In ‘Wednesday’ Season 2 Nirvana Jalalvand Delivers the Ultimate Beauty Plot Twist
Beauty
TSS Talent
Nirvana Jalalvand
Beauty
TSS Talent
Nirvana Jalalvand
In one of its most surprising and playful turns, the Netflix show breaks its own gothic mold with Wednesday Addams undergoing a full-blown beauty transformation … sort of.
Since it first hit screens, Tim Burton’s "Wednesday" has introduced a new generation to the Addams Family’s macabre charm, but it’s the show’s fashion and beauty that’s really made just as big an impact. With her signature braids, berry-stained lip, and all-black wardrobe, Jenna Ortega’s take on the gothic teen has influenced trends far beyond the walls of Nevermore Academy.
But in season two, the series pushes Wednesday’s look in a surprising new direction. In fact, the most shocking reveal isn’t anything to do with the show’s monsters or mysteries — it’s about makeup. (And fair warning, there are spoilers for season two, episode six ahead.)
In a standout episode in the second batch of episodes, Wednesday and her bubbly, pastel-loving roommate Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers) find themselves temporarily trapped in each other’s bodies in a supernatural twist that doubles as a beauty makeover. The result? A delightfully disorienting version of our favorite deadpan darling. As Enid puts it while stuck in Wednesday's body, “Admit it, this is the Wednesday Addams you didn't know you needed.” Judging by the fan reaction, she might be right.
Speaking to The Set Set, Ortega’s personal hair and makeup artist Nirvana Jalalvand, explained that nailing the Enid-as-Wednesday look was no easy feat and that it took some trial-and-error before she, Ortega, and the episode’s director Angela Robinson settled on the final look. “We had a lot of meetings trying to figure out how far we’d push each of these swaps,” the Emmy award-winning hair and makeup artist says. It had to be clear they’d switched bodies, but she didn’t want it to be too distracting.
Fortunately for Jalalvand, there was one scene in which she didn’t have to worry about striking a balance. A major moment in the episode sees Enid take revenge on her roommate by giving her a colorful makeover, complete with loose, lopsided braids, shimmery blue eyeshadow, and a glossy pink lip before strutting her stuff in front of their confused classmates. The fun sequence — soundtracked to Blackpink’s infectious “Boombayah” — sees Ortega gleefully (remember: she’s actually Enid, not Wednesday here) embrace color.
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While Ortega’s mainstay base — a combination of different shades of Pat McGrath Labs Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Foundation, opens in new tab — was used, everything else was basically swapped out or altered. Her signature black smoky eye gets replaced with a bold, blue shadow that Jalalvand chose for a couple of reasons. Not only is it a shade viewers have seen on Enid in the past, but it was the one that translated best onto Ortega’s skin. “I tried pinks at first, but it made her look really warm,” Jalalvand explains. “Her skin still needs to be pale and ghostly, even if Enid is inside her body, and the blue tones just worked better for that.”
To achieve the look, Jalavand buffed the shade Mist from Beauty Bay’s Midnight Palette, opens in new tab onto the inner and outer lids in a cat-eye shape. Then, she added shades #11 and #12 from the NYX Ultimate Color Palette, opens in new tab to intensify the color and create dimension. Lastly, she pressed the shimmery Astral White from the Pat McGrath Mothership I: Subliminal Palette, opens in new tab to the center of Ortega’s lids to finish the look. As for the lips, Jalalvand kept to Ortega’s custom deep plum hue: a custom combination of MAC Nightmoth Lip Pencil, opens in new tab and a Dr. PawPaw Lip Balm, opens in new tab, adding a layer of Pat McGrath Lust: Gloss, opens in new tab on top. “That’s Enid adding a bit of personality to the look,” Jalalvand laughs. “She would like that shimmery pink finish.”
Wednesday’s trademark braids — usually immaculately styled — were deliberately softened for the swap. Jalalvand stuck to her usual hero products, opens in new tab —a braiding product from Tracee Ellis Ross's Pattern Beauty, opens in new tab — but says she “reprogrammed” her brain to fight the urge to tuck in errant layers, which she normally does using a crochet hook. “It’s almost like catching a glimpse of what Wednesday’s hair would be like if it were let loose,” she says. Mini claw clips were placed scattershot throughout her hair and a small amount of Olaplex hair oil, opens in new tab was applied to the braid ends, which again were intentionally left uneven. “The bobbles are different colors, and I made them slightly wonky because Enid doesn’t really care about things like that,” Jalalvand says.
Meanwhile, the show’s wider hair and makeup team paid equal attention to Enid’s transformation into Wednesday. As makeup designer Lynn Johnston told us, it was all about “toning back the colors that we normally see on Emma.” As with Ortega, simply transplanting Wednesday’s signature makeup onto her wasn’t the move; instead, they adapted the look in a way that worked with Myer’s features and coloring, says Johnston. “We just tried to give her a mood of Wednesday and then Emma was brilliant at doing the rest.”
