How Zendaya Got Her Stunning 1970s Hair and Makeup for Allure 's Latest Cover

Brennan Kilbane

About an hour and a half east of Venice Beach, beneath the imposing gaze of Mount San Antonio, a broad-cheeked man by the name of Dewey Cable realized his lifelong dream of owning...his very own public-use airport. He and his wife, Maude, drained their savings to buy the land, which they flattened themselves with the help of rented bulldozers. How could they know that nearly 75 years later, Cable Airport's concrete expanse would be home to well over 200 aircraft and later host Zendaya, her team of personal artisans, and an Allure crew for the magazine's December 2019/January 2020 cover shoot? History is made every day, and seldom do we ever properly record it. Here, the hair and makeup artists behind the cover look break down the scene for posterity.

Sheika Daley, makeup artist: The location is just beautiful. It feels like an airport out of the movies, with the small planes taking off all around us. And being with Zendaya is like being around family.

Larry Sims, hairstylist: We've all done a lot of shoots together. At this point, I feel like she trusts us. The Allure team had put together a mood board — a skeleton of what they wanted us to accomplish — but they allowed us to apply our own interpretation. Zendaya, Law [Roach, the fashion stylist], Sheika, and I looked at different shapes. Zendaya has a great eye. She'd say, 'OK, let's do it this way, let's add this.'

Daley: They wanted us to home in on the '70s, so we pulled up some references from that era, and we all liked these color-washed eyes. I custom-made this color that fit her skin tone and the clothes. I'm all about customization — I never use anything right from the pan — so we blended a few shadows together for the eye. Then the blush — it was major. We wanted it to be more of Madonna, pop era, Cyndi Lauper, where they wore their blush in the contour of their cheeks rather than the apple. I mixed a few: a fuchsia base, adding pink and peach as a gradient up toward the eyes.

Sims: I think the edginess and over-the-top [nature] of the hair lends itself to that super blue lid. Sheika and I sometimes push each other’s buttons, but I'll always ask her what she thinks. For the look before this one, we had a big, kind of deconstructed Mohawk. And then, using spray and pins, we just flattened it. That was actually Zendaya's idea. So I pulled it out on the sides, almost into a triangle. I got the wig custom-made just for this, but her natural hair texture has this sheen to it. I used a hair oil and Osis+ hair spray.

Daley: We really have grown with Zendaya. When I met her, she was 15 years old and had a baby face. She's really coming into her own now. Her face has changed; her body has changed.

Sims: She's such a chameleon and a risk-taker. Fearless. And she's not afraid of looking awkward, either.

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Originally Appeared on Allure