The Best Hair and Makeup Looks This Year Are Coming From London

Real chunks of crystal were affixed around the eyes at Halpern — yes, the same sort of crystals you might keep on your nightstand to help calm your energy or at the bottom of your purse to bring you good vibes throughout the day. Backstage, makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench put down her brushes in exchange for a hammer and chisel, which she used to shatter the crystals into thin shards before gluing them around one eye in a starburst shape (apparently inspired by a 1968 Vogue photo shoot).

In line with the brand's Autumn collection, makeup artist Holly Silius aimed to create a makeup look that was as sustainable as possible. "We worked with 'the sustainable sequins company' a young start up and one of the first ones that create recycled sequins," she wrote in her Instagram Stories of the colorful, 3D makeup look she created. She went on to add that all of the shoes in the collection were "up-cycled from previous seasons," while the "set design is created from my own deadstock sequins that will be recycled later to create dresses."

The second look for the Paula Knorr show was also sustainable, with Silius noting she placed upcycled Swarovski stones under the models' eyes. As for the actual makeup used at the show, Silius used vegan brand Ilia Beauty, including its Liquid Light Serum Highlighter ($42), Color Haze Multi-Matte Pigment ($32), and Multi-Sticks ($34).

For his Autumn 2020 collection, Erdem Moralioglu was inspired by the upcoming exhibition of Cecil Beaton's work at the National Portrait Gallery, including his gelatin silver prints from the 1920s and '30s. "Silver is an accent that runs through the entire collection," said hairstylist Anthony Turner, who created platinum-colored wigs for the show worn by seven of the models.

The wigs were prestyled before the show, a process that involved coating the wigs with gel, combing the front of the hair into an elegant finger wave, then setting the style with the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer ($399). "We're using the diffuser attachment and drying the top of the hair for 10-15 minutes to really set the gel in place, otherwise the wave would fall out," Turner explained. Once the style was locked in place, he sprayed it with the same silver paint Erdem used on the feathers in the collection and added a silver hair grip along the forehead.

In London, makeup artists favored foil sheets you get at art shops over traditional eye shadow this season. Case in point: at Erdem, Lynsey Alexander applied real silver leaf all over the lids, a nod to the designer's inspiration for the collection, which was photographer Cecil Beaton's gelatin silver prints from the 1920s and '30s.

"We wanted the silver to look fragmented, delicate, and otherworldly," Alexander explained backstage. To do that, she applied a thin layer of Egyptian Magic cream over the eye, put the sheet over the lid, then dabbed a medium-size shadow brush over the leaf repeatedly to break it up so "it almost looks shattered." To echo the shine on the lips, Alexander topped them off with the clear Nars Afterglow Lip Balm ($28).

When dreaming up this conceptual makeup look at Preen, makeup artist Sam Bryant's starting point was both the gold in the collection and photos the designer showed her of Renaissance statues of the Virgin Mary. "The statues were marble, and so they were very shiny," said Bryant, who translated that backstage by highlighting the models' skin with MAC's new Strobe Glaze (out this Autumn), a balmy-gloss version of its iconic Strobe Cream luminizer.

Bryant then broke out the gold leaf, covering most of the models' ears with the stuff, then also adding it to the faces of two or three models, as you see here. "The placement was inspired by those statues we were looking at, which had these gold cords running across their foreheads," Bryant explained.

Hairstylist Eugene Souleiman was also inspired by Renaissance paintings and statues of women, and similar to Bryant, he wanted to do it in a way that felt minimal, new, and a bit tougher than the soft, floaty-looking hair you'd see in a Raphael painting at, say, the National Gallery.

To do that, Souleiman mimicked a Renaissance hairstyle — with the hair sectioned off in front of the ears (and actually looped underneath them as well) and gathered into a low ponytail. But then he coated it with tons and tons of hairspray. "We're using hairspray like a gel, literally holding the can right next to the head so that the hair is super shiny and hard and perfect," he explained. Souleiman then braided the ponytail and let it stay like that while the models were getting their makeup done — taking it out right before the show. "It's the hardest thing to do, something that feels so simple but is technically really complicated," he said of the final look.

At Simone Rocha, makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver applied scraps of black, crimson, and purple metallic foil over the top lids, making it the third show of the week using the unexpected material.

"Delicate and doll-like" and "ballerinas with a twist" were the themes thrown around backstage at Richard Quinn, where the makeup featured classic theater tricks like winged black liner and white pencil along the inner rims of the eyes.

The twist — dreamed up by makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench — came in the form of topping the white with lime green eye shadow, a color that contrasted beautifully with the pearly pink shadow she added on the lids (which was a mix of rosy-colored blushes and MAC's Glitter Reflect in Pearl ($22)). "Adding the green on top of the white really punches up the color and makes it stronger and brighter," Dominic Skinner, makeup artist and MAC global senior artist, said of the technique.

"Punky Marie Antionette" is how hairstylist Sam McKnight explained the chignons he created at Richard Quinn. "The hair is powdered, so it's not shiny; I wanted it to look a little antique and a little bit romantic, but still with a rebellious edge," he explained.

To do that, he prepped the hair with his Hair by Sam McKnight Easy Updo Spray ($36) "to get the hair up and make it stay" followed by a bit of hairspray. Then, to mattify the hair, he used Mane Hair Thickening Spray ($32) in shades that matched the models' natural hair colors. "It's not white powder, like dry shampoo, it's golden and auburn, and black and brown." The chignon was actually shaped like an upside-down bow, which he wrapped a black velvet ribbon around, leaving the ends hanging down for a laissez-faire, "let them eat cake" sort of vibe.

While the long nails at Charlotte Knowles's Autumn 2020 show were cut on a sharp diagonal along the tips, the eye makeup — created by makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench — was round and swooping. Rendered in two different contrasting jewel tones, Ffrench placed one shade around the inner corners and the other starting at the outer corners of the eyes and making almost a Nike-like swish back up toward the middle of the brows.

For Rixo's Autumn 2020 show, the designers teamed up with legendary French haute couturier Christian Lacroix. Both known for their love of loud colors and patterns, it's no surprise there was a major beauty look to match.

Makeup artist Vincent Ford created two colorful smoky looks that combined the bright colors of Rixo and the decadent glamour of Lacroix, adding matte yellow to the lids and draping rosy-colored blush along the cheekbones, up to the temples, and across the creases of the eyes. To top it all off, he added a twinkly, turquoise highlight in the inner corners of the eyes using soon-to-be-released, loose glitter pigments from Nars Cosmetics.

"The lip is quite special," makeup artist Bea Sweet said in a video on her Instagram feed. "It's meant to be as if the girl's picked up a cherry, ate it, and then pulled it back out of her mouth so you get this lovely little crimson staining around the center of the lips." To frame the sweet stain and heavy metal accessories, hairstylist Sam McKnight created a sculpted style where the face-framing pieces swept low across the forehead, creating the illusion of a faux fringe.

Old Hollywood was the theme at Temperley London, where makeup artist Sofia Schwarzkopf-Tilbury paired red lipstick with twinkly gold shadow and her signature feline flick. To really amp up the glamour, Schwarzkopf-Tilbury created a halo effect on both the eyes and lips. "On the eyes, the shadow is darker and gets brighter in the middle of the lids, while the lips also gradually get brighter in the middle," she explained.

On the eyes, Schwarzkopf-Tilbury layered the gold tones in the Charlotte Tilbury Queen of Glow Luxury Palette ($53) over the brand's Eyes to Mesmerize Cream Eye Shadow ($32) in Bette (for lighter skin tones) or Star Gold (for darker skin tones). As for the lips, she outlined and filled them in with Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Kiss N Tell ($22) and dotted Hot Lips in Tell Laura ($27) in the center of the mouth.

Blue eye shadow and red lipstick are two classic beauty tropes. And while the '80s gave the bold color combo a bad rap, there's no reason you can't wear them together in 2020. The makeup at Mimi Wade offered the perfect example of how to pull it off: with a very pale shade of blue dusted all over the lids and up to the brows and the edges of the red lipstick slightly blurred. Sleek ponytail and oversize earrings not required but certainly recommended.

The rest of the models at Matty Bovan wore wigs with long, brow-grazing fringe that were cut straight across. "They're not blunt, though," hairstylist Syd Hayes said. "We didn't want a blunt line across the forehead; we wanted it to look softer, to be able to see the makeup underneath."

That makeup Hayes is referring to was bold in both shape and color. Makeup artist Miranda Joyce painted bright pink straight across each eye (which was the fuchsia shade from the MAC It's Designer Palette ($48)), adding a coral paint along the inner corners to create dimension and an electric ombré effect.

With a '70s vibe running through the collection, makeup artist Lucy Bridge took elements from that era and created three different makeup looks for the show. Our favorite of the bunch was a shimmery antique-gold shadow that Bridge brought down from the lids and onto the tops of the cheekbones, making it a shadow-and-highlighter-in-one (a great beauty hack when you're low on time or on holiday). The shadow Bridge used was MAC Dazzleshadow Extreme in Objet d'Art, which doesn't launch until Fall 2020, which she paired with MAC Coffee Eye Pencil ($19) and black mascara.