Mermaid Hair Made Easy

We didn't get more than two steps into Rodarte's backstage before we were ambushed by quite possibly the most beautiful hair we've seen all Fashion Week. Design duo Kate and Laura Mulleavy were inspired by childhood nostalgia, which makeup artist James Kaliardos and hairstylist Odile Gilbert combined with a touch of the '80s. The resulting look made everyone of a certain age immediately feel like the team had raided their youth for inspiration.

Refreshingly, the hair was probably the simplest of the season. Working with John Frieda, Gilbert added extensions to create the needed mid-back length and spritzed hair with Frizz-Ease Daily Nourishment Leave-In Conditioner Spray to coat and dampen each strand. She then separated hair into two even sections and braided each into a thick pigtail braid. Next, models were sent off to makeup to allow the hair to dry.

According to Gilbert, using this method helps give the hair texture and wave, without sacrificing health or shine(the conditioner nourishes it). Once the hair was dry, the braids were undone and brushed out with her fingers. She created a side part, then took one thick piece of hair from the swept-over side and twisted it, stopping just behind the ear. She finished by securing it with a custom-made Rodarte butterfly barrette and spritzing hair with a light mist of hairspray so the style would hold its shape yet still have movement.

Kaliardos complemented this soft, easy style with an impactful makeup look that gave models a bit of edge to mix in with their sweetness. Working with NARS, he used the chocolate-y red side of the new Dolomites shadow duo (launching in fall 2014) on model's eyes, applying it to the lids and up into the brow. He used that shade to define the brow, which gave all of the girls' brows a reddish tint.

But, it was the lip that caught our attention — like a magpie to a shiny trinket, we saw glitter-foiled lips and couldn't take our eyes off of them. Sorry, kids, but this isn't an existing product: Kaliardos lined lips with either El Agua Velvet Lip Liner Pencil (launching in the fall) for the light lip looks, or Mambo eyeliner for the dark, then applied custom-mixed lip concoctions. For the light lips, he used Dominique Audacious lipstick (another fall launch), and for the dark look, he chose Deborah Audacious lipstick (launching in, you guessed it, fall 2014). Each was mixed up in a big tub with a very large helping of super-fine glitter, then painted onto the lips. He patted on a bit of Anguilla Matte Multiple (out next month, yay!) on the light lips to finish, while the dark lips got a coat of Rouge Tribal Larger Than Life Lip Gloss. Like we said, mesmerizing.

Click through to check out the different looks, then tell us if this gave you some hardcore nostalgia for your My Little Pony-playing, Jem and the Holograms-watching days.