How Daisy Jones & The Six's Lead Makeup Artist Helped Bring the Novel to Life
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
When makeup artist Rebecca Wachtel was hired to help bring Daisy Jones & The Six to life visually, she knew the expectations were high. Taylor Jenkins Reid's 2019 novel about the rise and fall of the titular 1970s-era band was already a No. 1 best-seller, and now it was also about to be turned into a limited series co-produced by none other than Reese Witherspoon and Prime Video.
Daisy Jones & The Six: A Novel
$9.99
amazon.com
"I read the book right away," Wachtel—whose most notable makeup work was seen on Pretty Little Liars—recalls of booking the gig. "It was really important to me to keep the integrity of the characters that Taylor Jenkins Reid created as much as possible in conjunction with the casting."
So what exactly went into the preparation process? "I watched a lot of '70s documentaries on Laurel Canyon and also different genres of the time cause I think it's important to include all the subcultures within a show to make it really well-rounded," she says. "I did all this research and saw the actors that were cast, and then kind of envisioned how they would embody those characters."
From there, Wachtel started putting together extensive mood boards for all 12 of the main characters and their arcs from beginning to end to highlight their transformation through the years. For the titular character Daisy Jones, who is played by Riley Keough—the real-life granddaughter of rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley—Wachtel referred to Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks, whom the story is loosely based on, and German actress/model named Anita Pallemberg. "I really liked her look for Daisy," says Wachtel, noting that at the same time, "I wanted her to be her own person."
To achieve that, Wachtel used tons of dark tones to warm up Keough's naturally pale skin. "I wanted her to have this, like, layered glowing '70s kind of look," she continues. "So I layered all kinds of cream—liquid foundations, cream bronzers, cream blushes, a couple of different kinds. I didn't really powder her. I just like it to look like her skin and natural."
It also helped that Keough was a breeze to work on. "She was really open, like she had a couple of ideas and opinions, and we would work together on stuff," says Wachtel. "Everything was super fast-paced and we didn't have a lot of time to do makeup tests, so [after] she'd wrap, we'd just try to throw on a bunch of different eyeshadow colors to see what would look good on her face, and she'd be like this abstract painting. We would have a lot of fun playing around to see what would work."
One of Wachtel's favorite creations from the show was from a scene when Daisy, wearing a frilly black sheer ensemble, is falling back into a crowd during a performance. "I did this really strong blue eyeshadow with a little bit of this light silver glitter on top and a red lip. It's messy and not perfect, to show where she's at at that stage of the story," says Wachtel. "It was in my original boards, we just had to find the right outfit it was gonna go with. And it was the perfect timing—that's the point where Daisy's just starting to become unhinged but not completely. She's kind of pale and washed out; she's a little greasy in her face; she's on drugs."
But perhaps the most iconic look of the show was from the final episode when Daisy and the band begin to unravel. There's a specific scene hours before showtime in Chicago where Daisy glances at herself in the mirror and decides to smudge eyeliner across her lids—a look that is far cry from her usual natural glam. "There's a reason she looks that way," Wachtel says through a laugh. "It's in the story, and it's supposed to look a little crazy. We wanted it to look messy."
For that scene, Wachtel used Inglot AMC Eyeliner Gel 77 on her eyes and topped it with Lemonhead LA's Spacepaste in a glittery gold hue. Then for Daisy's lips, she used a MAC lip liner in Brick and created a lip color from a Bobbi Brown pro palette. In fact, most (if not all) of the lip looks, as well as the eyeshadow looks, seen in the show are actually mixed and matched from different palettes. "I just know the color in my head that I want," says the makeup pro. "I just mixed colors together to create whatever I wanted at that time."
But Daisy isn't the only character to have a standout look: Karen Sirko, played by the naturally glam Suki Waterhouse, was unique in her own way. "She's like a little Debbie Harry, a little Brigitte Bardot—like she's her own thing," says Wachtel, adding that Karen is a little ahead of the game in terms of beauty trends. "It's the mid-to-late '70s, and that is the time when what we think of as '80s makeup, was really kind of late '70s, early '80s. And since they're rock stars, they're at the forefront of creating these looks. So I was kind of leaning into some bolder colors on the eyes. We would do a lot of blues on her, but still this cat-eye vibe. So that's kind of my little tease into what's gonna come next."
Karen's signature winged liner look was created with the MAC Fluidline Eyeliner & Brow Gel in Blacktrack and a mix of hues from Viseart Paris neutral and shimmer palettes. Her lips, though, were always kept neutral; Wachtel's go-to product for that was a Burt's Bees lip balm in Pink Blossom.
As for Camila Dunne, the maternal character played by Camila Morone? "Camila was pretty much natural through the whole thing," says Wachtel. "I wanted her to be that Earth Mama. But when The Six become famous and she goes out on tour to visit, she subtly bumps up her makeup."
Sam Claflin's Billy Dunne and the other male characters also sat in Wachtel's makeup chair for the show. Her favorite product to use on everyone, including the ladies, was the Jones Road Beauty Miracle Balm."When they're performing, we'd put it on their chest, like on Sam and his neck—that was kind of his sheen look," she explains. "And then when they're sweatier, I used Josie Moran Creamy Oil. I also used SOL cream bronzers on a lot of the band to warm up their skin in high points."
Oh, and if you thought the makeup was only limited to their faces: think again. "You watch the show and everybody looks super-natural and [think] like, 'Oh, this is easy,'" says Wachtel. "It was a lot of work to get to that point because we had to cover a lot of tattoos. Riley is covered in body makeup. Sebastian Chacon, who plays Warren, is covered in tattoos and they put him as the drummer. So it was like an hour in makeup!"
Looking back, "it was all very fast-paced and there were a lot of decisions that would be made last minute," she continues, but being part of this experience is one she is proud of. "The whole story was fun to create," she says. "It's kind of a dream."
Daisy Jones & The Six is available to stream on Amazon now.
You Might Also Like
