How makeup is done at London Fashion Week

Editorial · by PUCCA diana · 4 min readPublished 5 May 2026

Most of my clients know me from bridal makeup. Fewer people know that I have also worked the runway, at London Fashion Week, for the Fragile collection by the designers Kolchagov Barba, at the show on 16 September 2018.

How I got there

I was already living in England and working in a salon, alongside other makeup artists. We collaborated with a makeup brand that was on the market at the time, and the brand in turn worked with fashion houses and with events in the beauty and fashion world. The invitation came out of those collaborations, repeated over time.

I went to London often anyway, for all kinds of work events, and every single time it was something interesting.

The preparation starts long before show day

When we were told that we would be creating the looks worn on the runway, the hard part began. We received the theme of the collection, the colour palette and the products we had to use.

We built the looks in the salon, photographed them and sent them to the brand, and the brand passed them on to the designers. Out of everything we sent, three looks were approved. On the day of the event our job was no longer only to do makeup, but to explain to the whole team of makeup artists what to do and how.

Straight lines on a face that moves

The looks were graphic and colourful, with geometric shapes, because the makeup brand was promoting its new collection and needed vibrant colour and intensity.

Creating perfectly straight lines on a face that moves is not that easy.

This is where you see the difference between makeup that looks good in the mirror and makeup that holds up to a camera coming close. The colour has to be saturated, the edge clean, and all of it has to survive strong lights.

Five minutes per model

The pace is the hardest part, harder than the makeup itself. We had between five and a maximum of ten minutes per model. And when the girls came off the runway we had to change their look while they changed outfits, and for that we had one minute, maybe two.

You have to be ready at all times and know exactly what you are doing. There is no time to ask questions or to guess.

I am used to that kind of pressure and I had done my homework. Everything had been rehearsed in advance and I knew exactly what I had to do, so I did not have to work it out on the spot.

The day itself

The shows are held in central London, at kilometre zero, in several venues at once. The streets were busy, a lot of people, a lot of cameras, there were celebrities, there were people outside waiting to see who went in and who came out.

The venues were beautiful hotels, absolutely striking event halls or private clubs. Every time I arrived somewhere like that, with celebrities around, I thought the same thing.

Wow, this is something. Look where I have got to.

You arrive early, you get set up and, if you are in the position we were in, you explain to everyone else what they have to do. There is no time to discuss. You do your job as fast and as well as you can.

What the audience does not see

The chaos backstage. The rush and the problems that turn up at the last moment.

The biggest challenge was not my own makeup. It was that not every makeup artist there understood exactly what to do, or knew how to reproduce the looks we had shown. So on top of my own models I had to take over some of the others and correct them, so the girls could walk out on the runway looking as if nothing had happened.

Thirty seconds

One of the designers sat down in the chair and told me to do his makeup. He wanted something that would cover his imperfections and look good in photographs. The funny part is that he told me I had thirty seconds.

I started laughing, but I did his makeup in under a minute. He was happy and we had a good time.

What I took away from it

Time pressure, noise and a lot of people around. Out of all that chaos I came away with the ability to focus on the work no matter what is happening next to me, and I use that now in the salon, with my clients and with my students.

I love working in a team, with other makeup artists, with hairstylists, with designers and with models. In Romania it is not really the custom, but to me it is a beautiful environment, and I believe I can communicate well with anyone and adapt easily to any setting.

It is hard for me to say what I liked most, because I liked all of it. It was challenging, problems came up, but to me that does not mean hard.

That is what I think work is supposed to feel like.

A very small example, from the other side. Clients often come with children, because when you work with women you will have children around. Clients sometimes feel awkward, that they are making noise or a mess, but it does not bother me, I actually find it sweet. Children are children, they need to play, and as long as they are happy I have no problem at all. I learned that there too, in all that chaos.

If you want makeup built for the camera rather than for the mirror, read about makeup for a photo shoot.

Sources

• FAB UK Magazine
• Kolchagov Barba, press
• ELLE Bulgaria
• Getty Images, show gallery
• Hollywood Glam Magazine
• Daily Mail
• Alamy, backstage images