We all know Barbie pink, but now? There’s Sandy-Liang pink. For the brand’s spring/summer 2025 show, the designer added a specific hue to the world of Liang-core that wasn’t quite fuchsia, neon, or millennial. Backstage, makeup artist Romy Soleimani for Estée Lauder applied mysterious lip shades, all encased in plastic tubes labeled “Sandy Pink.”
“Not a subtle pink,” she said, arching an eyebrow. Inspired by a pre-existing lipstick that Liang owns, Soleimani whipped up two custom colors for the show. A chalky pink shade was made from mixing Estée Lauder’s Pure Color Whipped Matte Lip Color in Social Whirl with Sweet Tart and a white MAC Pigment. To create an iridescent and frosty additional shade, Soleimani added in a silver glitter eyeshadow from Estée Lauder’s Pure Color Envy Luxe Eyeshadow Quad. Using a lip brush, both colors were patted into the lip to get a super pigmented effect.
This season, Liang’s models also embraced the beauty of the elements (like high water vapor). “They wanted the girls to look a little humid and undone,” Soleimani explained. She has been a long-time fan of using skin care or nourishing products as highlighters (she was one of the first makeup artists to popularize tapping Weleda’s Skin Food onto the cheekbones for editorial photoshoots). For this show, she applied Estée Lauder’s Pure Color Envy Lip Oil Serum all over the cheekbones, for an extra dewy, fresh effect.
Adding to the vibe were modern takes on youthful hair accessories, like silver bobby pins featuring a chunky cartoon robot (a design courtesy of Liang’s partnership with Android) and triangle bandanas with star charms. Liang’s princesses this season also had some great haircuts, such as flicky bobs and jaunty pixie cuts. Models were specifically cast for short hair, said hairstylist Edward Lampley, who smoothed and finessed tresses using Mr. Smith Leave In. For the few with long hair, absolutely no beachy waves, declared Lampley. “We wanted to stay away from that. We’ve seen so many seasons of that,” he said. Instead, he gently “caressed the hair with a round brush” to give it a little bit of movement. The soft pink runway, star-shaped spotlight, and two special lipstick shades made just about everyone, including this year’s attendees, like Ella Emhoff, feel like a little sparkly.
Kathleen Hou is the Beauty Director of ELLE, responsible for overseeing beauty coverage across print and digital. Previously, she held the same title at New York Magazine’s The Cut. She’s appeared in publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Vogue India, Forbes, and Allure. She was also a co-founder of Donate Beauty, a grassroots beauty donation project started during the COVID-19 crisis, which donated over 500,000 products to over 30,000 healthcare workers across 500-plus hospitals.
