Basics need not apply: The beauty trends at London Fashion Week were not for the faint of heart

by Lesa Hannah September 22, 2015

A photo posted by ValGarland (@thevalgarland) on Sep 20, 2015 at 1:07am PDT

London Fashion Week is traditionally a hotbed for WTF beauty moments (four words: Vivienne Westwood Red Label), but even when it’s not completely crazy, it’s a city that’s rife with strong beauty statements. For Spring 2016, it was all about bright pops of colour on the eyes and bold matte mouths.

Having already appeared a few times in New York, blue is continuing its streak across the pond. At Mary Katrantzou, Lucia Pieroni coated middle lashes on top and bottom in clumpy blue mascara for “odd doll eyes” and later that day at Jonathan Saunders, encircled eyes all the way around with electric blue pigment. Meanwhile, Andrew Gallimore dipped into astro turf green and rendered them glossy at Holly Fulton.

Makeup artists also brought some major heft to their lipstick game. Hannah Murray’s red lipstick at Topshop Unique were purposely made to look like the girls had applied it themselves and paired it with smudged mascara and liner. For the striking oxblood mouths at Burberry, Wendy Rowe blotted one coat of lipstick, added a second layer and then used a Q-Tip to soften the edges. And Lucia Pieroni traced subtly overdrawn matte crimson lips at Giles that were intended to be slightly Elizabethan.

But we can’t not call out Gareth Pugh, surely the ultimate WTF of this LFW. In what was practically a collision of the aforementioned trends, cartoonish eyes and lips were painted over nylon stockings that covered models’ faces. It was surreal, bizarre and terrifying all at once.

Browse the gallery below to see the most memorable beauty moments of London Fashion Week.