Inside Gucci’s “Love Parade” Beauty Looks, From the Glittery Lids to Heart-Shaped Beauty Marks

Backstage at Gucci, makeup artist Thomas de Kluyver hinted at Hollywood glamour while keeping it fresh and modern.

Inside Gucci’s “Love Parade” Beauty Looks, From the Glittery Lids to Heart-Shaped Beauty Marks

For all its glamour, Hollywood—both the industry and the Los Angeles neighborhood—has always possessed a certain undercurrent of eclectic grit. And nowhere is that combination more apparent than on Hollywood Boulevard, where the sparkling marquis of iconic theaters and the star-encrypted Walk of Fame coexist with seedy tourist shops and wax museums.

So it was fitting then, that for Spring 2022, Gucci would take over an entire stretch of that very boulevard to showcase its Hollywood-inspired Love Parade collection—a glitzy-gritty mash-up of shiny power suits, oversized furs, boudoir slip dresses, western hats, and tiaras. And even more fitting that the beauty looks would follow suit.

“The collection is really inspired by Hollywood throughout all the eras—it’s very much encompassing of LA as a whole,” explains Thomas de Kluyver, Global Makeup Consultant for Gucci Beauty. “There’s been so many iconic Hollywood moments, but we wanted to create a new Hollywood; to take inspiration from the past and connect it with things from popular culture that felt very modern.”

To that end, de Kluyver wanted to hint at glamour while keeping it fresh—nothing too matte or refined. Skin was left nearly bare—first prepped with Gucci Sérum de Beauté primer, then perfected with just a touch of Fluide de Beauté Fini Naturel foundation—to allow each models’ natural glow to shine and unique features to show through. “People are using makeup as a form of self expression; it’s really about creating your own identity,” de Kluyver says of the approach. “We did not want to give every single model the same look.”

Still, there were plenty of throughlines to connect the dots. In a nod to original 1930’s blonde bombshell Jean Harlow—“but still a bit futuristic”—brows were bleached and left undefined. Lipstick was blended high on the cheekbones in blurry washes and blotted onto the mouth in shades of either pale peach (210 Julie Pink), black (700 Crystal Blac), or classic crimson (25 Goldie Red) using a wide brush, then finished with a reflective smear of Éclat De Beauté Effet Lumière gloss. (Lipstick truly had a starring role; prior to the show, guests were sent a tube of the brand’s signature 25* Goldie Red Rouge à Lèvres Satin Lipstick along with their sealed-with-a-kiss invites.) And on eyes, de Kluyver blended up to four shades from the Palette Beaute Des Yeux Eyeshadow Palette to create a shimmery wash that’s “almost its own new color” all the way up to the barely-there brow before anchoring it all with Stylo Contour Des Yeux Khol Eyeliner in Anthracite and a double coat of Mascara L’Obscur in Eve Black on top and bottom lashes to create a wide-eyed, ingenue effect.

But as is so often the case in Hollywood, the very best appearance was actually a cameo: the heart-shaped spots that de Kluyver hand-drew on some models using Stylo Contour des Yeux Eyeliner in Black as a finishing touch. “Rather than the classic beauty spot, we wanted to do little love bombs. Playful, cute,” he says. And like the show’s setting, glamorous—but also just a little gritty.