We caught up with Lorde’s makeup aritst Amber Dreadon to talk about her beauty looks in the “Magnets” music video, the importance of skincare and the most modern way to wear eyeliner. 

The “Magnets” music video begins with Lorde in a relationship with a man who has another girlfriend, and ends with her throwing him into a burning pool. It’s pretty intense. What was the inspiration for the beauty looks? I think with any character role as a makeup artist I need to make sure that the looks work to complement each theme or mood. For the “Magnets” video the beauty looks needed to be reflective of the character Lorde was playing. We wanted to stick to clean beauty that began minimal but still with some edge and to build the drama as we went.

It seems like her makeup builds throughout the video as her relationship changes. Absolutely, for the scenes at the party the beauty look needed to be dramatic but not too hard, for the daytime scene in the house it needed to be more casual but we wanted to keep it looking a little sexy. The answer is always a subtle winged eye and the peaches and cream tones for the skin worked so well with the styling for that scene. Obviously the final scenes needed a whole lot of drama and Lorde really wanted me to go all out with that look.

In a few scenes Lorde is wearing a kind of reverse cat eye, with the liner coming out from her lower lash line instead of the upper. Is this the most modern way to do it? I LOVE this liner and am so happy that there were so many close ups of it in the video! I totally wanted it to feel like a new play on a traditional beauty trick so I used Charlotte Tilbury Rock ‘n’ Kohl in Bedroom Black applied directly to a Smith Cosmetics #302 Lip Brush (which is my fave for eyeliner) and started in the outer corners blending inward along the lash line making sure to fade the liner as I got toward the middle of the eye. I then used M.A.C Cosmetics Carbon Eyeshadow with a Smith Cosmetics tightliner brush to intensify the black and to diffuse the edges. To achieve this shape, its best to apply a little bit of liner while the eyes are open to mark out where the wing should be – that way you can avoid any bends or creases. I started from the lower lash line and connected it upward so it’s a little straighter than a usual winged liner. This is flattering on every eye shape!

There was a noticeable absence of Lorde’s signature dark, vampy lip. (I guess it wouldn’t have worked well with all the making out.) But there is glossy, bright red lip in the final scene. Why a red lip over a darker shade? What did you use to get that amazing high-shine? I think having some evolution year to year in everyone’s beauty look is so important. The red glossy lip isn’t something you ever really see in this context – I feel like it has a more fashion editorial vibe. The lip really helped portray her image as the powerful hit woman and it really felt like we were doing something really new for this scene. To create the lip I used Sisley Burgundy and Ruby lip pencils to shade and contour the lip adding dimension then used Sisley Rouge Lip Gloss mixed with M.A.C Cosmetics Clear Lipglass for a mega-lacquered finish. I wanted to keep the tones consistent for the whole beauty look in this scene, so went for a more red-toned eye using Charlotte Tilbury The Vintage Vamp Eyeshadow Palette which I have been using for everything lately, I love how the shadows have such a warm fire-y red base.

Lorde has been so open about the ups and downs with her skin, and it looks amazing in this video. Did you do anything special to prep her skin? Skincare is always the most important part of a makeup application for me so really focusing on what will work the best for each project is key. For this video I used my go-to prep combo of a Jurlique Rosewater Balancing Mist with Embryolisse Moisturizer face massage and then smoothed the skin using Kevyn Aucoin Skin Developer Primer. For the base I always keep it as lightweight as possible for all of my clients and use concealer to correct only where needed – keeping the face looking modern and not heavy. For “Magnets,” I used Chanel Vitalumiere Foundation applied with a beauty blender misted with Jurlique spray through the middle of the face. Clé de Peau Beauté concealer is a dream for blemishes and under-eyes, so I applied that sparingly to even the skin.