5 beauty trends from London Fashion Week SS25
From sixties-inspired hair to bold eye makeup, and more, London Fashion Week once again delivered an array of beauty looks across makeup, hair and nails for SS25.
TheIndustry.beauty reflects on some of the season's top beauty trends from the likes of JW Anderson, Marques’Almeida, Paul Costelloe, Roksanda, Harris Reed, and more.
Natural look
JW Anderson's SS25 collection focused on timeless elegance, allowing the structure of the clothes to talk more than embellishments, trims or details. Anderson prioritised minimalism, and the show’s beauty looks reflected just that.
The show's models championed a refined style of beauty, featuring glowing skin, baby pink lips and natural brows. "The look for JW Anderson this season was focused on elegant, handsome beauty," said lead makeup artist Lynsey Alexander.
For this particular beauty look, hydration was key to achieving a natural and healthy appearance. "When skin is perfected and hydrated, you need less coverage," explained Alexander.
The beauty was classic and considered, a trend that also cropped up in shows such as Richard Quinn, S.S. Daley and Burberry.
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Makeup artist Terry Barber stayed with neutral colours for Richard Quinn's beauty looks in an attempt to "appeal to someone who wants to wear those clothes". This was accompanied by sculpted hairstyles, from french twists and chignons to soft brushed-out finger waves and more, by Sam McKnight MBE.
Vibrant eyes
Marques’Almeida combined rebellious extravagance with refined femininity, with models boasting bright, bold eyes and soft skin. A standout look was a statement pink eye with no mascara.
Barber intended to keep the shapes almost a little bit clumsy, he explained, to contrast with the clean and light texture of the face.
"We chose to go a little bit more lux with the skin to contrast with the grunginess of the eye. So, I used the MAC Studio Radiance Foundation, which has a glow and really beautiful coverage to keep the skin refined and polished. I then added a whisper of bronzer just on the front of the cheek," explained Barber.
The beauty balanced fun and refinement, which was the aim of Marques’Almeida’s spring/summer 2025 collection.
Irish designer Paul Costelloe also opted for pink eyeshadow, offering a slightly more subtle look than Marques’Almeida.
Meanwhile, models at Harris Reed's spring/summer show boasted bold blue and orange eyes with long, thick lashes and doll-like lips and skin. It is said to have reflected the 19th century French silhouettes that Harris was inspired by for this season.
Bold lips
Roksanda’s makeup looks made bold lips the highlight as opposed to statement eyes. Its latest fashion show took a leaf out of the Bridgerton fashion playbook, combining Regency-inspired outfits with contemporary cuts and extravagant eveningwear.
To complement the fashion, Dominic Skinner, the show’s key makeup artist and director of artistry at MAC Cosmetics, took inspiration from the National Portrait Gallery to evoke that Regency quality and create something "very pure".
"I subtly contoured just enough to accentuate bone structure, using a traditional technique under the cheekbones, but also contouring the upper inner corner of the eyebrow, where the brow bone and the nose meet, to create this pinched and poised feel."
Skinner wanted to portray the delicacy and strength of Roksanda’s collection through the makeup. The skin had a pure and almost religious quality to it, juxtaposed with a rounded pillowy lip in a very dark blackened plum. He left the edge of the lip slightly brushed and not perfectly cut to emulate the "raw softness" of the paintings he was inspired by in the gallery.
Similar to Roksanda's makeup looks, Helen Anthony's spring/summer 2025 collection was also accompanied by a bold lip. British designer Naeem Anthony, who is the creative mastermind behind the fashion brand, sent models down the runway donning a bright red lip, set against a dewy, glowy base.
Sixties hair
The first full day of London Fashion Week kicked off on 13 September with a nod to the Swinging Sixties by Irish designer Paul Costelloe and Turkish designer Bora Aksu.
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This season, Bora Aksu returned with an abundance of lace, frills, mesh, paying homage to his mother Birsen Aksu, who designed her own clothing in the 1960s after struggling to find clothes that expressed her individuality in Turkey, where she grew up. This era was also reflected in the hairstyles, with the models boasting high, sixties-style beehives to round off the range of looks.
LFW veteran Paul Costelloe also offered a bit of vintage volume, with bouffant-esque hairstyles central to the designer's vision. At times, these were further amplified by statement headbands - think Brigitte Bardot in the 60s - boasting corresponding colours and patterns to Costelloe's spring/summer 2025 designs.
Statement nails
The nails on display during London Fashion Week were also far from simple, from Karoline Vitto’s industrial hardware to Simone Rocha’s hand-crafted crystal embellishments, and more.
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London-based nail artist Tyler Phoenix worked with both Karoline Vitto and DI PETSA to deliver a range of unique designs for their LFW shows. Glass nails with intricate silver hardware were developed for Karoline Vitto. Meanwhile, the standout nail design for DI PETSA was its "sandy fingers", which saw the bespoke nail art trail down from the nails to the fingers.
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Chet Lo's unique reverse acrylics were also among London Fashion's Week's most notable statement nails, as were Simone Rocha’s hand-embellished crystal embellishment and Nensi Dojaka's elegant petal drop designs.
