While the red carpets of awards season tend, beauty-wise, to be tasteful to the point of homogeneity (a burnished smokey eye here, a dusty pink lip there, with the occasional flash of scarlet or graphic liner to add a smattering of excitement), the Met Gala couldn’t be more divergent in its beauty ethos. On the first Monday in May, anything goes when it comes to your hair, make-up and costume, whether that’s Cara Delevingne offsetting a freshly dyed pink pixie crop (she had to top last year’s shimmering silver buzz cut, after all) with yellow eyeshadow and a medieval headdress, Zendaya’s new red crop or Rihanna dressing up as an actual Pope, complete with Maison Margiela mitre. Whatever the theme, it always makes for a marvellously eclectic best dressed list - and an equally exciting beauty line-up.
For this year's event, themed around Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, our favourite looks seemed to nod to the dress code with extravagant, often bejewelled hair accessories, while keeping things a little more low key on the make-up front, often cohering around a statement lip or eye colour (but never both). Balance, it seems, is the secret to a striking Met Gala beauty moment...
See some of our favourite Met Gala beauty looks in the gallery below...
Met Gala 2018 Best Beauty - Grazia
1 of 9Kerry Washington
Kerry Washington took the 'heavenly' in this year's exhibition title and ran with it, in terms of both her liquid-gold gown and her beauty look: brushed out curls, eye-catching hair jewellery, subtly sculpted brows and rose pink lips.
2 of 9Sasha Lane
For her first Met Gala, American Honey star Sasha added extra drama to her up-do with a silver chain embellishment, while keeping her eye make-up classic in burnished bronze and gold.
3 of 9Blake Lively
What's a Met beauty round-up without a hymn to Blake Lively's latest red carpet look, which is definitive proof that warm, reddish tones needn't be kept to the lips: done subtly, they can look just as good on the lids.
4 of 9Emma Stone
Did we mention we're glad that Emma Stone has reverted to her redhead ways? We're going to reiterate that sentiment all the same, while noting that a super-loose, super-low pony tail is a novel way to style mid-length hair for the red carpet.
5 of 9Bella Hadid
There's a lot to take in when it comes to Bella Hadid's latest Met look, but don't let the latex and leather of the main event overshadow the beauty details: the gold clips crowning an intricate up-do, the touch of gold on the lids and the Glossier campaign-worthy skin.
6 of 9Priyanka Chopra
Yes, the beaded coif automatically draws the eye, but so do the '20-style finger waves, the dramatic brows and the berry shade on the lips. A look that's coming to a royal wedding near you? We can only hope...
7 of 9Jasmine Sanders
Jasmine's long floral braid is the Met style we're most likely to try this summer: a 2018 spin on the flower garland, perhaps?
8 of 9Amal Clooney
This year's co-host stuck to her preferred red carpet formula when it came to her Met make-up - powerful brows, subtle bronzes on the eyes and an orange-red lip - while wearing her hair in a laidback updo that we'd love to see her wearing more often.
9 of 9Gigi Hadid
Once again, Gigi proves that outré doesn't always equal effective on the steps of the Met: a more polished version of her go-to California girl beauty look can prove just as head-turning as graphic liner or gothic lips.