Charli XCX’s Music Eras Come And Go, But Her Makeup Is “Still Just Me”

Nobody is better at being a musical chameleon than Charli xcx. Just when you think you’ve got her figured out and think she’s going left, she turns the corner and goes right. After the unparalleled success of Brat and casually writing a whole album for Wuthering Heights, she dropped the cheeky under-two-minute single “Rock Music.” While her sound is always subject to change, her makeup is decidedly always her, as she tells NYLON: “It’s still just me. I like to do my makeup depending on how I feel that day, and that’s what I’m continuing to do.” Her latest move, right in step with her rock-music era, is joining forces with YSL Beauty as its newest ambassador.

She introduced a new vision both sonically and aesthetically with the “Rock Music” video, sporting a dark oil-slick eye look to get in the grunge mood. It feels new for the moment, but as she tells me, it’s been a lifelong thing: “When I was younger, I was experimenting with huge black eyes.” Her True Romance era comes to mind, with its punk-pop tendencies and the early 2010s feel of heavy-handed eyeliner, black mesh tops, and lined lips. The “Rock Music” video is that girl, all grown up: “I still do that now, so I haven’t even left that behind me.” In contrast, she had a fresh-faced moment in the video as well, telling me she likes to do nothing on her eye with clear skin. YSL Beauty helped her get there in the video, and they made things official with a campaign shot in New York by Renell Medrano.

“We played around with some amazing makeup looks with Sam Visser, who is such an incredible makeup artist,” Charli says. “I love his work. I’ve been able to work with him a couple of times in the past, but it was fun to have him create these looks specifically for the campaign.” The campaign sees Charli showing off YSL Beauty’s new hero product that got its unofficial debut on her and Alex Consani at the Met Gala: the Skin Affair Soft Glow Cushion Foundation. All the luminosity a party girl deserves comes in the medium-coverage cushion, which comes in 31 shades that melt into the skin and get rid of any mid-party complexion woes. Visser contrasts the angelic base with a classically YSL Beauty smoky eye that’s right in step with Charli’s trusted look over the years: a little imperfect yet completely intentional.

Beyond the YSL Beauty and Saint Laurent kismet (Charli is a campaign star for Saint Laurent as well), she tells me that teaming up with the beauty brand aligns with how she puts on her makeup everyday. “I’m not that technical with it, which is why I like YSL Beauty. It’s easy and chill for me to use. I like to keep it effortless and natural.” Charli’s makeup hack, besides putting on her lip and running to her next gig, is brushing and even sometimes hairspray-ing her brows, which she admits is “probably terrible for you,” but coming from the girl who had a mountain of cigarettes in her latest music video, we think she’ll be OK.

She says her go-to product is the Lovenude Lip Blusher Soft Blurring Lip Color, a buildable lip product that she says makes it easy to throw on with your finger and go. It’s also usable as a blush, eyeshadow, and even contour, which makes getting out the door to a party that much easier. And just like her musical icons (Lou Reed, Justice, and Daft Punk, to name a few), her beauty icons skew alt while still being completely unique and timeless. “All of the classics. Monica Bellucci is always up there. I’ve been looking at a lot of ’90s runways. Béatrice Dalle is up there. She’s such an icon. Nina Hagen for a more extreme, bigger look.” Right before we spoke on the phone, Charli dropped a Substack post called “SS26,” seemingly posting lyrics and teasing a video to come May 21. If her first video and song were any indication, maybe we’ll be getting a satire of Charli’s fashionable obsessions. Wherever she takes us next, we know her sound — and her YSL Beauty beat — will be unmistakably Charli, baby.