Glamour with a hint of '90s grunge is the makeup look that will be everywhere this season

Today, there's still fanfare around beauty secrets from the golden age of Hollywood and makeup that sits in either the classically pretty or the avant-garde camp. But what if beauty's new mood refuses to be neatly defined and the answer lies somewhere in between?

Enter high-octane glamour, sprinkled with a touch of indie sleaze. Inspired by 'new Hollywood' and the love affair with '90s grunge seen across the spring/summer 2023 runways, this is the new middle ground, where makeup is glossy and expressive – yet still unfiltered and infinitely wearable.

Mixing and matching neutral shades and then pairing them with black eyeliner adds a modern edginess to a classic nude makeup look. Don't worry about being too precise, though. "The warmth from your fingers, combined with gentle blending and buffing with brushes, will do the trick," says makeup artist Mette Schou, who created the looks in this shoot. Specifically, use your fingers to apply gloss over the lids for a worn-in, post-party vibe. "The Chanel Multi-Use Illuminating Eye Gloss adds to that lived-in, glowy look," says Schou. "Or use the old school Hollywood staple, Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, to create a dewy sheen with a hint of colour."

Consider this look the antithesis of sharp cut creases and precise cat eye flicks. Here, black eyeliner looks finger-smudged into the lids while a glossy shade of burgundy on the lips is the quickest way to add polish and drama to the ensemble. A swipe of pink blusher "adds softness to the hard look," says Schou, and keeps everything from swerving too far into Wednesday Addams gothic territory.

No makeup product is more timeless than red lipstick. But rather than a traditional opaque mouth, this high-shine version kicks up the cool factor a notch. "Use a red pencil around the lipline and to fill in the whole lip," says Schou. "Then apply lipstick and blot with a tissue before adding another layer. Finish with a thin coat of gloss over the top." Then, make like the French and wear your red lip on a next-to-natural, nearly bare face.

It's an old-school Hollywood trick: swipe an ice cube over the skin to dial down puffiness around the eyes and create a taut and defined cheekbone and jawline. This sub-zero approach to contouring has been upgraded to cryotherapy-inspired ice globes. But for an even more elevated approach, apply a sheet mask saturated in hydrating ingredients first. The occlusive nature of a sheet masks decreases water evaporation and creates dewy, almost translucent skin that mimics a gleaming sheet of glass.

Blusher isn't just for the rosy apples of the cheeks anymore. Instead, 'draping' the colour over the high points of the cheekbones sculpts the face in much the same way as a jade roller, giving the illusion of an instant facelift, says Schou. Not to mention the flush is so impossibly ethereal it looks straight out of Sofia Coppola's masterpiece, The Virgin Suicides.

High-shine skin perfectly complements chrome lipstick. A less shimmery manifestation of 90s frosted lipstick, chrome lips are near-holographic, so intense are the light-reflecting pigments. Here, Schou blended cream highlighter with burgundy lipstick, applying the mixture with a brush to create an oil-slick effect that borders on startling. "Wear it with a neutral eye for extra impact," she adds.