From Dolce & Gabbana’s Byzantine decadence to Valentino’s interpretation of iconic Flemish portraiture and Dior’s flirtation with futurism, the Fall 2013 Ready to Wear collections were saturated with uber-creative makeup and game-changing hairstyles that were as dramatic as they are wearable. So, after spending the month skulking around backstage at some of the hottest (and coolest) shows in New York, London, Milan, and Paris, we bring you the top 10 beauty moments from this year’s “Fashion Month”. I guarantee you’ll want to add at least one of these to your beauty arsenal!

Dolce & Gabbana

The Look: Aristocratic, sophisticated and chic… a nod to vintage couture, yet modern at the same time.

The Inspiration: Byzantine cathedrals (like Monreale in Sicily) + Sophia Loren

The signature: A rich, matte red lip

The designers: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana

The makeup maestro: Pat McGrath

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

Dolce & Gabbana is synonymous with Italian beauty and they delivered again this season with dramatic winged liner, red lips and beautifully adorned updos. Pat McGrath started out by creating the illusion of flawless skin with Dolce & Gabbana’s Perfect Matte concealer and foundation. After that she lined the lips with Dolce & Gabbana Precision Lip Liner in Ruby and filled them in with two lipsticks – Dolce & Gabbana Classic Cream Lipstick in Ultra and Amethyst – which she mixed on her hand and then pressed onto the lips with her fingers for an effect that was “stained and soft, but still had strength”. A dramatic eyeliner was traced across the top lashes and winged out at the edges (Dolce & Gabbana Crayon Intense in Black, topped with Dolce & Gabbana Intense Liquid Eyeliner in Black Intense) and brows were darkened with the Dolce & Gabbana Desert Eyeshadow Quad. Final finishing touches included a ton of mascara on the top lashes and a smudge of black pencil under the lower ones.

Guido started off by spraying Redken Quick Tease 15 Backcombing Finishing Spray at the crown and then proceeded to pin strands into what he called “not a knot, not a bun” to create an egg-shape profile. To achieve this effect, he made a one-inch part, gathered the hair on either side of it in small sections and brought them back up to meet at the centre of the head in the back. The remaining hair was rolled up from the ends and secured with pins. As a finishing touch, Guido sprayed Redken Shine Flash 02 Glistening Mist over the entire ‘do, leaving the hair looking smooth and silky. The crowning touch? A crown, literally. Just the right dash of Dolce drama at work!

Bottega Veneta

The Look: A chic, gorgeous woman who straddles the line between 1940s noir femme fatales and 1970s Guy Bourdin bombshells

Inspiration: German-born actresses like Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich for the makeup + Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver for the hair

The signature: A bespoke burnt orange lip + “cloud-like” hair

The designer: Tomas Maier

The makeup maestro: Pat McGrath

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

Tomas Maier has an unwavering vision of the woman he wants to dress – right down to her makeup. For Bottega Veneta’s Fall 2013 collection, the designer sent fabric swatches to Pat McGrath as inspiration for the “matte, ultra-beautiful burnt orange” hue she created for the occasion and then patted onto the lips with a paintbrush, concentrating the colour at the center of the mouth. The strong lips were the focal point of the look – and required a perfect canvas. For this, McGrath evened the models’ complexions with a powder foundation and concealer. She also brushed power foundation over the eyelids and defined the crease with a chocolate brown eye shadow, then smudged it with her finger along the lower lash line. The idea was to create a subtle shadow that would be only slightly visible underneath the runway’s lights. Brows were “groomed to perfection”.

As for the hair, Maier wanted softness and volume to counterbalance the sexy yet serious variations on wool shift dresses and belted coats. Plus, given the number of pieces with high necks and exaggerated collars, the cloud of curls perfectly highlighted the clothes’ silhouettes. Guido prepped damp hair with Redken Guts 10 Root Targeted Volume Spray Foam before rough-drying it with his hands. Then he misted the entire head with Redken Iron Shape and dragged the edge of a fine-tooth comb through the hair to create a precise part, using the highest point of the brow’s arch as a guide. The final touch was a bobby pin above the right ear.

Chanel

The Look: The sturdy side of allure, with an aggressive edge

Inspiration: Shimmery details from the collection

The signature: Glittery platinum eyes

The designer: Karl Lagerfeld

The makeup maestro: Peter Philips

The hairstylist: Sam McKnight

When Karl Lagerfeld and Peter Philips were working out the beauty look for Chanel’s Fall presentation they knew that it had to hold its own in the vast expanse of Paris’ Grand Palais. Then the shimmery details that were worked into the collection caught Philips’ eye and the makeup blueprint was born. The makeup maestro glued jumbo-size flecks of platinum glitter (one by one) across the top lash line. He even added a few pieces to the tips of lashes: ”When you put the pieces of glitter flat on the eye, it creates a mirror reflection, which is nice. But on the lashes it has more sparkle and flashes like the facets of a diamond,” he explained. And sparkle it did!

To offset the sparkle, Philips kept the skin matte so that the eyes were the only focal point on the face. He applied Chanel Perfection Lumière Long-Wear Flawless Fluid Makeup to the girls’ skin and dusted with Chanel Poudre Universelle Libre to contrast with the shiny texture of the lids. Then he gave cheeks a soft flush using a carnation-pink cream blush called Inspiration – one of six new Chanel hues that will launch this Fall – and dabbed the matching Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Instinct on lips. As a finishing touch, Philips drew a long line of Chanel’s Le Crayon Khôl eye liner in Noir underneath the lower lashes to further ensure that models didn’t disappear in the vast space. He lined the bottom lashes with black eyeliner and extended that line straight past the outer corners. He then curled the lashes and swiped black mascara (Le Volume de Chanel) on both the top and bottom.

The hair was as covetable as the new makeup – middle-parted, natural, glossy and loosely straightened. Hairstylist Sam McKnight prepped strands with Fekkai Full Volume Mousse and blew it straight with Mason Pearson brushes (to cut down the static). He then went over it lightly with a flatiron and worked a bit of Supremo Magic Move Light into the ends. This created a luxurious texture that made the models’ strands shine as brightly as their bedazzled lashes – no small feat at the tail end of Fashion Month.

Valentino

The Look: Calm and serene with a private sensuality that’s almost spiritual and poetic – women as new Madonnas

The Inspiration: Flemish portraits like Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring

The signature: Ultra-long braids and soft focus skin

The designers: Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaulo Piccioli

The makeup maestro: Pat McGrath

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

As a first step, Guido brought out extensions to make each model’s hair the same length. ”It’s long but not vulgar long; rich-girl long,” he explained. Then, he combed the hair as he brought it over one shoulder, so it would lay really flat against the back of the head. Next, he rubbed a little Redken Diamond Oil over his fingers so that as he braided, the hair would be smooth and shiny. After securing with an elastic, he tamed flyaways with a few spritzes of Redken Fashion Work 12 hair spray. Finally, referencing the Flemish Masters, he fastened a thick black leather band around the head and over the ears for a “monastic” touch.

Pat McGrath, in the meantime, focused her attention on creating “a softness but a realness” to the face. Flawless skin was the key to achieving the pristine, painterly results, hence she applied foundation and concealer where necessary. To give skin an ethereal glow, she added a touch of blush and lots of highlighter to areas where the light naturally bounces off skin. The eyes were kept ”very natural, very beautiful”, with beige eye shadow on the lids and a slightly darker taupe shadow in the creases. Highlighter was important here as well: McGrath used a reflective pearly shadow on the inner corners of the eyes before finishing with a little brown mascara at the base of the lashes. In keeping with the rest of the look, lips were kept soft and natural – an effect created by tapping them with concealer and adding a sheer lip balm. Finally, she applied a thin layer of foundation over the top of the makeup to mute the whole look and reinforce the painterly effect.

Emilio Pucci

The Look: The eternal fun-loving free-spirited Pucci girl… think of a happy, carefree Brigitte Bardot in Saint-Tropez.

The Inspiration: London during the Swinging ’60s

The signature: Heavy fringe

The designer: Peter Dundas

The makeup maestro: Lisa Butler for MAC Cosmetics

The hairstylist: Luigi Murenu

Luigi created the perfect rock-chic hair – slightly bed-headed with a heavy fringe. To achieve the effect, Shu Uemura Ample Angora Volumizing Light Foam was added to half-dried, extension-laden hair. A one-inch curling iron was then run through and ends were left straight. After middle-parting, the bang extensions were applied and cut shorter in the middle, longer at the temples.

Since Murenu’s bangs covered most of the models’ eyes, makeup artist Lisa Butler emphasized a beige-toned lip. She used MAC’s Lip Pencils in Oak and Cork to draw under the bottom lip for affecting a larger pout. Then she sharply defined the “V” of the Cupid’s bow and highlighted the outer lip corners before smudging all the lines with MAC’s Stormy Pink Pro Longwear Paint Pot. “Luminous but matte” skin was prepped with MAC’s Mineralize Satinfinish and Butler “spotted-in” freckles across the nose and cheeks with the Oak and Cork Lip Pencils. After this, she darkened the top lash line with MAC’s Feline Kohl powder liner and ran black liner inside the eye “so that there’s no flesh left in there”. This was followed by MAC’s Pure White Chromagraphic Pencil in the waterline and the frosty-hued Plum Dandy Lipstick on eyelids. Finally, Butler applied Number Four fake lashes and coated them with mascara.

Isabel Marant

The Look: Effortlessly chic and well groomed

The Inspiration: The quintessential French woman

The signature: Natural-yet-flawless skin

The designer: Isabel Marant

The makeup maestro: Tom Pecheux for Estée Lauder

The hairstylist: Paul Hanlon

“We’re spending 25 minutes on the skin… and five minutes on the makeup,” laughed Tom Pecheux, who massaged a combination of Estée Lauder Idealist Pore Minimizing Skin Refinisher and Revitalizing Supreme Global Anti-Aging in Creme into the models’ skin to prep the canvas. Then, after smoothing on a thin layer of foundation, he dusted a veil of the brand’s Lucidity Translucent Loose Powder over the face for a “matte satin” finish, following it with a swirly combination of two soft powder pigments (Pure Color Blush in Sensuous Rose and Blushing Nude) in the hollows of the cheeks. Following the French theme, Pecheux gave models a full “bushy groomed” brow using Artist’s Brow Pencil (“it’s a very Paris thing”) but skipped mascara altogether. Instead, he used a thin line of metallic gray shadow (from the Pure Color Instant Intense Eye Shadow Trio in Smoked Chrome) along the upper lash lines to catch the light and make eyes look “healthy”. He finished by dabbing a creamy nude lipstick (Pure Color Long Lasting Lipstick in Vanilla Truffle) on the mouth, then dotting a slightly deeper shade (Pure Color Vivid Shine Lipstick in Gilded Honey) in the centre for a voluptuous effect.

The Francophile theme carried through to the hair: “If you look at pictures of French [icons] like Jane Birkin in the sixties, there’s something about the quality of the hair… that heaviness, the feeling that it’s very well conditioned,” said hairstylist Paul Hanlon. To conjure that effect – along with a “real girl” sensibility – he used Frédéric Fekkai Full Volume Mousse in dry hair, then added a soft bend with a large-barrel curling iron. Afterward, he shook it out with his fingers and gave it a healthy shine using a combination of Fekkai Silky Straight Ironless serum and Bumble & Bumble Brilliantine spray.

Prada

The Look: Raw elegance

Inspiration: Mid-century glamour

The signature: Wet hair

The designer: Miuccia Prada

The makeup maestro: Pat McGrath

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

Stringy strands never looked so sexy.“It’s almost that idea of stepping out of the shower and putting on a really expensive dress and walking out the door. Kind of bourgeois but not bourgeois,” explained Guido Palau. He used a mixture of Redken’s Guts Volume Spray Foam and Diamond Oil Shine Serum to give strands a tangled, damp finish without actually saturating them with water.

As for the makeup, smoky eyes were created with a greasy-like gray paint and a matte raspberry hue was pressed into the lips with the pads of Pat McGrath’s fingers then wiped away. “We’re even applying mascara and then pressing the lashes into the lids while they’re still wet to smear it a bit,” she said. Just before the models stepped onto the runway, McGrath dabbed Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream onto their lids for a glossy, wet-eyed effect – almost like they had been caught in a torrential downpour, which makes perfect sense in conjunction with the hair.

Nina Ricci

The Look: A classical, delicate sweet-hued romanticism merging with the cut and thrust of urban life that simmers with sexual tension

The Inspiration: Ballet dancers and their lives on and off the stage

The signature: Bold brows + super-matte skin

The designer: Peter Copping

The makeup maestro: Pat McGrath

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

At Nina Ricci, Pat McGrath went with bold brows and an even bolder matte orangey-red lip – a colour she lifted from Peter Copping’s gorgeous, uber-feminine collection. The skin was also super-matte. ”It’s a nod to the theater, and that’s what makes the girls look like performers – the fact that their skin is powdered,” she explained.

In the meantime, Guido whirled and twirled the hair into soft, romantic updos that peeked out above ribbed headbands. “It’s not a chignon, or a bun, or a knot really. It’s as if a dancer just twisted up her hair and pinned it,” he explained. The prep work was equally nonchalant: Guido raked Redken Guts 10 Root Targeted Volume Spray Foam, a volumizing foam, through clean, damp hair before blow-drying it, “just to give the hair some hold and grip”.

Gareth Pugh

The Look: Dark and edgy… melancholia meets futurism

The Inspiration: A contemporary tribe of extremely tough women called the Asgarda, who live in the Carpathian Mountains and want autonomy from men + mid-century couture

The signature: Sooty makeup

The designer: Gareth Pugh

The makeup maestro: Alex Box for MAC Cosmetics

The hairstylist: Martin Cullen

“I really wanted to echo this idea of someone who’s leaving, feeling, escaping. Somebody gathering up all these under skirts and running from a chateau that’s burning. She’s a regal woman at the beginning of the night, it’s baroque and perfect, but then this fire consumes her and she’s smoldering and singed from the inside – everything is pale as if she’s consumed by smoke. Everything is quite feral,” explains Alex Box. To achieve the effect, Alex used MAC Strobe Cream as a base on the model’s faces to give them a touch of blue iridescence. Then he applied MAC Camel Coat on the lips and added a bit of MAC Soot in the corners of the mouth. Haunting. Or haunted?

Christian Dior

The Look: Surrealism meets Pop

The Inspiration: A woman the 1950s reinterpreted in a futuristic aesthetic + early Warhol illustrations

The signature: Graphic silver eye liner

The designer: Raf Simons

The makeup maestro: Alex Box for MAC Cosmetics

The hairstylist: Guido Palau for Redken

“We’re almost making the models’ faces into those early Warhol illustrations, with the pale pastel colours and slight areas just filled in,” explained Alex, referencing several pieces in the collection that featured early Warhol illustrations. She decorated the eyelids with three stripes of wet silver eye shadow pigment (Diorshow Mono Fusion in Étoile #21) – one across the top lashes, one under the lower lashes, and one in the inner corners. On the lips she painted a gorgeous pink shade (Rouge Dior lipstick in Darling) that was muted with concealer around the outer edges. The rest of the makeup was all about perfect skin and highlighted cheekbones, using Dior’s Skinflash Primer.

To complement this look, Guido created a hairstyle that was equally clean and crisp, taking a classic Dior-style hairdo and making it modern with a wet finish. Simons “didn’t want it to look like couture hair,” said Guido. “He wanted it to feel like a new texture and like the girls had maybe been caught in the rain.” So, the master hairstylist opted for a texture he’s been playing around with all season: wet and hyper-glossy. To create the effect, he used a combination of shine-enhancing products, starting with Redken Diamond Oil raked through from root to tip. Then he sprayed Redken Control Addict 28, a strong-hold hair spray, that shellacked the hair in place and gave it a glossy sheen. Voila!