Backstage beauty tips from Tanya Taylor's Fall Winter 2018

It's safe to say New York Fashion Week looks are a key indicator of  the biggest trends to come in any season. The runways and the thing to watch, but it's the two hours before the shows when all the beauty magic happens. Though carefully crafted by the pros, getting the looks is something you can do right at home. We headed backstage at Tanya Taylor's FW18 NYFW show and gathered up all the info, so you can nail the look from head to toe.

The  hair and makeup artists were taking their cues from the Canadian designer.  "Tanya was really inspired by the element of surprise, so I wanted to be able to just to give a nice linear movement to the eye," said MAC Cosmetics' Senior Artist Regan Rabanal, who used white liner to create a reverse cat eye on models. He completed the look with a cream shadow in a taupe-y brown, and blended it up into the crease of eyes before brushing up models' brows. Skin was all about "minimal coverage, and really keeping it looking balmy and realistic," he said. "If you just warm the foundation up in your hands and put it on like a moisturizer, the skin will almost be covered like a veil, but it's still able to peep through a little bit." The edges of lips were topped with a touch of MAC Studio Face and Body Foundation, and then finished with a touch sheer balm for a puffy effect.

Meanwhile, the vibe for hair was intended to be natural and lived-in. "We're working with ponytails and kind of a half-done bun that's still draping loose," explained Redken Canada Lead Stylist, Jorge Joao. "We wanted it to look like it was a ponytail that she did the night before and slept on," he said. "The first thing we did was as each girl sat down was find her natural part and start with the Windblown 05 to just elevate it." After spraying the hybrid hairspray meets dry shampoo for a next day feel that was fresh rather than oily, the pros raked through hair with hands or a wide-tooth comb and swept hair into looped ponytails. Strands were sprayed with a final hit of Fashion Works 12 hairspray, and strategic pieces were pulled out from styles and left across models' foreheads.

The element of surprise came back into play for nails, which were inspired by female artists, Hannah Hoch and Suzanne Duchamp. "They like playing with bold colours, so we wanted to do really interesting combinations," said essie pro Julie Kandalec. "Half of the girls are getting the Bahama Mama with Chillato on the tip and half the girls are getting No Place Like Chrome with Tart Deco on the tip," she explained of the purple and green and silver and orange mash-ups. "We thought that this was kind of weird and not really like matchy-matchy, which I think is totally going along with what the artists do," she continued. "That's how it came to be." Unexpected indeed.