For beauty fanatics, there’s nothing quite as exciting as getting a backstage look at your favorite celebrity glam moments. Slip on your Artist Pass as we take you behind the scenes of the beauty looks that live rent-free in our minds from our favorite tastemakers and the talented artists they have on speed dial. Inside, their best-kept product secrets, niche tricks of the trade, and their hot takes on buzzy pop culture beauty moments.
There are some beauty moments so prevalent in pop culture that they inspire entire movements—recent examples being Sabrina Carpenter’s sweetly flushed cheeks and Hailey Bieber’s “glazed donut skin,” which consequently set ablaze the blush blindness and glass skin phenomena. As shoppers quickly latched onto microtrends, they wasted no time ditching their bronzers for “boyfriend blush” and exchanging matte makeup for dewy formulas.
The TikTok-ification of the beauty trend cycle has taken us into unknown territory, one where what’s “cool” changes like the wind and popular bob hairstyles are repackaged for virality on the hour. One of the ways that industry leaders keep things relevant in such a saturated market is by dipping into the past—and that, dearest gentle reader, is where Carolina Gonzalez steps onto the scene.
If her name doesn’t ring a bell, her list of iconic clients (and their trend-setting makeup looks) will. She’s responsible for Carpenter’s signature Old Hollywood–inspired makeup and Gigi Hadid’s pinup-esque glam, and the New York–based creative finds herself pulling inspiration from the past when she’s setting future trends. “Everyone’s choosing their era, but … there’s a shift [towards] vintage glam,” Gonzalez explains to senior beauty editor Jamie Schneider as they dive into a one-on-one makeup session.
Ahead, Gonzalez puts Who What Wear in the makeup chair as she breaks down a dreamy, 1970s-inspired makeup look that pulls from the signature looks of past pop culture icons, resulting in something that feels nostalgic yet entirely new.
Stevie Nicks, Cher, Diana Ross, and Sharon Tate are just a handful of glamorous names that inspire the stars (and their makeup artists!) today. While we might associate these celebrities with their illustrious careers, we also owe many current beauty trends to these ’70s icons. (Think spiky, long lashes, ultra-glossy lips, and dramatic eyeliner placement.) Though traditional bell sleeves and flare jeans might feel a bit outdated today, Gonzalez proves that groovy glam will always be in style with this day-to-night makeup look that’s easy to re-create at home.
Dreamy ’70s Day Look
1. Minimal Skin Fixes
“There’s something about ’70s [makeup] that feels every summer,” Schneider quips as Gonzalez preps her brush with Armani’s Luminous Silk Foundation. “Absolutely—it’s that glow and satin finish,” Gonzalez agrees, tapping her brush into a thin portion of the editor-loved foundation on a blending tray before gently stippling the formula onto Schneider’s complexion. The trick with this step is to only touch up what’s necessary to preserve the skin’s natural glow.
The same goes for concealer: Apply it only where you need it (usually the under-eyes), and be sure to use a light hand. (It’s better to have multiple light layers of product than a heavy, single layer.) For a bit more control, Gonzalez recommends blending the formula onto your skin with a finger.
2. Contour (With Lipstick)
Since vintage glam is more about accentuating natural features than reshaping them, Gonzalez subtly contours the top and bottom of the lips with matte lipstick to offer that “early ’70s Stevie Nicks vibe.” No harsh lip liner around here—and that’s verbatim!
Gonzalez combined two shades of the Armani Beauty Lip Power Long Lasting Lipstick in a warm nude (shade 117, Graceful) and a deep, brown berry (shade 207, Dark Mauve) on a dense smudging brush to get a dreamy Stevie lip. Gonzalez painted a diffused pout that made the lips look fuller than lip liner could, carefully dusting the coated brush across Schneider’s lips,
3. Mix Your Blush
One of Gonzalez’s (err, possibly one particular blonde starlet’s?) trademarks is full, flushed cheeks, and she uses Armani Beauty’s Luminous Silk Cheek Tint Blush in two dreamy shades to achieve the look for us. Cosmic Pink and Rosy Pink are the shades Gonzalez chose to craft this delightfully retro shade, which she then applied to Schneider’s cheeks with a few dabs of her fingertips.
“Eighties [blush placement] was very bright and angular, whereas ’70s is buffed out,” the MUA explains, blending the blush along the high points of the cheekbones and the temples. “Fifties is more pinup-y, where it’s more of the apples of the cheeks—like Marilyn [Monroe].” As a general rule of thumb, Gonzalez leans into glowy formulas for anything complexion-related and ’70s-inspired—blush included.
4. Dress the Eyes
The key to Gonzalez’s ethereal eye look is to softly contour the lids with liquid eye shadows, namely Armani Beauty’s Eye Tints. Gonzalez recommends blending these eye paints with a brush for the best results, though she assures us that using a finger is just fine—just start with light layers and work your way up for the most seamless blend. The MUA calls this liquid eye shadow the “perfect neutralizer,” canceling out any redness, hyperpigmentation, or noticeable veins detailing the eye area.
5. Layer Those Lashes
A trademark of Diana Ross’s, Cher’s, and Sharon Tate’s was impossibly long, spiky lashes—and while many involved falsies, you can achieve this look on an everyday level with Armani Beauty’s Vertigo Lift Mascara. To achieve a look that feels just retro enough, Gonzalez concentrates on creating “round and doll-like” volume at the center of the lashline versus the outer corners, as that cat-eye shape can veer too “vampy.” And don’t fear spider lashes. To properly re-create this statement-making look, you’ll need to layer your mascara (and lots of it).
“I love a lash. … I love a ton of mascara and a [false] lash,” Gonzales says when asked which ’70s trends she expects will resurface this year. Glossy lips, “blushy blush,” and highlighter are more moments she foresees beauty lovers embracing, which leads us to our next step.
6. Add Lived-In Highlight
Gonzalez injects a youthful glow into this look by swiping light swathes of the Armani Beauty Acqua Highlighter in the pearly shade Halo onto the apples of Schneider’s cheeks, opposite from where she placed the blush, located high on the cheekbones. Complete the look with a touch of shine on the tip of the nose and the highest arch of the browbone, blending everything with your finger as you go.
Pro tip: Apply your highlighter before blush (or add more blush after, as Gonzalez does) to “underpaint” the cheeks for a lit-from-within radiance. If you suffer from blush blindness, no worries—use the same foundation brush that you used before (“seasoned” with foundation, as the MUA says) to go back over the edges of your blush placement to diffuse any harsh lines.
7. Freck It Up
Keeping the skin as natural-looking as possible is key with this look, so Gonzalez dipped a small, angled eyeliner brush into the Armani Beauty Eye Tint (but any cool-toned, deep liquid eye shadow will do) to stipple faux freckles onto Scheider’s skin. The MUA used a finger to pick up the pattern on the dots on her skin while they were still wet, dabbing the same finger along the bridge of the nose and under the eyes to make the spots look more realistic.
8. Carve Your Crease
Using the same angled brush from the freckle phase, Gonzalez moves onto the eye step that she describes as “modern, but nostalgic.” (She calls this type of brush “goof-proof” because it offers more precision.) After dipping into a deep brown shade of the Eye Tints, Gonzalez sketches a dramatic semicircle-shaped line slightly above the crease of Schneider’s eye to emulate Sharon Tate’s signature look. “I like that it’s more rounded, it’s not a cut crease that [goes] outward,” says Gonzalez. “It gives it more of that Twiggy [look],” she adds.
Gonzalez stands by the notion that the more imperfect this liner, the more authentic it looks. “If you ever watch Sharon Tate videos where she’s doing her makeup, she would literally just do it in two seconds,” she laughs.
9. Glaze Your Pout
Last but not least, finish off the lips with a swipe of clear lip gloss—the Armani Beauty Prisma Glass in Clear Shine being Gonzalez’s recommendation. She applies the hydrating lacquer only to the cupid’s bow and the center of the bottom lip to not make things too gloopy, allowing the formula to “bleed into everything else” as the day goes on.
Shop the Daytime Look
Armani Beauty
Luminous Silk Foundation
Armani Beauty
Lip Power Long Lasting Lipstick
Armani Beauty
Luminous Silk Cheek Tint Blush
Armani Beauty
Eye Tint Liquid Eyeshadow
Armani Beauty
Vertigo Lift Mascara
Armani Beauty
Luminous Silk Acqua Highlighter
Dazzling Disco Night Look
1. Glam the Lids
There’s not much that needs to change to convert this dreamy daytime look into glitzy evening glam, but the small tweaks make a big difference. For this Cher-inspired nighttime look, Gonzalez kicks things into high gear with a glittery lid.
When Gonzalez pictures Cher in the ’70s, images of “frosted lids, frosted brow bones, [and] gloss” come to mind. To channel the iconic singer’s statement-making style, Gonzalez swipes a lavender-hued Eye Tint in the shade Frost directly onto the eyelid—right below the crease liner—for an icy, eye-catching shimmer. With this step, the transformation is nearly complete.
2. Intensify the Crease
Gonzalez goes back over the floating crease liner from before in a deeper hue, which allows the look to show up more visibly under dim lighting and on dance floors.
3. Create Disco Blush
What is “disco blush”? We’re glad you asked. To create a flush that’s as radiant as a mirrorball, Gonzalez mixed the Acqua Highlighter in a rose gold shade dubbed Dawn with the Cheek Tint in Rosy Peach to create a natural-looking bloom of color along the high points of the face—almost as if you’ve been sweating under the fractured, spinning lights.
4. Deepen the Lip
Gonzalez prefers a deep berry gloss for evening outings because of the sheer wash of color it imparts on a lip liner–free pout. The Prisma Glass in shade Amber Shine is universally flattering, offering a rosy tint on lighter skin tones and a warm neutral on deeper skin.
Shop the Nighttime Look
Armani Beauty
Eye Tint Liquid Eyeshadow
Armani Beauty
Luminous Silk Acqua Highlighter
Armani Beauty
Luminous Silk Cheek Tint Blush
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