Barbara Palvin’s Red Lip Recipe

Tobi Henney is model Barbara Palvin’s longtime makeup artist. She wrote into ITG from Cannes, where she teamed up with Barbara once more for a few movie premieres. Here, she takes us through Barbara’s look from last night, which includes not one, not two, but three (!!) lipsticks. We’ll let Tobi take it from here.

Dear ITG,

I was just in Cannes with Barbara Palvin! We’ve been working together for the last seven years, and this week I flew out to prep her for a couple of events, including a movie premiere yesterday. We built her red carpet makeup around a very vampy, ombre, glossy lip Barbara saw and loved, so we went for super clean, fair skin with a really light contour to let the lips shine.

I started off the look with a lifting face massage to chisel her cheekbones and jawline. I always have the hotel bring up an ice bucket, and I keep a face roller in there until we’re ready to use it. I love the Futurewise Slug Boost Hydrating Mist and Slug Cream. Together, they really plump up the skin and create a beautiful base. They also give you a great slip for the face roller. I let them settle for a couple of minutes so her skin wasn’t too wet for the foundation.

I love to use shiny primers under foundation to create a sort of glistening skin effect. I mix a lot of things. Saie’s Glow Super Gel in Starglow works really beautifully on Barbara’s skin tone. I buffed it over the high points of her face. I also love the Westman Atelier Liquid Super Loaded Illuminator in Peau de Rosé and Chanel’s Glow Stick in Sculpting. Then I used the Chanel bronzing cream to warm up her skin.

I used a Beautyblender and the foundation brush from my collection with Trademark Beauty to buff on the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk foundation in shade 4.5. I’ve been using this foundation for years and years and it always photographs beautifully and stays on throughout the night. I also used the Dior Forever concealer in shade 2 Neutral. Barbara looks amazing with nothing on her face, so she doesn’t need much help, but I love to use it under the eyes to brighten up the area. I’m not a big fan of baking, but to make it last longer, I love to use either Pat McGrath’s under eye powder or Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless setting powder.

To build up her contour, I used the Westman Atelier Face Trace contour stick in Biscuit. I set it in place with the Anastasia Beverly Hills contour powder kit—there’s a cool brown tone that’s great. I finished it off with Charlotte Tilbury’s Filmstar Bronze & Glow in Light to Medium. I’ve been using it on Barbara for years and it’s just an old trusty favorite of mine. And I used the tiniest bit of Chanel’s lip and cheek balm in Healthy Pink very high on her cheekbones.

Once the skin was set, I went in on her brows. Barbara’s got great brows, so we kept it quite simple. I just ran an Hourglass brow pencil and clear MAC brow gel over them. Then I curled her lashes. I always use the Tweezerman ProCurl eyelash curler. On her eyelids, I actually used the Westman Atelier contour stick to create the shape that I wanted. It’s a good multi-use product. From there, I went in with the Anastasia Beverly Hills mini Sultry eyeshadow palette. I used the top right matte shadow across her eye and pulled it out, followed by the Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill mascara. I filled out the lash line with the MAC Fluidline gel eye liner using a tiny brush. Then I took it a step further with the Dark Swan of Denmark Secret 03 Feather lashes. They’re the best and give you a sort of extension effect.

During all of this, Barbara had Aquaphor on her lips to prep them for the key feature of the look. I started with the Anastasia Beverly Hills lip liner in Malt, a dark chocolate brown. I used three different ABH lipstick colors. I used Sugar Plum all over her lips, Royal Red in the center, and American Doll right in the poppy part of her lip. I topped it off with Tom Ford’s Gloss Luxe in Phantôme, which made the look so shiny on the red carpet.

She didn’t need any body makeup for the premiere, but let me just tell you: The Eleffect Tint is fantastic. I used it on Barbara the other night for a Roberto Cavalli event because her dress had some cutouts. The tint took her from very fair to very tanned in just one sitting. If you want that just-came-back-from-holiday effect, this is for you.

Owen Gould did her hair. He gave her these pretty waves using a Hot Tools iron and some extensions. I saw some LolaVie around, too. Paired with the makeup, the hair looked absolutely stunning. We were all really happy.

Love,
Tobi Henney

—As told to Daise Bedolla

Photos courtesy of Tobi Henney