also the key to the beauty look, which relied heavily on only two thing: serious false eyelashes, and an intense pink cheek highlight. On the cheeks, makeup artists applied a bold sweep of Marc Jacobs Beauty Air Blush Soft Glow in Lush and Libido all the way up to the cheek and toward the temples. Then the Marc Jacobs Beauty Glistening Illuminator, a pearly cream highlighter, was rolled across the temples. The effect was an intense pop of pink shimmer, but in this day and age, there's no such thing as too much highlighter.

The Look: Surfer Vibes How-To: If a surfer girl washed up in Paris instead of Malibu, this is what she would look like. Hairstylist James Pecis was inspired by the "aquatic" vibes of the clothing and show, so he crafted a wet hair look using a shiny hair gel. The hair was parted and slicked down to just below the ears; the lower-half was styled into soft, loose waves. The makeup took a similar approach under the direction of Sally Branka. After dabbing on concealer, Branka and her team brushed a powder bronzer all along the eyelids, along the lower lashline, and across both cheekbones and down the nose. A little blush was swirled on the cheeks. Then, a black kohl pencil was traced along both the top and bottom waterlines. Branka wanted it to feel like the Mugler surfer girl might have just gotten out of the water, drew on some black eyeliner, and went on her way. Before the models walked out, the makeup artists pressed the Clarins Blue Orchid face oil on the tops of the cheekbones and through the brows to give an unmistakable sheen (not shimmer) to the skin.

The Look: Romantic Braid How-To: It was designer Pierpaolo Piccioli's first Valentino runway show as a solo designer, but that doesn't mean he was going to shake things up all too much. If it works, it works. That also translated into the beauty look, where hairstylist Guido Palau created a single long, fuzzy braid that was unmistakably Valentino. After the hair was curled, a one-inch section was pulled back and crossed over on each side, then secured with a bobby pin. Palau blasted the hair with Redken Wind Blown 05 to set the airy texture, braided it loosely, and then secured it with a single black hair tie. The beauty look wasn't shocking or on-trend: but it was soft, pretty, and iconic Valentino.

The Look: Beauty Through Feminism How-To: It was the Dior tee shirt Instagrammed 'round the world: We Should All Be Feminists, it read. That was the key theme for Maria Grazia Chiuri's first Dior runway show. And while it was mostly interpreted through the clothing (and literal tee shirts), the beauty look was carefully crafted by makeup artist Peter Philips and hairstylist Guido Palau to deliver the same girl-power message. Philips used several key products (Dior Star foundation, some loose powder, pink highlighter and lip balm), but the end result was as soft and natural as a no-makeup look. The hair was a twist on a classic street style: sleek topknot in the front, three or four braids in the back. Palau explained that Chiuri loved the idea of a skater girl hairstyle, and that she was very particular in that she wanted the style to seem simple enough to achieve on your own. What Palau did was a far more precise version of the falling-out buns with an upside-down braid we've all seen on Instagram. But in the duality of sleek and textured, braids and buns, the message was clear: girls can wear anything, be anything, and do anything—sometimes with their hair and all at once.

The Look: Youthful Beauty How-To: "I want the lipstick to feel quite young, not too lady," said makeup artist Val Garland backstage at the Giambattista Valli show, where a handful of models walked with a pop of red lipstick. The flawless matte skin and blurry lipstick was meant to evoke the essence of youth. Picture it as the Valli woman looking back at an idealised version of her younger self. "It's about the most perfect, velvet, flawless, matte skin," said Garland. After prepping the skin, she used a combination of soft foundation powders to give skin a seamless matte finish that was nearly undetectable to the eye. She then applied a liquid matte red lipstick before blurring out the edges with a fluffy brush for a less proper finish.

The Look: Vagabond Beauty How-To: "The inspiration was a traveler, and he wanted a burnished glow that was kind of easy," said makeup artists Linda Cantello. "We've done the easiest makeup ever." That included a little bit of foundation, blush along the cheekbones and toward the temples, filled-in brows, mascara on both sets of lashes, and then the same lipstick applied on the eyes and the lips (Armani Rouge D'Armani Sheer in Far Away). Compared to the hair, it was quite easy. Hairstylist Rudi Lewis spent days weaving over 300 braided extensions. The final look was a jumble of five looped, fishtailed, and otherwise purposefully imperfect braids. "This girl has been away for a while. Her hair has been growing out, she's got braids," Lewis said backstage. "They're braids that have gotten a bit salty and messy." If that's what it takes to get braids this pretty, then count us in.

The Look: Sporty '80s How-To: There was a simplicity to the beauty look at Stella McCartney. But don't mistake this for no-makeup makeup. There was makeup used here, but it was to make the girls seem fresh and sporty. "It's a nod to the '80s but that kind of sporty '80s feel," said makeup artist Pat McGrath backstage. "You see that in the hair and partly in the clothing." McGrath groomed the skin with moisturizer and foundation, filled-in and brushed through the brows, and then added a bit of glow along the cheekbones. Hairstylist Eugene Souleiman pushed the hair back off the face but in a softer, fluffier way than we've seen at other shows; it wasn't shellacked or covered in gel. That way, when the models stepped out at the end of the show to perform their choreographed dance number (yes, that really happened), their faces glowed and their hair bounced with ease.

The Look: Back To The Future How-To: The Chanel show this season was a look at a technological future through the lens of the colorful 1990s tech boom.This playful mix of technology of the past and future was clearly what inspired hairstylist Sam McKnight and makeup artist Tom Pecheux. The hair was fastened in a low side ponytail with a neon hair bauble covered in plastic Chanel charms. It looked exactly like something we would have worn in the early '90s except, you know, it was Chanel. The lips were covered in a bright pink glossy lipstick that matched a similar shade of blush traced across the cheekbones, up toward the temples, and to the eyes. It was a nod to draping, the heavy-handed blush technique popularized in the '80s and '90s. This isn't the first show we've seen reference draping this season (just look to Emporio Armani, Kenzo, or Adam Selman ). The bottom line? Get your blush brushes ready: you're going to need them in a big way come next spring.

The Look: A Beautiful Tribute How-To: The spring 2017 Sonia Rykiel collection was the first since the designer passed away in August of this year. Both makeup artist Lisa Eldridge and hairstylist Paul Hanlon paid beautiful tributes to Rykiel through the show's beauty look. Eldridge used a navy eyeshadow shade from the Lancôme Saint-Germain palette (which was part of a capsule collection the beauty brand did with Rykiel) to create a smudgy eyeliner look reminiscent of one the designer preferred. Hanlon whipped the models' hair into fuzzy,'70s-inspired waves by curling ad backcombing the hair. On red-headed models, the reference to Rykiel was undeniable. But on all the others, the hairstyle was merely a little wink and reminder that the designer's personal style will live on.

The Look: Geometry Play How-To: The Issey Miyake show is one you can always count on to push creative boundaries with clothing and beauty. So while these geometric face circles created by makeup artist Alex Box might not be totally wearable, we love them for their sheer inventiveness. Box called the rings "impactful but delicate," and she created each one by dipping white pigment in a pencil topper and stamping it along the contours of the face. Hairstylist James Pecis took the same idea to the hair with an asymmetrical looped ponytail accessorized with a geometric shape. Out-of-the-box beauty looks can sometimes be more intellectual than beautiful, but the look at Issey Miyake happened to be both.

The Look: Glossy Eyes How-To: The vibrant colours of Nina Ricci's Rio-inspired spring 2017 collection could also be found on the eyes of the models, where Diane Kendal has created multiple shades of glossy lids. Using grease paints in purple, orange, and blue, Kendal swept them on with a brush and then added a dab of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream on top. The pigments mixed and swirled with the slick balm, resulting in shades that looked slightly different—but equally as captivating—on each model.