What a banner 12 months for Quinta Brunson. Her banger TV present, Abbott Elementary, stuffed the feel-good, primetime sitcom gap in our hearts (The youngsters! Principal Coleman! The deadpans!). However watching her off digicam was much more enjoyable, with the infamous “instructor styling” gone and “holy crap wow styling” as an alternative (please see exhibit A, B, and C). This 12 months’s Met Gala continued her styling streak, with Quinta carrying an Atelier Prabal Gurung robe and a braided updo anchored by cascading child hairs. However it was her eye make-up that caught our, um, eyes essentially the most, so we talked to Quinta’s make-up artist for the night time, Jessica Smalls, to listen to how she did it. Right here’s what Jessica needed to say:

“We began off the day with 90’s R&B music. It was an enormous sing-a-long. Nostalgic. And never earlier than lengthy, everybody was feeling good. Earlier than I began the make-up, I gave Quinta 111 Pores and skin’s Celestial Black Diamond eye patches to depuff.

For her eyes, I used City Decay’s eyeshadow primer and rimmed Quinta’s eyes with Glossier’s No. 1 Pencil in Black. Then I used a agency eyeshadow brush to press the matte pink shadow from Natasha Denona’s Love Palette into the inside nook of her eyes. You don’t wish to use a fluffy brush to use matte eyeshadow–fluffy brushes kick it up and mud it all around the eye. You want one thing that’s agency and can press the eyeshadow into the lid—I used the 02 brush from Rephr. Then, utilizing the 15 brush from Rephr, I blended the pink colour out with the matte rose colour within the Glossier Heather Monochromes palette. I used the black liner once more and gave her a mushy elongated, subtle liner to intensify the outer nook of her eyes. I completed her eyes off with Glossier’s black liquid liner and Lilly Lashes Fake Mink lashes.”

And as for her lips, Jessica says: “I lined Quinta’s lips with Make-up by Mario’s liner in Jeff and used Glossier’s G Swimsuit Lipstick in Lane, adopted by Glossier’s Lip Gloss in Clear for a juicy pout.

The look took an hour and a half. I used to be going gradual and needed to be tremendous intentional about all the pieces I did as a result of it’s such an enormous night time and cameras are all over the place. And I additionally needed the expertise to be relaxed and chill because it was her first time [at the Met Gala]. I needed her to have the ability to look again and say ‘I began my Met Gala off sturdy.’”

—as instructed to ITG

Photograph through Jessica Smalls