Dascha Polanco's Front Row Beauty Look Renders Her Almost Unrecognizable

She debuted faux bleached brows in Luar's front row.

Dascha Polanco attends the Luar fashion show during New York Fashion Week on February 13, 2024 in New York City.
(Image credit: Gotham/GC Images)

Dascha Polanco, known for portraying Dayanara "Daya" Diaz on Orange is the New Black, typically plays up her dark features and sharp bone structure with nude and mauve lips. Attending Luar's New York Fashion Week runway show last night, the actress disrupted her beauty routine with an entirely new look—one that changed her appearance in ways fans haven't seen before.

Polanco's beauty transformation had several components worthy of a double take. She swapped her lighter lipsticks for a deep red shade with a hint of ombré on the inner part of her lower lip, accentuating her prominent Cupid's bow and subtly overlining her full lips. She coated her eyes in bright, silvery eyeshadow with serious Y2K energy. And, most dramatic of all, she covered her strong eyebrows in makeup with a bleach-like effect.

Dascha Polanco attends the Luar fashion show during New York Fashion Week on February 13, 2024 in New York City.

Dascha Polanco makes a major change in her makeup routine while attending the Luar show at New York Fashion Week.

(Image credit: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Polanco's light brows transformed her face, playing up the contrast between her eyes and her darkly painted lips. She also channeled runway looks worn everywhere from the models Pat McGrath styled for Maison Margiela's Artisanal Spring/Summer 2024 show to Kendall Jenner and Irina Shayk's various fashion month runway looks. Faux bleached brows are also gaining traction off the catwalk. Most recently, Julia Fox wore hers to New York Fashion Week with frosty blue-white eyeshadow and icy white hair.

Polanco's standout beauty didn't stop at her concealed brows. She also wore bright pink blush on the apples of her cheeks, rounded out in a 1930s-esque style. She then topped the look off with a gemstone on the upper left corner of her mouth—a subtle embellishment reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe's beauty mark.

The lesson? Polanco showed the magic that happens when celebrities step out of their routines and try something new. The more unexpected, the better. Below, shop products inspired by Polanco's dramatic look.

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Gabrielle Ulubay
Beauty Writer

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