People say that springtime in Paris is the best time of year. Yes, flowers are blooming, but it’s still cool enough to start your day with a warm croissant and a café au lait before going to a lot of museums in the afternoon. In this case, you’ll also find a lot of ideas for spring 2026 makeup looks.
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The Musée d’Orsay is a great place to start your day. The dreamy, impressionistic paintings by Monet and Van Gogh will give you cloud-like blush and ballet slipper-pink lips. Toulouse-Lautrec’s passionate lovers and can-can dancers will make your lips look romantic and smudged. After that, you can go to the Louvre and get bronzer ideas from Rubens’ golden hour light or the Venus de Milo statue. And just when you’re really into the romance of Paris, take a walk along the Seine to the Musée National Picasso for a modern twist. Picasso’s line drawings are like the soft micro eyeliner that comes out in the spring. His use of color will make you think of fun, color-washed lids.
These spring trends will work for you no matter if you’re feeling more Renaissance or funky Cubist. The experts below explain the most painterly makeup looks of the season.
Lips That Are Smudged
With the rise of sexy romance media, it’s not only okay to show up to any event like you just had a hot makeout session in the back of a cab (or a hockey locker room, or a gothic Yorkshire estate…), it’s encouraged. What could be a better reason to be late?
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This is the kind of perfectly imperfect look that makes you want to color outside the lines if you don’t get your smudgy lips the old-fashioned way. “It’s not shiny; it’s matte, and the edges are blurry instead of sharp,” says Sage, a makeup artist from New York City. Alex Scoffell, a New York City-based makeup artist and brand manager at Kevyn Aucoin, says, “[It’s] great for anyone who wants to make their lips look fuller.”
You should use a matte lipstick or lip stain. For a romantic Wuthering Heights look, use a blushy pink. For a more Twilight or Anne Rice vampire look, use a deep berry. Ashley Rebecca, a makeup artist in New York City, suggests Violette_FR Plume Lip for a soft, whipped texture that gives lips a natural, kiss-worn look. Christian Briceno, also an artist in New York City, likes the cushiony stain of Dior Addict Lip Tint. “Put the color in the middle of the lips and tap out,” he says. “Use a fingertip or a dense brush to blur the edge.”
Blush in Watercolor
If you put just one drop of lily pink watercolor paint on a wet canvas, it would dance, blur, and mix with the water to make a blush cloud. It would be stronger in the middle and weaker at the edges. It would flow like the skirt of a woman from the Edwardian era in a John Singer Sargent painting.
The dreamy look was seen on the cheekbones at the spring shows for Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs. Stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Hailey Bieber, and Priyanka Chopra have also worn the look on the red carpet.
As you put on your blush, think about the watercolor medium. Rebecca says, “Watercolor paint is see-through, so you can sheer out the color or add more in certain places to make it more saturated.” “To do this with blush, start with soft cream blushes or gels on the apples of your cheeks. Then add silky powder blushes on top to make a watercolor flush.” She says that the best blush is a mix of Dear Dahlia Petal Drop Liquid Blush and Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush. And Joseph Carrillo, a makeup artist from New York City, likes to use both the cream and powder blush in Patrick Ta’s Major Headlines Double-Take Duo.
Skin in the Golden Hour
If Venus de Milo gathered her skirt, left the Louvre, and became a beauty influencer, this bronzed look that glows from within would be her signature. “Positively glowing,” everyone would say. “Please stop your skin-care routine!”
Of course, what looks natural and easy always takes some work. To look this sculpted, you need to use bronzer in a smart way. Drita Paljevic, director of artistry at Kevyn Aucoin, says that “using a product with a little bit of luminosity and glow is key here.” She suggests the brand’s Sensual Skin Bronzer. Here, Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Creamy Bronzing Powder would also work well. “Put a lot of it on the outer edges of your face, your cheeks, and your eyelids to get that beachy, (fake) sun-kissed look.”
Sarah Walsh, a makeup artist from Dallas, says that adding a bronze illuminator like Iconic London Instant Sunshine Bronzing Drops to your moisturizer or primer is a quick and easy way to do it. Then, if you want to make it even better later, she says to “sweep a powder bronzer like DIBS Duet Baked Bronzer across your forehead, under your cheekbones and jaw, your collarbone and tops of shoulders, and even across the bridge of your nose.”
Micro Liner
Sometimes, art is all about the wrist. For example, a very subtle, painterly flick of micro liner, like Picasso’s simple pen-and-ink line drawings. These are just as good as more complex works for MoMA, but they are more of a modernist whisper than a shout.
Fine-line flicks also quietly but noticeably made their first appearances on the runways for Giorgio Armani Prive, Jovana Louis, and Prabal Gurung. You might have needed a triple zoom to see the detail, but it’s still a load-bearing line that gives every look a little lift and wink. “It’s very precise, very close to the lashes, and almost impossible to see at first,” Carrillo says. “It gives the eye definition without making it look like a ‘look,’ and it feels modern and easy to wear.”
Paljevic says to first tightline the water line on the upper lid with a very small pencil. The extrafine tips on the Soshe Waterproof Precision Eyeliner or CoverGirl Perfect Point Eye Pencil would work well for this. “Then, with the pencil, make a very small wing from the outer corner of the eye,” she says. “Putting the product only on the outer corner and leaving the inner corner mostly bare will give you a beautiful lifted fox-eye look.”
Walsh suggests Victoria Beckham Satin Kajal Liner in Navy Noir if black liner seems too predictable and you want to welcome warmer weather with color. This liner is very forgiving, but you might need a thin, angled brush to get the micro look. Or, like the models at Jovana Louis, go pink with the NYX Epic Wear Waterproof Eyeliner Stick. Picasso would have used it if it had been available.
Lips Like Ballet Slippers
You’d get this pastel ballet slipper-pink color on your lips if you leaned in and kissed one of Monet’s ballet-class paintings (which is not a good idea, believe it or not).
MarQuis Ward, a makeup artist in Los Angeles and the head artist at LYS Beauty, says, “This [color] feels romantic and effortless but still put-together.”
But you don’t have to go to jail to get the look: “I like to use lip oil to prep my lips, put on a pink lip color, and then use my finger to blur the edges so it looks soft and lived in,” he says. The goal is a satin pink pointe shoe.
Ward suggests the LYS Beauty Speak Love Glossy Lip Treatment to help moisturize and smooth your lips. If you want to keep things simple, the Summer Fridays Dream Lip Oil in Pink Cloud already has a soft ballerina tint. Next, use a lipstick that is smudged and rosy, like Charlotte Tilbury K.I.S.S.I.N.G. Satin Shine Lipstick in Icon Baby or MAC Lustreglass Sheer-Shine Lipstick in Syrup.
Want a one-time deal? The shade Ballerina Shoes from L’Oreal Paris Colour Riche Lipcolour, which went viral on TikTok, is a good place to start.
Lids That Have Been Colorwashed
Mary Cassatt used pastels, while Georgia O’Keeffe used oil paints. But for those of us who are better at fingerpainting, a bold wash of one color all over the eyelids can be just as moving.
Briceno says that to make this look work, the color should be a little see-through. He says, “People want something that feels lived in and shows who they are.” “Pastels or mineral tones that are softly blended across the lid look almost like they were airbrushed. The finish stays cloudy and diffused, never solid.
Briceno says, “Choose one [color] and slowly build up with a fluffy brush. Then, blend the edges until there is no clear start or stop line.” You should keep the lower lash line clean or softly blend it with the same color. If you’re using a sheer cream blush, your fingers, which are your best art tool, will help you blend and spread the color across your lid.
Ilia Eye Stylus Shadow Stick in Nymph and Anastasia Beverly Hills GLIDR Shadow Stick in Ultraplum are great for the pinks and purples that are popular on the spring runways. Walsh, on the other hand, likes a one-and-done sweep of punchy blue, like Marc Jacobs does, and she suggests Half Magic Chromaddiction Eye Paint and Liner in Sky Juice for that.
