The beauty internet has spent this summer working through the output of one makeup artist. Ernesto Casillas, based in Los Angeles, has worked with Jennifer Lopez and Doja Cat, but it is the run of looks he built for Zendaya's Odyssey press tour that went round repeatedly and produced the phrase people are now attaching to the season.
Every look starts with the dress
Casillas is clear that the process runs in one direction. The makeup is drawn from the clothes, whether that means picking up a colour, echoing a texture, or reacting against an absence of colour by putting some on the eyes.
The instruction he gives himself is not to be literal about it. The look nods at the theme rather than illustrating it, and the decisions are made collaboratively with everyone bringing ideas to the table.
How the smoky eye was built
They had done a darker eye before, but not this one. The reference was a 2000s runway supermodel: heavily blown out, diffused, contoured, rather than tightly drawn.
His method is unglamorous. Start with a jet black liner creamy enough to blend but stable enough to stay, work it all the way around the eye, then break it up with a shadow. From there you build with medium tones and only bring in the darkest at the end.
On the skin underneath, his advice is to use less. A matte foundation, buffed in properly, and not much of it.
On the rule that is not a rule
Asked whether the no mascara idea is worth following, Casillas declines to make it a commandment. Everyone should do what they are comfortable with, he says, and rules are silly.
What he will say is that skipping mascara is a good way to put the emphasis on skin and give the lashes a rest. His own preference at the moment runs to a sun kissed, blushed face.
What comes next
The Spider-Man looks run darker than what came before, weighted toward the eyes with sculpted skin. The Odyssey, by contrast, was lighter and more ethereal. Same face, two different arguments.