Baby Beckham! Blue cat eyes! Our top 10 backstage beauty moments from New York Fashion Week

10. Wing women: At Prabal Gurung, makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury dipped her brush in turquoise, teal, and cobalt shadows to create what looked like an exotic bird’s feather floating above models’ eyes.

9. Blown away: Last season, water was the inspiration for all those sopping-wet manes. But, if stylist Paul Hanlon has anything to do with it, this season the element of choice is air. At Vera Wang and Preen, Hanlon made models’ lids look like they had been caught in a windstorm and frozen in time.

8. A List: There was major buzz when model Gisele showed up at Alexander Wang, but she wasn’t the only modeling-world heavyweight in attendance. Canada’s own Shalom Harlow—who happily obliged when the designer requested her for his show—was also there. But the model we loved bumping into most was Anaïs Pouliot whose meteoric rise has made her a runway fixture. Just as lovely as she was when we worked with her for our March beauty shoot, Pouliot was happy to let us take her picture.

7. Blue streak: Pat McGrath punched up the classic cat eye at Anna Sui by using a bold stroke of electric blue. As if that wasn’t enough flash, she added tiny stick-on dot atop the lower lash line, similar to the halved sequins she adhered to eyes at Givenchy last season.

6. Aussie rules: The Rodarte girls were inspired by the Australian outback, which for hairstylist Odile Gilbert translated into dusty, tumbleweed-textured strands. Pinned under into faux bobs, some styles were adorned with beautiful star-spangled gold pins, made (as per usual) by the arts-and-crafty Mulleavy sibs.

5. Après ski: The beauty message at Michael Kors rarely strays from a healthy dose of bronzer. Despite the predictability, season after season it always ranks as one of the prettiest looks in our book. This time the cheeks received a more rosy flush for a fresh-from-the-slopes feeling.

4. Anger management: Backstage can be a stressful spot, what with models coming in late, TV cameras bumping into manicurists, and a clock ticking down ‘til show time. It’s why we loved Dick Page’s T-shirt, which he told beauty director Lesa Hannah represented the way he feels during fashion week: “I want to ****ing punch everyone.”

3. Baby proofing: Backstage, Victoria Beckham’s show was all bouncers and bodyguards. The tight security may have had something to do with the fact that Harper Beckham was in the house. Ever the attention seeker, Posh trotted out her adorable daughter backstage—mum was in sky-high heels with her baby on her hip.

2. Bang on: Sure, Audrey Hepburn is a go-to beauty muse, but this is the first time we’ve seen someone recreate her bangs. At Thakoon, that’s exactly what Odile Gilbert did, by creating a French twist and securing it so that a small part of it sat on models’ foreheads.

1. Slim fast: In a world where big hair is almost always better, fine-hair girls can thank Paul Hanlon, who coiffed what he dubbed “skinny hair” at Proenza Schouler and Altuzarra.