Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Angels Are Sneaking Off to Contour

Joanna Douglas
·Senior Editor
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Lily Aldridge is wearing the $2 million Fantasy Bra at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which taped Tuesday, November 10. (Photo: Victoria’s Secret)

Runway and red carpet trends come and go, but there’s one look many women — and men — daydream about: The Victoria’s Secret Angel bombshell look. On Tuesday, I went backstage at the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (airing December 8 on CBS) where newbies like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid to veterans like Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio were made even more beautiful by the incredibly talented makeup artist Dick Page while hair was styled into those signature supermodel waves by Akki Shirakawa and Sarah Potempa. What actually went into this year’s show?

  • 47 models

  • 75 runway looks

  • 46 pairs of wings (one set is even LED)

  • 1 $2 million Fantasy Bra (worn by Lily Aldridge)

  • 32 makeup artists

  • 32 hairstylists

  • 6 manicurists

  • 40 cans of Victoria’s Secret Hairspray

  • 60 Beachwaver hair tools

  • 100 bottles of Victoria’s Secret body care

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Kendall Jenner backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show without contouring. Nobody tell her sisters! (Photo: Getty Images)

I went backstage and spoke to Dick Page about the gorgeous makeup that was surprisingly natural (especially given that the show will be televised in 185 countries). Page says the Victoria’s Secret runway show is an anomaly in the fashion world. “It’s the one show with its own personality,” Page told Yahoo Beauty. “The girls smile. They’re active, they’re smiling, they’re mobile. My belief is to keep it very fresh and very healthy and very bright and light. I’ve got a little protest from some of the girls who are sneaking off and doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”

Hold up. What are these makeup rebels doing to misbehave? “I’m trying to avoid contour, avoid heavy bronzing, avoid all that kind of stuff, but some of the girls have this fixation about the heavier the better — and who wouldn’t know better than me in my vast years?”

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Model Gigi Hadid looking fresh-faced backstage at the VIctoria’s Secret Fashion Show. (Photo: Getty Images)

Apparently models are doing their own touchups, being a little more heavy-handed with bronzer and sculpting products. Page says this is a big mistake, especially for TV. “The way that the HD cameras and things work nowadays you need less. Makeup shows — it reads really hard, it’s very aging and very dull and can make faces look really flat,” says Page. “You’ll notice some of the great makeup artists who work on film and HD TV, they know that. They know to pull back and what you can and cannot do, and for the most part you can’t do heavy stuff. It looks dated.”

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The stage makeup and newly-designed makeup shades Dick Page used backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. (Photo: Joanna Douglas)

Page said the runway look is a softer version of what he did in London for last year’s show. “I’m trying to give them a fresh cheek, little bit of pearl around the eye, a trace of black liner, some mascara, soft mauvey-rose lip,” he says. His hero product? Kryolan red paint. “That’s the theatrical product I used for the red for the cheek.” He designed a creamy lip color and a transparent liquid black eye color (temporarily called Shade II and Shade C — she photo above) for the show. He describes the eye product “a cream that’s very, very wet and it dries down for just a trace of liner — it’s not even a line it’s just a smudge for a little definition.”

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Models Gracie Carvalho and Maria Borges rocking the brand’s signature shade backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (Photo: Getty Images)

The Angels will also have a bit of an ethereal glow, courtesy of a Krylon Interferenz color used as a highlight. “It has a little pink and gold so that catches the light and makes eyes look really bright and fresh,” says Page. “It’s used in the inner corner of the eye, traced a bit under the lash line and goes a little bit on the bow of the lips as well — it helps pop and gives a little bit of brightness.”

The Victoria’s Secret models have also become known for their signature tan, but Page is over it. “Some of them spray their bodies beforehand and we have to tone down some of it, because it gets a little bit Shake ‘n Bake.”

No contouring and no spray tan? We didn’t think we could possibly love Dick Page more, but this new, much more natural Victoria’s Secret bombshell look is better than ever.

Related:

What’s With All The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Drama Today?

A Victoria’s Secret Model on Drinking Warm Water

Watch Lily Aldridge Train for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show: How to Work Out Like a Supermodel