While last night’s MET Gala theme may have left quite a bit of room for interpretation, there was one assignment that everyone understood: angelic makeup. At the forefront of that was actress Storm Reid, who with the help of celebrity makeup artist Pauly Blanch and Maybelline, walked the carpet looking like something straight out of heaven.
According to Blanch, a soft statement eye was the name of the game. “After Jason, her stylist, showed me the dress sketch I just thought that she looked like an ‘It girl,'” Branch tells ESSENCE. “Still soft, feminine but a bit edgy too — so I just wanted to relay that into the makeup. Once I saw what was going to be locked in, then I rolled with this micro-pearl eyeliner in like graphic shape and then kept the skin really beautiful and glowy and youthful.”
However, even though a soft eye was the ultimate goal, Blanch still knew that the lashes had to pop. “The major one that I’m loving is the Colossal Curl Bounce Mascara,” he says of the upcoming November launch from Maybelline. “We wanted to lift the lashes, especially cause we wanted to emphasize the direction of the eyeliner.”
And while a jeweled moment on the lid isn’t something particularly new, it’s the shape by which Blanch laid the pearls that truly set it apart. “It’s a really cool take on where you would blend in normal eyeshadow, but we had it in a soft, white pearl which was really complimentary to her eye shape,” he says. “It’s not really seen that often, especially on the carpet.”
However, this wasn’t the only look that Blanch was prepared to execute. With Storm revealing a brand-new platinum ‘do (created by hairstylist Greg Gilmore), Blanch picked the beat that would tie the entire look, custom Prada dress included, all together. “I dropped a few looks and I trialed them,” he says. “I had something for if the hair was slicked back and I had something planned around if the hair was going to be more dramatic. So finally being able to see the hair really helped solidify the makeup because you want everything to flow cohesively through the look. I didn’t want anything to be overboard — I think this was a perfect fit.”
Shop more of Storm’s Maybelline must-haves below.
