Another installment of Taking It to the Streets, our series profiling the people whose creative lives have shaped the way we think about beauty. This time we’re spotlighting director Aurelien Levitan — and the kinds of beauty themes that come up when you spend enough time around camera, lighting, and the controlled chaos of a film set.
Working in film teaches you that beauty is mostly about what survives the lens. Skin needs to read on camera without makeup looking like makeup. Lipstick has to hold through long takes. Hair has to be both styled and believable. Below, the categories of products that consistently come up in conversations about on-set beauty.
Skin: lit-from-within, not lit-from-the-makeup-bag
The trick is glow without grease. Dermalogica‘s skincare line earns its place on call sheets — see also our MultiVitamin Power Serum review — because it leaves skin reading healthy under camera lighting without the slick that makes foundation slide.
Hair: styled but not still
The cinematic look is hair that moves, has body, and doesn’t read as “hairsprayed.” A good shampoo and conditioner pair does most of the work — see our take on Rusk Being Sexy and Kerastase Cristalliste for two formulas that get you there. A real brush, like a Mason Pearson (covered in our BFF post), keeps shape without weight.
Color: depth that holds
For long days, the best lip product is one you don’t have to think about. Sephora‘s Cream Lip Stain — featured in our Old Hollywood Glamour post — sets and stays for hours, no touch-ups required between setups.
The film-set takeaway
If you want a beauty routine that survives a 12-hour day, borrow from the people who actually have to live one. The products win when they’re invisible — when the camera (or the room) sees the person, not the makeup.