Jana Carboni’s Gilded Makeup Designs in “Gladiator II” is the Ultimate Party Makeup Inspiration
TSS Talent
Jana Carboni
Beauty
TSS Talent
Jana Carboni
The makeup looks created by Carboni may have been rooted in the Roman Empire, but her tips and product recommendations are just as useful for today's festive season.
If you watched “Gladiator II,” you know that a Roman party was a touch different than today (we’d like to hope you’ve never been to a fête where two men fought to the death). Regardless of era and choice of entertainment, people still liked to look their best for a big bash, something makeup artist Jana Carboni, opens in new tab kept in mind when designing the looks for hundreds of extras for the party scene in “Gladiator II.” Each and every partygoer wore a different dazzling makeup look, including the men. “At that time, gender wasn’t a big thing and makeup wasn't necessarily just for women, it was for men as well,” Carboni tells The Set Set. “That was a starting point for me, because that meant I could play a little bit more and really push my vision.”
That vision included luminous skin, bold blush, and lots and lots of gold. All that reflection is unusual on a movie set, where matte makeup is preferred on camera, but Carboni rose to the challenge. “That was so much fun because it was absolutely the opposite [of what we usually do]; we really wanted to see the shine. But talking to Ridley [Scott] and to the director of photography we found something that worked, using soft light—it was candlelight—and it worked so beautifully.”
The party scene was meant to be a showcase of excess and extravagance of the ruling class during this period of the Roman Empire. Carboni looked to a variety of sources for inspiration. “The base of my research was around the Villa dei Misteri (Villa of Mysteries in English), which is this beautiful place in Pompeii where there are all these amazing Roman frescos where the details are so clear that you can see a lot,” explains Carboni. The frescoes helped inform Carboni’s color palette for the makeup, an integral step part of her process. “I always decide on a color palette to tell the story of the movie, and usually stay quite consistent through the movie.” For “Gladiator II,” her palette included lots of rich reds, blues, and golds, as well as okra yellows and peachy oranges.
In addition to Villa dei Misteri, the makeup artist also looked to the colors and richness of Orientalist paintings of the 19th century (the paintings, rooted in the colonialism of the period, sought to depict fantastical scenes of the exotic “East” for Europeans). “When it came to the party scene, it was these paintings, which are more rich and glamorous, that inspired the hair and makeup.”
While her inspirations were centuries’ old, Carboni used (mostly) modern makeup products and techniques to achieve these festive looks. From the pearly serum that gave the skin its candlelit radiance, to the perfect antique-gold shadow, keep reading to discover how to bring a little Roman Empire into your party makeup.
The Glittering Gold Details
For Carboni, the revellers in the party scene were meant to highlight the disparity of wealth at that time and the decadence of the upper class. “It was very important for me to make the difference between the very rich and the very poor clear,” explains Carboni. “The middle class wasn't really a thing so the contrast had to be very, very strong. That’s why I went big for the party.”
To add an aura of opulence, and harmonize with the peachy color palette of the scene, Carboni decided that gold would be a prominent hue for the party guests, and while she broke out many traditional gold shadows and liners, she also used gold leaf, a decision she came to when thinking about the realities of the era. “Academically, I cannot tell you for sure if they used gold as makeup. In my head, however, I thought about how to create this idea of richness but still keep it organic, so I realized I needed to have a material that was accessible and people could have used at the time,” Carboni explains. Gold leaf is also incredibly impactful, a little bit “really reads on camera and gives a sense of depth to the makeup,” she adds. To adhere the gold leaf to the skin, Carboni and her team used lash glue but also Vaseline, because it gave them the option to move it around on the face and body. “It’s also a more organic approach.”
When it came to traditional eye makeup, Carboni favored organic-looking shades of gold versus the bright yellow gold of most modern era jewelry. Chantecaille’s Mermaid Eye Color in Seashell, Suqqu Liquid Luster Eyes #02, and the Chanel Quad in TK all fit the bill, as did Victoria Beckham Beauty’s best-selling Satin Kajal Liner, which the makeup artist used in a variety of shades for the film.
The Incandescant Skin
“For the party scene, it was about having this glow to the skin, so we mixed a lot of highlighter mixed with foundation,” says Carboni, who prepped the skin with a luminizing serum and then mixed various highlighting drops into the foundation. Dr Barbara Strum Glow Drops, African Botanicals Lucent Pearl Booster, and the Chantecaille Liquid Lumiere Highlighter in shades Gold and Brilliance were four products she relied on heavily for the party scene, helping her achieve a dewy radiance that looked like it was “coming through the skin instead of on top of it.”
Another glowy layer came courtesy of the Supergoop Glow Stick SPF 50, a sunscreen that helped protect the actors’ skin from harmful UV rays but without disturbing or dulling the makeup underneath. Carboni and her team went through tubes of the stuff while filming in Malta and Morocco, as she also used it all over Paul Mescal to keep his pale Irish skin from frying during long days of shooting outside.
The Exaggerated Blush
In ancient Rome, red pigments were often applied to the lips and cheeks to create the illusion of good health. For “Gladiator II,” Carboni took that fact and ran with it, relying on modern blush formulas that didn't just add color to the cheeks, but luminosity as well. With shimmering pigments baked into them, Hourglass Cosmetics’ blushes gave the skin a candlelit effect, while Chantecaille’s Cheek Gelees added a sparkle-free radiance. Carboni’s most-used blush on set, however, was Le Rouge Français Tinted Balm in Sigrid. “It’s this little pot with a texture like Vaseline, so it’s not very heavy, and the pigments come from flowers, which I loved,” she says. For the party scene she used it on cheeks and lips, but she also applied it underneath the eyes of Emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).
In ancient Rome, red pigments were often applied to the lips and cheeks to create the illusion of good health. For “Gladiator II,” Carboni took that fact and ran with it, relying on modern blush formulas that didn't just add color to the cheeks, but luminosity as well. With shimmering pigments baked into them, Hourglass Cosmetics’ blushes gave the skin a candlelit effect, while Chantecaille’s Cheek Gelees added a sparkle-free radiance. Carboni’s most-used blush on set, however, was Le Rouge Français Tinted Balm in Sigrid. “It’s this little pot with a texture like Vaseline, so it’s not very heavy, and the pigments come from flowers, which I loved,” she says. For the party scene she used it on cheeks and lips, but she also applied it underneath the eyes of Emperors Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and Geta (Joseph Quinn).
