This year's Met Gala, with its "The Garden of Time" theme, will undoubtedly usher in dozens of fresh, springy looks. Like beauty and fashion aficionados all over the world, we have our eyes glued to the red carpet to see what our favorite stars are wearing, one of which is celebrated actress Ayo Edebiri. Ahead of her appearance, we spoke to her makeup artist, Dana Delaney, about how she achieved her fresh, dewy look.
"The look is very ethereal, very Ayo, very clean, with radiant, glowy skin and pops of blush and pink through the lip," she explains. "She's got a really gorgeous floral gown, so we wanted her face to look like it's blooming from this garden, so I wanted to keep it fresh, dewy, and soft."
Delaney explains that Edebiri, who is "very collaborative," particularly wanted to tap into recent blush trends, and that the two agreed that the cheeks would be the primary source of color on her face, along with a mauve shade on the lips that's "almost like her lip color, but enhanced."
"We wanted to overline the top lip a little bit to make them look a little swollen, by slightly overlining—not too much," she says. "Everything's really blended out, almost blurred."
With regards to how she created Edebiri's glowy cheek look, she explains, "I always like to start with a green product to blend and get the placement right. Then, I'll concentrate more color under the eyes, and then blend outward through the cheekbones. So, it always starts in the center of the face, then blown outwards." She usually tops the blush with a powder, she says, but stuck exclusively to creams this evening to evoke the fresh morning dew theme of Edebiri's overall look. Her pigments of choice tonight were from Ilia, which she says makes "super blendable" products.
But Delaney says that the ultimate key to achieving Edebiri's glow was skincare. "When your skin is nice and hydrated, you naturally have highlights on your face," explains Delaney. "So if you're dry, your skin's going to be quite flat— almost like you have powder on already. But if you want to bring a little bit of dimension, your skin is going to catch light on the cheekbones, the nose, and the forehead, and it's going to look like you have a natural highlight, so long as you hydrate."
In particular, she credits SK-II's facial treatment mask, essence, and Advanced Airy Cream with making Edebiri look as though she's glowing from within. She says that piling on the hydration also helped the cream makeup—especially the blush—blend better and absorb into the skin so that it looks like the pigments are part of Edebiri's natural complexion. For extra glow, she says that she even pressed some of SK-II's essence onto Edebiri's face after finishing the look.
Edebiri's dewy makeup is perfect to channel throughout the spring and summer, especially if you're still not over your "clean girl" era. Below, everything you need to make it appear as though you, too, are blossoming.
