Italian Siren

Italian siren makeup had a name long before it had a hashtag — it is the Loren and Bellucci face, and it has lasted because it is a formula rather than a trend. Bronzed satin skin, a full untouched brow, a black wing, and a deep matte red mouth. Four elements, arranged so that none of them has to compete with the others.

Three anchors, nothing else

The look lives on the brow, the liner and the lip, and every other decision is subtraction. Brows stay full and brushed upward rather than drawn in; a neatly penciled arch reads too groomed here. Lids get a warm bronze or soft brown wash blended up and out, which exists mostly to give the wing something to sit against. The wing itself starts thin at the inner corner and thickens as it travels, following the angle of the lower lash line past the outer eye. Skin is satin — not flat matte, not glassy — with contour under the cheekbone and warmth carried onto the temples and jaw.

Getting the red right

This is the one place your undertone genuinely changes the outcome. Cool and neutral complexions look best in blue-based reds: true crimson, cherry, deep berry, all of which also make teeth read whiter. Warm and olive complexions carry brick, tomato and rust without the color going stark against the skin. If you cannot tell, blue-red is the safer default and the more classically Italian one anyway. Line the lip first, fill the entire lip with the pencil, then press color on with a brush — red applied straight from the bullet starts bleeding within the hour.

When it tips into costume

This is an evening face and it does not scale down. Remove the lip and you are left with a bare complexion and a stripe of liner, which is why there is no daytime version worth the effort. It is also merciless on dry or textured lips, so matte color on unprepped lips is the fastest way to ruin it. Hooded lids need a gel formula and a wing drawn with the eye open, or the shape disappears the moment you look straight ahead.