How 'Daisy Jones & The Six' Re-created Classic '70s Beauty
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After more than a year of production delays brought on by the pandemic, Daisy Jones & The Six is finally here (with new episodes being released on Prime Video every Friday through March 24). The 10-episode series, which is based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel by the same name, follows the rise and fall of fictional ’70s rock band Daisy Jones & The Six—and the love triangle at the heart of its undoing. Perhaps almost as central to the series as the sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll are the makeup and hair looks that defined the generation, and helped bring to life the three female leads: Daisy Jones (the band’s co-lead singer), Camila Dunne (wife of co-lead singer Billy Dunne), and Karen Sirko (the band’s keyboardist).
Following the novel’s lead, makeup department head Rebecca Wachtel and hair department head Maryann Hennings worked side by side (along with the production’s costume designer, Denise Wingate, and the actors themselves) to ensure that each of the women was given a distinct look. Ahead of the series’ highly anticipated release, Wachtel and Hennings share the real-life ’70s stars who served as inspiration, their must-have makeup and hair products, and the looks they’re most excited to see.
Storyboarding the Looks
Prior to 10 months of filming, Wachtel and Hennings spent nearly three months preparing each character’s look, which included research, storyboards, and multiple hair and makeup tests. “Daisy to me was Stevie Nicks, and that’s basically what the show is based on, so that was easy,” Hennings says. Played by Riley Keough (the granddaughter of real-life rock ’n’ roll legend Elvis Presley), Daisy alternates between big, textured waves and oily, flat hair depending on her state of mind and drug use.
On makeup, Wachtel pulled from Nicks, as well as actress, model, and Rolling Stones muse Anita Pallenberg. “There was also this one magazine that I just loved from the ’70s that had this kind of soft wash of eye shadow across the lid in a cat shape,” Wachtel says. “It just worked for Riley’s eyes, so that was her show look. We would build it up and change the color tone for the show, intensifying it over time as she’s becoming more famous and as she’s becoming unhinged,” Wachtel adds, noting that she would shift from warmer tones to cooler-toned eye shadows as the drug use started to show on the character. “We start seeing the under-eye circles and the redness around the nose, and this sheen to her face, but through it all, she’s a beautiful mess.”
To physicalize the personality differences between Daisy and Camila, played by Camila Morrone, hair and makeup took a softer approach. For hair, Hennings turned to Ali MacGraw, keeping Camila’s long, dark hair softer—even after she becomes the wife of a rock star. “Daisy’s tough and edgy, and Camila is a sweet, motherly woman,” Hennings says. “And I just felt like when they’re in a scene together, you really saw that difference based on the styles I chose.”
Similarly, Wachtel highlighted Camila’s natural beauty, “bumping it up” as the band starts to become famous. “I wanted her to feel very relatable, very much in that Laurel Canyon ’70s feel with tanned skin and the rosiness that goes across the bridge of her nose and under her cheeks,” she shares. “Maybe she throws on some mascara and a little bit of lip color.”
Then, there’s Suki Waterhouse’s Karen, whose voluminous blowout and dark eyeliner are a combination of Brigitte Bardot and Debbie Harry. “I just went for bright, frosty highlights, and I took her as if she always did her own hair, because she’s that cool,” says Hennings, who based Karen’s hair on a very specific 1965 photo of Bardot by Douglas Kirkland. “She’s sitting down with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, and she’s got this beautiful, big blonde hair,” Hennings explains.
On makeup, Wachtel made a cat eye Karen’s signature look, adjusting it and adding pops of color depending on the timeline. “The final shows are the late ’70s, so we start seeing these stronger shapes on her eyes and these blue colors with the black liner as we start to move into the early-’80s makeup.”
Becoming Daisy Jones
In real life, Keough has eight tattoos, so Wachtel would start every day airbrushing the tattoos and applying body makeup from her neck down to give her a tan. Daisy’s lip and eye shadow colors changed throughout her onstage moments, and Wachtel would carry around a bag of lip and eye shadow palettes on set to whip up custom colors, typically in reddish tones. But her base largely stayed the same, with a focus on cream products like Chantecaille’s Future Skin Gel Foundation, Julie Hewett’s Rosie Cheekie Mini, and Evan Healy’s Luna Glow Balm.
On hair, Hennings prepped with the LolaVie Glossing Detangler and Perfecting Leave-In to help keep the hair healthy during production (Hennings actually used these products on all the actors). When more volume was needed during filming of the band’s performances, Hennings would alternate between the Living Proof’s Full Dry Volume & Texture Spray and Oribe’s Thick Dry Finishing Spray. “Then I’d go through and just balance it out,” Hennings says, explaining that she would put a mix of bigger and smaller curls throughout Keough’s hair.
While Hennings often used hot rollers on set to stay true to the curls of the ’70s, when pressed for time (and when working with Keough), she preferred the Dyson Airwrap. “Riley’s hair is so thick and so heavy, hot rollers would be a joke—her hair would spit them out,” says Hennings, who also used the Airwrap for all the extras on set. “We would have, like, 500 to 1,000 background actors a day, so you didn’t have time to get rollers in,” she explains. “People didn’t use curling irons in the ’70s, so the curl was fuller and fuzzier, and the Airwrap was a good cheat for not using hot rollers, because it’s the fastest-working tool.”
Capturing Camila’s Old-School Glam
To play up Camila’s more down-to-earth look, Wachtel would use the Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Pillow Talk lip pencil with a lip balm or lip gloss over top. Chantecaille’s Future Skin Gel Foundation made another appearance, as did Julie Hewett’s Rosie Cheekie Mini. “It has camellia oil in it, so it gives a little glow without being shimmery or anything,” Wachtel says, adding, “It just looks like a natural flush.”
To give Morrone’s straight hair just the slightest texture, Hennings often used Oribe’s Thick Dry Finishing Spray and Dyson’s Corrale Styler Straightener to create S waves by bending the hair back and forth as the straightener was moved through the hair. “That product is so brilliant, because it’s really easy to get a nice S with it, and you can use it cordless,” Hennings says. “That thing saved me on set, because I would just run out there in between and touch people up.”
Karen Sirko’s Mod Inspired Look
Karen’s signature cat eye may change in intensity during the show, but the liner itself was always the same: MAC Pro Longwear Fluidline Eye Liner in Blacktrack. “It was thicker and thinner at different points, and then when we we’re getting into the shows, we start adding color under her lid and creating more of what we think of heading into the ’80s vibe,” Wachtel says. Lips stayed neutral with balms and glosses (Burt’s Bees Pink Blossom and MAC Glow Play in Sweet Treat were favorites), and cooler eye shadow tones from Viseart Paris’s neutral and shimmer palettes were used later in the show.
For Karen’s Bardot-inspired hair, Hennings would add volume and grip by applying Living Proof’s Full Thickening Mousse to the hair while it was damp and blowing it out. “Then I would use a stronger hairspray and roll it with traditional hot rollers,” she shares. To give the rollers enough time to cool, Waterhouse would go to makeup before returning to Hennings to finish the look. “You need to leave them in until they cool, because if you take them out when they’re warm, the weight of your hair will drag the curl out,” explains Hennings, who adds that she would use large and medium rollers in Waterhouse’s hair. “And after you put the rollers in, you have to brush your hair out. Use a vent brush, or if you don’t want too much curl, just use a regular brush like a Mason Pearson.”
An Unexpected Dilemma
Though the initial COVID delays gave the entire cast and crew more time to prepare, once filming was underway, there were still some additional pandemic-related hold-ups. “When we were in the thick of shooting in New Orleans, I was stuck in my hotel room with COVID,” Wachtel recalls. “Riley and I had joked about what would happen if I got COVID, and she was like, ‘I’m just going to do my own makeup, I’m too much of a control freak.’ So I would FaceTime with her for all of her changes and looks, and every time she was doing her makeup, I would talk her through it,” Wachtel says with a laugh, adding that a makeup artist would be on hand to help Keough find products. “She did a really good job, and she was just a dream actress for a makeup artist overall.”
Major Beauty Moments to Look Out For
Wachtel’s favorite beauty look can be seen in the trailer, and it includes blue eye shadow that both she and Riley were determined to use. “We had pulled blue to use during tests, and I was just waiting for the perfect outfit. Denise put Riley in this winged dark blue and silvery costume, and she’s falling back into the audience,” Wachtel says of the moment. “I did the blue eye shadow, and I put this Stila Magnificent Metals in Comex Platinum over it with a wet-looking lip. This is the beginning of when Daisy is kind of falling apart, and it’s so perfect for the time and her emotional state.”
For Hennings, the best beauty moment involves a switch-up for Camila. “There’s a scene where she’s sick of what Billy’s up to and who he’s become, and she decides that she’s going to go out,” Hennings says. “She puts on this sexy outfit, and I put the hot rollers in, and I mean, if there’s a fuck-you look, this is it,” she says laughing. “I made it a soft wave with that ’70s tease and the curtain bangs—it changed the character to what she was supposed to be at that moment.”
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