Ayo Edebiri's Makeup Artists Explains How She Created Her Dewy Look
Skincare is the new makeup hack.
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.
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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.
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Gabrielle Ulubay is a Beauty Writer at Marie Claire. She has also written about sexual wellness, politics, culture, and fashion at Marie Claire and at publications including The New York Times, HuffPost Personal, Bustle, Alma, Muskrat Magazine, O'Bheal, and elsewhere. Her personal essay in The New York Times' Modern Love column kickstarted her professional writing career in 2018, and that piece has since been printed in the 2019 revised edition of the Modern Love book. Having studied history, international relations, and film, she has made films on politics and gender equity in addition to writing about cinema for Film Ireland, University College Cork, and on her personal blog, gabrielleulubay.medium.com. Before working with Marie Claire, Gabrielle worked in local government, higher education, and sales, and has resided in four countries and counting. She has worked extensively in the e-commerce and sales spaces since 2020, and spent two years at Drizly, where she developed an expertise in finding the best, highest quality goods and experiences money can buy.
Deeply political, she believes that skincare, haircare, and sexual wellness are central tenets to one's overall health and fights for them to be taken seriously, especially for people of color. She also loves studying makeup as a means of artistic expression, drawing on her experience as an artist in her analysis of beauty trends. She's based in New York City, where she can be found watching movies or running her art business when she isn't writing. Find her on Twitter at @GabrielleUlubay or on Instagram at @gabrielle.ulubay, or follow her art at @suburban.graffiti.art
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