After a dramatic return to the runway, the 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, led by creative director Adam Selman, delivered its signature blend of fantasy and unadulterated spectacle. Yet, the show’s most captivating element remained the beauty—a masterful execution of “bombshell glam” with a modern, softer edge. Led by celebrity hairstylist Jawara Wauchope and the legendary makeup artist Dame Pat McGrath, the beauty philosophy centered on amplifying the models’ natural radiance. The iconic VS blowout was revived with a sleek, polished finish, while the makeup embraced an ethereal, all-over glow, proving that true runway beauty is less about radical reinvention and more about perfecting the art of the luminous, confident self.
The Hair: A Sleeker, More Modern Bombshell Blowout
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show has historically been synonymous with gravity-defying, voluminous curls and messy beach waves. The 2025 show brought back the highly coveted “Angel hair” but with a deliberate, sleek update that made the classic style feel current.
The show’s lead hairstylist, Jawara Wauchope, aimed to create a modern interpretation of the iconic bounce. The resulting look maintained voluminous waves and curls at the root but featured a noticeably sleeker, more polished finish towards the ends. To achieve this high-shine, mega-bouncy effect, the process began with a thickening spray applied to the roots before the hair was blow-dried in sections against the grain to encourage maximum volume at the crown. Crucially, instead of traditional hot rollers, the team used brushed-out pin curls to set the style, resulting in a softer, more sophisticated wave that kept the hair looking healthy and mirror-like.
The Makeup: Ethereal Glow from Pat McGrath
The show’s makeup, helmed by the iconic Dame Pat McGrath, was guided by the creative directive to make “every girl to glow.” The resulting look was an ethereal, soft-yet-impactful glam that put radiant skin and a subtle, smoky eye at the forefront.
The flawless, lit-from-within complexion began with Pat McGrath’s Divine Skin Essence and Hydrating Glow Cream, creating a dewy base. The Skin Fetish: Sublime Perfection foundation was applied to deliver a serum-like glow, enhanced by blurring under-eye powder to set the concealer. The celestial glow was amplified with the Skin Fetish Highlighter + Balm Duo on the high points of the face, such as the cheekbones and cupid’s bow. For a soft flush of color, limited-edition Divine Cream Blush: Legendary Glow color balms were used to give a natural, healthy radiance to the cheeks.
The Eyes and Lips: Earth Angel Smudge
While the skin was all about divine luminescence, the eyes and lips complemented the radiant canvas with a soft, smudged definition that kept the look grounded and contemporary.
The eye makeup featured a “beautiful, light smoke,” achieved by lining the eyes with Pat McGrath’s PermaGel Ultra Glide Eye Pencil in a rich, dark shade like BLK Coffee. Models’ eyes were given a subtle twinkle and dimension with a range of Mothership eyeshadow palettes, utilizing shades like Moonlit Mauve for a cloudy, semi-smoky effect. The lips were kept neutral but luscious. A neutral brown Legendary Longwear Lip Liner was applied hours before the show to ensure longevity, and then topped with a high-shine Lust: Gloss, often in a glittering bronze-pink shade like Earth Angel, to complete the celestial aesthetic.
Hair and Beauty on a Diverse Canvas
This year’s show was notable not just for the beauty techniques, but for the diverse group of models who wore them, demonstrating the versatility of the “bombshell” look across a wide range of hair types and skin tones.
The backstage process involved a full production to tailor the signature look to each individual. While the sleek blowout was the dominant trend, models with natural texture, like Imaan Hammam, had their coils diffused to set their strands in place without frizz, celebrating their inherent volume. Others had extensions integrated to add an extra glam factor, ensuring versatility without sacrificing bounce. The unified beauty approach—the glossy hair and the glowing makeup—was applied across a highly inclusive cast that included veterans like Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio, alongside newcomers such as WNBA star Angel Reese and Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee, solidifying the idea that the VS bombshell is a universal archetype of confident, polished beauty.
