Listen, I get it: Everyone’s going to be talking about the dress Cardi B wore to the 2024 Met Gala because it’s major. Its circumference would take up an entire studio apartment, and its billowing, black ruffles look a bit like a portal is opening to a dark dimension. And that turban-like mesh headpiece? There’s simply nothing else like it on the carpet. But please, for the love of all things holy, zoom in on Cardi’s face, because her makeup is not to be missed.
Within a sea of black ruffles is lots of gorgeous emerald and diamond jewelry: a bracelet, earrings, and a necklace with one of the biggest emeralds we’ve ever seen dangling from a neck. Cardi’s go-to makeup artist, Erika La’ Pearl, kept with that gorgeous green theme in her makeup, and even her eyeballs.
“We wanted to focus on green and tie into the overall theme of the Garden of Time.” La’ Pearl tells Allure of Cardi’s eye makeup, which includes positively glowing lower liner in a vibrant green. “To bring this color to life in the beauty look, we opted for emerald contacts and emerald-tone shadows from the NYX Professional Makeup Ultimate Utopia palette. We layered in a signature wing for a glamorous yet soft makeup look.”
Although her eyes are grabbing a ton of attention, La’ Pearl made sure every aspect of her makeup looked flawless. “In addition to eyes, we honed in on a new blush technique,” she says, referring to highly pigmented blush. “For this particular look, we incorporated a lot more than usual and thoughtfully smudged and blurred it out for a more dramatic effect.”