Girl next door meets femme fatale may sound like an oxymoron, but Dakota Johnson pulls off the look exceedingly well in “Verity.” Based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel, the film follows a down-on-her-luck author as she ghostwrites the last installment in a noir series for a famous author in the wake of a car accident. It’s a sexy story driven by two femme fatales lusting after the same man: the poised, red-lipped Verity (Anne Hathaway) and “coming undone” Lowen (Johnson). Fittingly, Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct” made it onto the makeup moodboard created by the actress's personal on-screen makeup artist, Emma Strachman. Lowen sports an ever-so-slightly seductive makeup look throughout the film, in stark contrast to Verity’s hyper-controlled makeup designed by Kira Pachenko. Strachman coined it the daytime smoky eye, which she pairs with an over-lined pinkish nude lip and flawless base. 

When Emma Strachman first read “Verity” at the height of its 2019-era popularity, she never imagined that she would be transforming Johnson into the book’s protagonist years later. “The script is different than the story,” Strachman says. “So the first question is, how closely do you want to adapt this character? Do we want to see all the character choices that were made in the book visually?” Rather than leaning into the ordinary quality of Lowen’s appearance as described in the book, Strachman brought the seduction front and center. “Where we landed on was something a bit moody, but I really wanted to explore a daytime smoky eye and bring that back to the streets,” Strachman says. “I wanted to make it feel lighter, more approachable, and not so dramatic, but then have this latitude with it where I could really amp it up.” 

Having worked with Johnson on many prior films, including “Materialists,” Strachman is almost as familiar with the actress's face as she is with her own. She likens Johnson’s eyes to “the beating heart” of her makeup and tries to put them at the forefront of the look. “She has such beautiful eyes that allow for moments of seduction and moments of terror,” Strachman says. Strachman used the intensity of makeup to reflect the “ebb and flow” of Lowen’s fluctuating psychological state throughout the film, providing a window into Lowen’s inner world through makeup. 

Recreate Lowen’s Signature Daytime Smoky Eye

For the perfect smoky eye, Strachman concentrates a lighter color around the lash line, making the shadow a little less intense around the eye. “Add the intensity around the lash line and diffuse it outward,” Strachman explains, encouraging a choose-your-own-approach to degree of diffusion and intensity. “It should just have some kind of gradient effect and you can choose whatever color you want.” 

For eyeliner, Strachan narrows the eye by tightlining with a black eye pencil. She applies Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil in Perversion on the water line and then buffs it out to create a gradient, diffusing the end result with a soft eyeshadow or face powder to set and blur the look. “I don't like to just leave eyeliner naked because it will crease a little bit even if it is long wearing,” Stachman says.

Shop the Look

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Waterproof Eyeliner Pencil in Perversion

Sephora

Buy for $23

Westman Atelier Eye Want You Lengthening + Volumizing Clean Mascara

Sephora

Buy for $45

Armani Beauty Eye Tint Long-Lasting Liquid Eyeshadow

Sephora

Buy for $39

Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick

Westman Atelier

buy for $48

On set, the Armani eye paints are Strachman’s go-to for a long-lasting eye look that won't budge. “They are long-wearing and can diffuse beautifully. You can have them as intense as you'd like or kind of buff them out to nothing. Really great for a smoky eye, subtle,” she says. While Strachman has many different shadows in her arsenal—and recommends mixing and layering the eye paints—it only takes one product and your fingers to pull off a good smoky eye. In a pinch, Strachman has even used the Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick as eyeshadow. 

For Lowen, Strachman created the illusion of being “a little bit run down or a little bit more exhausted” by going in with a Q-tip and some makeup remover to break down some of the concealer and face makeup, sometimes even asking Johnson to rub her eyes in the chair.  “As things unravel, you end up in this space where things feel a little bit more worn in, a little bit more textured, without actually adding texture,” Strachman says, aiming to create the illusion that perhaps Lowen’s makeup was leftover from the night before. The MUA suggests breaking up any harsh lines and smudging your work to prevent it from looking too perfect.

By the end of the film, the physical resemblance between Johnson and Hathaway has never been more heightened, despite the two characters having very contrasting looks throughout the first half of the film. Strachman wanted Lowen’s makeup to resemble Verity's character across time, borrowing elements of how Kira Pachenko did Hathaway’s signature beauty look for the film. “As we get to the ending, we see Lowen's character very much evolved from how she looked basically all the movie. We introduced a different color palette for her and a different style. So those were kind of Easter eggs in terms of her arc and also her psychological state,” Strachman says. “It was important to show something cyclical.”