Even if you haven’t had the chance to watch Anora, the Palme d’Or-winning film by Sean Baker about a sex worker with a heart of gold and her Russian boy-child prince charming, you’ve probably seen her around.
A flash of her hair glitter in a promotional video. A glimpse of her nails in Vogue. Maybe you spied that signature winged eyeliner on a cinema poster last week.
The beauty looks in Anora are captivating, and it’s all thanks to the actual sex workers who provided the inspiration. Well, sex workers and the film’s make-up and hair leads, Annie Johnson and Justine Sierakowski.
“We went with Sean to the lap dance club where we shot [the film], so we were able to see the dancers in real time and really study their looks,” Johnson told the Standard.
A lot of Anora’s co-workers are played by real-life sex workers, who gave input for their own make-up looks. “Some of the actors came with their own looks that I definitely didn't want to alter,” Johnson says. “I wanted everybody's look to be as authentic as possible.”
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The women of HQ nightclub provide the perfect antidote to the glazed skin, glassy lips, “faux naturel” make-up that has dominated the 2020s.
Just look at the real-life and red carpet looks of Lindsey Normington and Luna Sofia Miranda, who play Anora’s coworkers Diamond and Lulu, for some more interesting inspiration.
As for the leading lady: Anora’s beauty looks have four key components, with the hair tinsel being the piece de resistance. “Mikey [Madison, who plays Anora] and Sean had first brought some photos to me of 1970’s movies, with a really thick, bold eyeliner,” Johnson recalls, “but Justine [Sierakowski, hair department head] already knew that she was going to be doing the hair tinsel. So I felt like, let's make the hair tinsel the focal point.”
Anora’s hair tinsel was painstakingly and lovingly crafted during early morning, several hours long sessions where Sierakowski would manually thread pieces of tinsel into Madison’s hair.
Talking to Vogue last month, Sierakowski explained: “[Sean Baker] wanted her to stand out but didn’t want her to be overtaken by anything. But he used a word like glittery or sparkly that triggered something in my head.”
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Anora’s eyes are the next key element, created with a signature eyeliner wing and false eyelashes. “While researching the dancers' makeup, I definitely noticed the use of fake lashes,” Johnson says. “I knew really early on that I wanted to use fake lashes as her character's security blanket and have her wearing those, then in the more vulnerable part of the movie have them come off. So then we see a more soft, vulnerable side of her.”
Next up came the nails, a nude acrylic set with gemstone and butterfly adornments. “I had originally picked a different design for Anora, and [Mikey], after thinking about it, came back from the salon with the butterfly nails. And I'm so glad she did. They absolutely looked fantastic. They were true to the character.”
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Then, finally, came the lip colour that pulls it all together. “That make-up by Mario lip pencil [in shades Almond and Toasty]. Whenever Mikey put that on, she thought the character was complete,” Johnson remembers. “That was the last thing we put on her every day in the make-up chair.”
Johnson names this as the Holy Grail item for those seeking to recreate an Anora makeup look, alongside Rihanna’s Fenty Glitterbomb, setting spray, and drugstore fake lashes by Ardell (“They are some of the best lashes that I've come across as a make-up artist,” Johnson says).
The fact that these looks feel so on-trend for 2024 (and, handily, perfectly timed for the festive party season) is entirely by accident. “None of these elements were ever meant to be on-trend,” divulges Johnson. “We were immersed in the script, the story. We wanted something that, when we read it, spoke off the page as Ani. We were never making looks to start trends. It’s so cool to see people wanting hair tinsel [...] seeing the wing come back, seeing the glitter.”
“We had so much fun with these looks,” Johnson adds, “everything was so over the top. We just wanted everything to be authentic and to stay respectful to sex workers and their stories.”
