The best part about Oscars Sunday is that after you go to bed thinking it’s all said and done, you wake up the following morning to even more red-carpet outfits and beauty looks to browse, thanks to the Vanity Fair Oscars After-Party.
One beautiful beauty look that caught our eye was the bright, blue smoky eye Mindy Kaling paired with her center part and extremely reflective dress. “It’s such a fine line between a beautiful, subtle blue eye and looking like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show,” Kaling said in a behind-the-scenes Instagram video. “Really funny actress, but such a tough look, so I was like Janice, find a happy medium, and I think she did.”
The Cut caught up with the aforementioned Janice Kinjo, Kaling’s makeup artist, to learn how to get the look in real life and pick up a few bonus makeup tips for deep skin tones along the way.
How far in advance did you plan this look? Did Mindy have any input?
I actually did Mindy’s makeup the night before for parties, so I got to see her dress. She said, “I would love to do some sort of blue with this,” and I thought that was such a great idea. I already had the shade of blue in my mind and she left the rest up to me. Then she was really worried because she rarely wears color on her eyes, but I told her to trust me. Since the dress was so bedazzled, I put all the focus on the eyes.
Where does one begin when creating a look like this?
Skin prep is so, so important. That’s the actual “foundation” of glowy skin in a look. I started with AVYA’s Anti-Aging Power Serum with vitamin C to really get the moisture going in her skin. Then, I set it with the the AVYA Night Moisturizer, because that’s richer and will get you even more of a glow than the day one would. Both products have a really great blend of peony, neem, and turmeric that targets uneven skin tone in melanin-rich skin tones. Then I topped her under-eye area with the AVYA Eye Bright Cream with caffeine to moisturize before starting the whole makeup process.
I always start with eyes so I don’t have to go back and redo anything due to shadow fallout. The metallic in her dress inspired the colors I chose, which were two from Kevyn Aucoin’s Electropop Pro Eyeshadow Palette: Impulse and Hardwire. I mixed both to create a blue, almost teal smoky eye. Then I added Ardell Demi-Wisp lashes to make her eyes pop even more and lined them with Dior Waterproof Eyeliner to pull it all together. For the brows, I just added a few strokes of M.A.C’s brow pencil in Stud, which is a perfect match for her hair color.
For foundation, I used my favorite foundation, Armani Beauty’s Luminous Silk and did a mix of 7.5 & 8.5. Then, I used Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Self Setting Concealer in 45 to highlight under her eyes and to shape the brows. For blush, I love orangey-tangerine color blushes on melanin-rich tones, so I used NARS’s Exhibit A. It’s super orange when you look at it, but trust me, it’s perfect for making skin pop. Lastly, I colored in her entire lip in with Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in Hex and added a little Bobbi Brown Lipstick in Brownie on top to add some creaminess and dewiness.
Did you use any highlighter?
Actually, at the last moment I decided I wanted even more sheen so I added a touch of the AVYA serum on top of her cheekbones, instead of using any actual highlighter. Skin-care products leave this nice sheen that’s much easier to control because it really sinks in. Once she got to the red carpet, it was the perfect natural-looking highlight I wanted.
How long did the entire look take to create?
It was pretty quick — I’ve been working with Mindy for a quite a few years now so we have our timing down really well. We had an hour and a half, but we finished in an hour.
Were you two listening to any getting-ready music during the process?
Ariana Grande. It was a combo of an Ariana Grande playlist on Spotify and Sam Smith’s new song Dancing With a Stranger.
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