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In the mood: the hottest beauty trends from London Fashion Week

Burberry Beauty backstage by make-up artist Wendy Rowe, London Fashion Week AW17
Burberry Beauty backstage by make-up artist Wendy Rowe, London Fashion Week AW17

Sex was on the brain backstage at London Fashion Week. Whether it was sparked by the remnants of Valentine’s day, the launch of the 50 Shades sequel or a reaction against more serious current affairs, backstage hair and make-up teams were getting in the mood by adding an extra dose of sensuality and flirtatiousness to fashion’s ordinarily austere London look.

‘We’re doing post-sex hair’ explained hairstylist Sam McKnight backstage at Roland Mouret as he filled the roots of models’ hair with Batiste’s Frizz Tamer and then scrunched it up with his fingers. ‘Roland’s collection is so structured so the hair is the opposite.’ At the same show MAC Cosmetics make-up artist Val Garland was letting models choose their own make-up and the ‘messing it up’ so as to give it a morning after deconstruction.

Romantic encounters were also the main source of beauty inspiration at Preen, Topshop and Temperly – all of which showcased this season’s most Instagrammed beauty trend – the snogged-off lip. At Preen, Garland massaged voluptuous amounts of shiny red lipstick into models’ mouths.

‘This lip is all about snogging,’ she confided, with a wry smile to a group of beauty editors. ‘I’m calling it the kiss off. We're putting gloss over the entire red lip for an air of sexiness that smudges.’

A post shared by ValGarland (@thevalgarland) on Feb 20, 2017 at 1:48am PST

Over at Temperley, the innuendos continued with 'feminine and flirtatious' hair wrapped in a velvet pussy bow by Moroccanoil stylist Antonio Corral Calero and at Gareth Pugh, Nails Inc manicurist Marian Newman created some risqué nails inspired by a popular feminist anti-Trump slogan. We’ll leave that to your imagination.

But it wasn’t all overtly sexual references. At House of Holland, global makeup artist for The Body Shop, Ciara O'Shea was painting beautiful, romantic sunset eyes; a vibrant hue of orange and blue using the soon to launch Eye Colour Sticks, topped off with glitter highlighter in the inner corner to add an extra glint to the eye. And finally yesterday at Burberry’s Makers House in Soho, we saw Byron-esque romanticism a-plenty, where models, male and female were given sleepless, come to bed eyes thanks to a pinkish new Burberry Lip Contour pencil (launching later this year).

The main message of the week was a light hearted one. These romantic make-up looks encourage us to let go of structured techniques, turn up the heat and embrace a little messiness.

So, in the immortal words of Marvin Gaye (well, sort of)... Let’s get it on.

Follow Katie on Twitter @katieservice