Cannes-do midlife beauty
From wet-look hair to nude lips, the news and looks to love from Le Croisette.
Bienvenue to new subscribers of The Midlife Beauty Edit! As promised, we’re closing the week with a Cannes red carpet edition.
This week, Le Croisette was awash with wet gel, beachy waves and Prada shades.
And behind the scenes, Dior Beauty opened the doors to The Dior Suite at the Majestic Hotel for the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where stars checked in for pre-Opening Ceremony makeovers, massages and treatments - including facials incorporating the new Dior Lucibel LED mask.
It’s also available for home use, for a cool £3, 400.
This year, for the first time, Dyson has provided the tech for the hair styling teams in the suite. And there has certainly been plenty of waving and tonging going on, as seen at the Met Gala last week.
But first, can we talk about the wet-look?
For the opening ceremony, Greta Gerwig’s hair was as glossy as her sequins.
Her slicked back, deep-parted style is a great example of how to work the look in a modern way, teamed with a smoky eye and strong brows.
The strong eye makeup was balanced with a neutral lip, with a touch of shine.
So, not so much this:
The tucked-behind-the-ears style put the spotlight on her sparkling drop earrings.
Paris-based hair stylist John Nollet, assisted by Pierrick Sellenet, showed how the wet-look can work for all lengths, on Juliette Binoche.
How to pull off the look? Apply something like Boots Wet Look Gel (£3.50) to towel-dried hair, or to dry hair for a speedy, day-to-night style turnaround.
Use fingertips to mould hair into shape, scrunching natural curls and waves.
As this is a look that works best when left to air-dry, avoiding heat damage, it’s a great one for midlife hair that’s feeling fragile. After Cannes, I feel a wet-look summer styling how-to incoming - watch this space!
Curls, waves and texture
There was lots of natural-looking texture, French-style, on Le Croisette, with curls and waves left au naturel.
Naomi Campbell looked incredible with her centre-parted style (she was wearing a Chanel couture dress that she first wore on the runway in 1996).
Spanish actress and producer Elsa Pataky’s loose, naturally wavy up-do worked beautifully with her black gown, loosely pinned so that a few pieces were left to fall freely around her face.
On day two of the festival, Greta switched things up and went for a textured, wavy look and red lip.
A quick, related link: you don’t come across hair tutorials for air-drying waves and curls that often. So I was captivated by this how-to by @bellabranchdiy, which involves minimal use of a diffuser dryer and curling tongs.
Heidi Klum’s long, tonged waves.
The low bun
A chic alternative to an up-do, Emmanuelle Béart and Meryl Streep both went with low buns, secured at the nape of the neck.
Emmanuelle’s style was also the handiwork of stylist John Nollet.
Before doing her quick change for the Opening Ceremony, Meryl posed for photos in a Panama and shades (loved the hoops, too).
Glowing makeup
Glowing, lightly bronzed skin and nude lips were a popular choice. Makeup artist Soo Park was responsible for Helena Christensen’s red carpet look.
(You can watch her hair stylist, Owen Gould, transforming Helena’s hair here — and ironing her hair ribbon with the GHDs).
Eva Gaëlle Green and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan both wore a nude-coloured lipstick for The Opening Ceremony.
Aishwarya wore a pinky-nude lip colour and liner combo.
And Wu Ke-Xi partnered with Chanel for the red carpet. All her makeup was Chanel - down to her red carpet nails, which were painted in Le Venius N°143 Diva.
You can watch a behind-the-scenes below.
See you on Monday! A huge thank you to everyone who has been liking (just hitting the ❤️ lets Substack know, and more likely to spread the word) and sharing The Midlife Beauty Edit.
Bon week-end!
Wow, this has inspired me to try the wet look !! Thanks so much for this Jen! ❤️
A feast for the eyes- so much fun to see all of these midlife beauties shining bright! Jury still out on the wet look, though!