The 8 Biggest Beauty Trends From the Fall 2024 Runways

After the mother of all makeup artists Dame Pat McGrath broke the Internet with her fantastical makeup looks at the Maison Margiela Artisanal spring 2024 couture show, beauty enthusiasts were hoping her transcendental display of maquillage magnificence would inspire other behind-the-scene maestros to follow her lead. And the subsequent fashion weeks delivered: from post-apocalyptic coifs at Prabal Gurung and Helmut Lang to dollified, tar-glazed gazes at Marc Jacobs, backstage creatives have exchanged the drab minimalism of yore for some drama this season.

Here’s our selection of the best fall 2024 hair, makeup, and nail trends so far, straight from the fashion-capital catwalks of New York, London, Milan, and Paris.

The Valley of the Dolls

In celebration of his 40th anniversary in the business, Marc Jacobs kicked off New York Fashion Week seven days early, pulling out all the stops with a spectacle referencing paper dolls and Diana Ross’s iconic Supremes style. When it came to proportions, bigger was apparently better this season. The hairstylist Duffy’s voluminous, textured bouffant wigs matched the exaggerated silhouettes that went down the runway. Makeup veteran Diane Kendal used tarantula-size fringes coated with black nail lacquer to get an extra “cloggy” look on the top and bottom lash lines. She lined the top lids with ebony eyeliner and topped it with black duo lash glue for extra emphasis. For the matte chalk-like skin, she powdered the models’ faces and highlighted them with white greasepaint, toning it down with an extra douse of tonal powder.

Emilia Wickstead’s head makeup artist Anne Sophie Costa used Eve Lom skincare for those luminous complexions. As for those poupette-style peepers, she achieved them by adding two or three wisps to the center of the top lash line and a couple of flicks of fiber-extending mascara.

Electro Pop

Dior Makeup’s creative and image director Peter Philips’s vibrant orbital dressing of rich pigment was inspired by the hues in a scarf of the French fashion house’s former designer Marc Bohan, who helmed the label for 30 years. The splash of raspberry at the inner corner of the eyes added “a colorful twist that contrasted nicely with the [models’] glowing skin and classic chignon, in a contemporary way,” said the master makeup artist. And though the vivid tint that Philips used is not available for purchase, we think the Diorshow On Stage Liner below—or even a fruity-tinted lip hue dotted on the eyes—will give you the same unexpected bolt of color.

The hair guru Guido Palau worked with London-based colorist Antonia Cometa on the fluorescent green, blue, and red extensions that he used to bring an anime edge to the fringes of the bowl-cut black wigs.

Try the trend for yourself: apply a zesty strip of non-committal hair color on your shaggy sections as a way to experiment with this fun, manga-inspired style.

At Chanel, makeup artist Lisa Butler regaled the eyes with whimsical shades of waterproof eyeliner. The bold hues—in shades of pink, gold, coral, or blue—livened up the inner corners or the top lash line.

At Etro, lead makeup artist Luciano Chiarello concocted two looks that played on color. One focused on the lips with an intense shade of red; the other emphasized the gaze with a buoyant underline of verdant green, and a peek of yellow, while a glossy terra-cotta topped the lids.

Sooty Sockets

Versace went punk this season, with Dame Pat McGrath zeroing in on the eyes with a touch of rebellious glamour. First, she graphed out a stygian shape with her line’s PermaGel Ultra Glide Eye Pencil and topped it with a coal black shadow from the Mothership I: Subliminal palette for depth and dimension. Next, she went back in with liquid eyeliner to refine the outline. Clear balm was tapped onto the center of the lids for a bit of subversive slickness.

For Peter Do’s sophomore effort at Helmut Lang, makeup artist Daniel Sallstrom played with the idea of harsh weather hindering urban polish. He mainly focused on the eyes, keeping the rest of the face mostly bare as a statement on our own vulnerability. Each eye look—there were six in total—was messy and destroyed. On some models, Sallstrom even wiped away a bit of the midnight eye paint with a cotton pad and went back in so it could look well-worn. On others, he applied a base of mustard yellow under the black for a whiff of jaundice—or he tapped in a bit of espresso-colored greasepaint to give it a three-dimensional air, dragging the combo with his fingers out to the corners of the face and across the bridge of the nose for a windswept effect.

Kendal worked her magic again at Jason Wu. Employing the designer’s namesake beauty line, she made up some of the models to resemble fallen angels lost in a sinister forest, per Wu’s dictate. Using broad strokes, she feathered out the creamy jet black eyeshadow pencil (or a gold one) into wispy wings that looked ready to take flight at a moment’s notice. The brows were brushed up and set in place with a transparent brow laminate.

At Prabal Gurung, MAC’s key makeup artist Romero Jennings created a soft Goth look by giving the eyes a little dark, lived-in drama. He first enveloped them with a smudge of black pencil, then he applied black greasepaint to the lids, leaving a couple of gaps so it looked haphazard. He finished the wayward smolder with a wrap of midnight kohl and a touch of clear gloss.

Crimson Vibes

Taking inspiration from the old British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, which delved into the everyday exploits of fusty Yorkshire retirees, designer Jonathan Anderson chose to glorify the beauty of getting older in his namesake collection. To accomplish this, coiffeur Anthony Turner fitted several models with a mop of floppy salt-and-pepper curls, while the makeup lead Lynsey Alexander amped up the sex appeal with a swipe of va-va-voom rouge on the lips.

At Molly Goddard, makeup artist Lisa Eldridge’s memo was to recreate the look of coquettish kissers whose pouts were smeared during a makeout session. For that diffused blur, Eldridge applied an earthy brick color to the center of the lips, then buffed it out with a classic blue-red. For some of the models, she lightly smudged random hints of the tint past the lip line to further play up the lusty smooch fest.

Richard Quinn’s fall 2024 catwalk called to the glamorous days of old Hollywood. To complement the full-skirted gowns and elbow-length gloves presented, hairstylist Sam McKnight worked the hair into chic, lady-of-the-manor French twists with rolled bangs. But it was the retro ruby lips and pearl-powdered skin crafted by Terry Barber, MAC’s director of artistry, that made the look really grand.

At Mugler, lead makeup artist Lucy Bridge brought on the dark, louche glamour with bleached brows and extra succulent cherry lips, which she overlined in a brighter, darker, or matching shade. Replicate the high shine with Glossier’s glassy gloss layered over your favorite rouge.

At Khaite, Kendal used a pop of bright, poppy red punctuated against clean, dewy skin as a tribute to the designer Catherine Holstein’s late mother, who always kept a tube of vermilion by her bedside. The show’s nail artist, Dawn Sterling, followed Kendal’s lead and matched the tips in a similar shade.

At Altuzarra, the CFDA award-winning designer wanted the collection to feel like a personal mood board—with references to the photographer Deborah Turbeville, the Art Deco portraitist Tamara Lempicka, ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, and the surrealistic makeup artist Serge Lutens. The beauty inspiration was just as eclectic, says Kendal. Although most of the models wore a polished no makeup-makeup look, three girls flaunted a Thirties, flapper-style smoky eye, while two received a glittery red lip treatment.

The moody, romantic glamour at Anna Sui was an homage to the Biba ads of the ’60s, with a touch of Virgina Woolf. McGrath paired a clean face with smoldering shadows and a smoky burgundy red tapped onto the models’s pouts. She created the lip finishes by dabbing her Pat McGrath Beauty PermaGel Ultra Lip Pencil in Manhattan at the center of the lips, softening with a brush to diffuse the edges. Then she feathered her brand’s MatteTrance Lipsticks in Guinevere and Flesh 3 using her fingertips.

Loop-de-loops

Palau’s sculptural showpiece at Prada was an art noveau take on space buns. Old-school techniques like pin curls and finger waves were employed to form the futuristic rolls and loops. And for the otherwordly lacquer? Just set the look with the high-shine spray from Palau’s hair collab with Zara.

The hair and makeup at Simone Rocha was an exemplary representation of standout teamwork and artistry. Hairstylist Eugene Souleiman’s Victorian masterpiece of carefully composed coils and plaits perfectly paired with makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver’s captivating arch of intricate rosettes.

The designer Joseph Altuzarra wanted the hair at his show to be “effortless and undone, almost like a chignon that had unraveled over the course of the day, or a hastily put-together ponytail after a shower,” he said. With that in mind, plus visual references of the equestrian set, Jawara created a loose, low pony that had volume on the top but was fashioned into a loose knotted loop at the end. He used a texturizing spray to create height and give it a “downtown” finish.

Shady Tips

To complement Jason Wu’s deconstructed collection, nail guru Jin Soon Choi created a reverse ombré look that married a slightly Goth edge with a sense of uptown sophistication. Using a swipe of clear base coat as the underlying palette, from the cuticle, she dabbed a blackberry-tinted lacquer with a makeup sponge, moving up about a third of the nail bed. She then repeated the process with the same dark polish, making a gradient effect which she said created the illusion of elongated fingernails. A matte top coat sealed the look for a light satin finish.

Nail artist Miss Pop also tapped into the multidimensional mani at Retrofête with glossy variegated crimson tips that nodded to the ’80s. Four Essie shades in deep aubergine, classic wine, racy berry, and cherry red made for a slick blend.

Swept Away

Jawara was also the hair whisperer behind the slick, windswept manes at Helmut Lang. First, he applied a thickening spray, then blow-dried the hair back with a round brush to create extra lift and volume. The artist rough-dried the ends for a bit of texture, and froze stray strands in place for additional drama. For the extra-soaked looks, he added a brilliant gel and applied it from root to ends, then smoothed on Bumble and bumble’s glossy oil for extra-high shine.

Jawara continued the windswept trend at Prabal Gurung by fashioning wet, piecey locks every which way. He saturated strands, from root to tip, with a strong mousse from Wella. Next, he parted the hair in three sections—running gel through a fistful of hair in the front, and swooping it behind the ear, letting a few tendrils hang loose while securing the rest at the nape of the neck in a criss-cross fashion. Lastly, he blasted the face-framing wisps with a strong-hold spray and locked in the style with a shot of air from the new Dyson Supersonic r pro dryer.

Metallica

Once again, Charlotte Tilbury’s daughter Sofia was the key makeup artist at Harris Reed. Looking at the relationship between light and shadow, the makeup artist centered her vision on making the models’s visages come to life by enveloping their eyes with gold and silver shimmer from the brand’s luxe Queen of Glow, Uptown Girl, and Rock Chick palettes. Bright swoops of the line’s K.I.S.S.I.N.G lipstick in Night Crimson was used to enliven the apple and high points of their temples and cheeks.

In the sea of Thom Browne’s gothic fairytale, there was a gilded crow (model Alex Consani) who stood out among the dark ravens. The mythical creature’s lids, cheeks, and lips were dusted with a gold pigment by the renegade makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, who even coated the lashes in the glimmering hue. To enhance its beatific aura, hairstylist James Pecis handpainted the architectural plaits, which curved upwards and outwards from its crown in a radiant, golden shade.

To fashion the celestial box buns at Christian Siriano, hairstylist Lacy Redway parted the hair down the middle and secured it into a low ponytail with an elastic. Next, she saturated the pony with a strong gel, folding the section twice onto itself, securing it with hair pins. Afterward, she decorated the center part and top of the bun with gold flecks.