By Kiekie Stanners

The SS25 runway season from New York, London, Milan and Paris has now wrapped and if you’re anything like me, the 6 monthly sprinkle of backstage beauty gets me so excited to see hair and makeup looks that both inspire or take you away to a world of fantasy that only catwalk can conjure up.

This season was not shy in giving us hair and beauty references - makeup in fashion is back, and hair adornments aplenty!

The major players in the beauty circuit were back, and this season more than ever staying true to their own signature style of beauty: Pat McGrath with her refined elegance and perfectionism in makeup, Yadim and his artistic stroke of a makeup brush, Guido Palau and his mastery with wigs and Sam McKnight with his meticulous blowouts. But also lovely to see so many up-and-coming hair and makeup directors in the hot seat and pushing fresh, new brands forward.

Whether you are inspired by new updates on classic beauty, or looks that verge on the edgy end of the spectrum (of which there was a lot this season) here is our breakdown of SS25 beauty lewks!

An abundance of choppy, fringey wigs were everywhere this season. Part goth, part ultimate sleek sophistication, hair directors were pulling out the black, blunt bobs at a variety of shows.

At Christian Cowan, short rounded bobs were seen on all models, just skimming the ears and painted on eyebrows. A mix of this similar style and cut was seen at Marni by Paul Hanlon, creating individualised beauty moments for all the girls.

At Versace, Guido added blunt fringes, or razor-sharp bobs onto a handful of models, intermixed with bowl cuts to just skim the eyes and highlight the crimson feature lip.

With L’Agence hair director Liz Rim created choppy shoulder-length wigs on everyone, creating a unified army of L’Agence girls with bold black liner, absolutely adding a grungy layer to what would normally be a safe, feminine collection.

Black liner will always make an appearance backstage, in some shape or form, and this season it was seen in an unconventional manner.

Most notably at Marni, where makeup director Yadim created bespoke looks on each model including exaggerated brows, cartoon-like graphic eyes and not-there eyebrows. Love it or hate it, it definitely made an aggressive beauty statement that Marni is not usually known for.

Gucci gave us triangular winged liner, and Luar took the tattoo print featured on garments and replicated it across the eyelid (completed with snakeskin print stuck on brows).

At both Coach and Bottega Veneta, Pat created customised looks on all girls, with tiny love-heart details on the inner corners of the eyes at Coach, and a double liner look on some of the models at Bottega.

A statement lip isn’t going anywhere, mainly teamed with a totally nude eye and spa-fresh skin.

The beauty look that really took a chokehold over me this season was Ferrari Style - the deep glossy crimson lip, and metallic gold eyes paired against a collection of burnt orange, mahogany and caramel showed a creative director (Rocco Lannone) who knows what he likes - so luxe!

At Chopova Lowena a painterly feature lip took centre stage, and the return of black lipstick was seen at many shows - most notably the black glossy lip at Prada, created by Prada Beauty Global Creative Makeup Artist Lynsey Alexander. Which she has stated that they worked for 4 days straight prior to the show on beauty trials to nail the look for this season!

Dolce and Gabbana gave a two-toned 90’s supermodel lip care of Pat this season, to compliment the dolly blonde wigs on each model.

Oh la la! Chalky pastels have made a statement, either on eyes or lips, and sometimes both.

At All In Studio, Thomas DeKluyver created customised pastels for each model - some just eyes, some both an eye and lip combo featuring dreamy lilacs, mint green, dusty coral-peach lips or baby doll pink.

Harris Reed teamed a matte pastel eye with chunky black lashes, courtesy of Charlotte Tilbury. At Sandy Liang, the shade of pastel pink lip wasn’t far from the 2007 obsession with MAC Snob lipstick and so beautifully matched the fabrics in the collection.

For Alaia, Pat created tonal beams across the eyes in shades of cream, nude, and chalky white extending out to the temples, like light beams across the face. And Richard Quinn we saw a muted hue of pink on the lips, a custom blend mixed up by the makeup wizard Terry Barber.

Adding the spring into Spring/Summer collections was the abundance of floral adornments in the hair.

Gigantic florals set side of face at La Quan Smith set the mood in New York, followed by giant rays of sunshine placed in chignons at Carolina Herrera.

Harris Reed showed floral headpieces matching garments at his London FW showing, whilst at Alice and Olivia tiny flower buds were placed in intricate buns like lovely little spring gardens.

Where would we be without a little glitter moment on the runway, and as always Pat brings it in bucketloads of style.

Out of the many custom looks at Loewe, one feature saw gold glitter adorned eyelids up over the brows, and also a razor-sharp silver glitter liner.

Again at Bottega, amongst the variety of makeup looks on models, some were embellished in gold or silver false lashes with a matching wrap-around liner.

But one of the standout shows in beauty this season was Chopova Lowena, the amount of exciting and intricate makeup looks this show presented was outstanding. From embellished crystals, electric pastel-painted eyes, dark gothic lips and graphic eyeliner to body-painted knees and metal floral headpieces, it was the show for beauty lovers. Showing that crystals and sparkles aren’t going anywhere in beauty anytime soon.