18 Must-See Beauty Looks from the 2016 Met Gala

May 2nd’s Met Gala brought so many stars to the red carpet, that we’re still making our way through the best moments – in terms of styling; outfits, hair and makeup.

Here, we explain the best and worst of the beauty looks from the event – the must-see looks from the night.

1. Beyonce

This is certainly not one of our favourite looks on Queen Bey, but we salute our sister for being the Queen of changing things up. We adore the sliken straight locks worn for this look, to keep in formation with the latex dress; we also love how Bey committed to the ‘Machina’ part of this year’s theme by going for an unusual, doll-like beauty, with minimal makeup on the face and lips, adding colour only to the eye.

This gave an almost inhumane look but worked well to counter the ‘Manus’ nods brought by the hand-beaded dress.

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2. Emily Ratajkowski

As we said when gushing over her flawlessly sleek outfit, the makeup really helps bring this look together, with Emily’s contoured skin also ‘baked’ to perfection and glowing like embers.

The eyes are really well defined and the lips finished with a nude lipstick. Perfection.

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3. Willow Smith

Willow kept to her personality on a night where reinvention seemed too tempting for many to miss. Owning the red carpet with her locked ‘do and signature feline eyes, the young model and singer also brought her playful makeup game to the event, dotting a metallic liner under her eyes, as she has been seen to do previously. And we loved it.

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4. Amber Heard

Johnny Depp’s fiancé and actress Amber Heard brought Jessica Rabbit vibes with her entire look, but most poignantly with her beauty – going big with the hair (styled with extensions by Robet Vetica), all side-swept and flowing, and heavy in the shade on the lip.

A subtle smoky eye in neutral brown, plus a little face-sculpting blush on the cheeks set the whole thing off.

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5. Solange Knowles

Again, we forgive you if you disagree that this beauty look is worthy of mention here in the ‘best’ list, but we’re giving Solange credit for delivering the hair and makeup needed to pull off this daring yellow ensemble.

The girl knows how to commit to and make the best of any garment, and did just that with subtle glossy eyes, nude lips and her signature full brows.

The hair basically became the crowning glory, with an oddly-chopped, blunt fringe and curls coiffed to a voluminous bob. We’ve said it before and will again – the girl is art.

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6. Zendaya

Zendaya Coleman is another queen of changing up one’s look, and hit the Gala’s red carpet with a bulb-shaped black bob and deeply-hued smoky eyes.

This was a grown up and sexy look on the star, and proved that her style team is straight fire; her beauty game always on-point.

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7. Naomi Harris

We did already explain how Naomi’s look was made via the beauty, which gave that last push towards making her ensemble exquisite.

Ms Harris looked every bit the Bond girl with her flowing locks, and kept her lips nude and glossy, with equally subtle eye makeup; she let her natural beauty shine and it left her radiant on the red carpet.

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8. Zoe Kravitz

So while her outfit didn’t make our best-dressed list, Zoe’s beauty look did. We loved her slicked down, waved baby hairs and the flawless makeup look – the young singer and actress doing the subtle lip look like most other attendees on the night, together with a cat eye flick to the lids.

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9. Jennifer Hudson

We weren’t sure about this beauty look being combined with the H&M gown the singer wore, but singer Jennifer Hudson’s smokey eye and purple lips did look great up close, crafted by celeb makeup artist Yolanda Frederick.

We especially like the pushed back, voluminous bob, which made the beauty more than just your average evening look.

& Worst Beauty Looks…

10. Lupita Nyong’o

So we were sad to find Lupita on our miss list from the Met Gala – especially because the  offending detail is inspired by African culture; her hair towering above her gorgeous look and reminding us of traditional South African tribe styling, but ultimately taking away from the rest of her ensemble.

The Kenyan told Vogue’s Andre Leon Talley her creative ‘do was inspired by Nina Simone and “women all around the continent”, saying Nina was “an inspiration.” Lupita’s hairstylist also spoke of the continent’s influence on the style, telling Huffington Post;

 “There’s not one particular visual reference which inspired the look. Strong bold structures have always been prevalent in African history and our goal is always to show just how versatile textured hair is.

Nina Simone is a excellent cultural reference point, as she was someone who was always very confident with how she wore her hair. We wanted to ensure that the look on the carpet last night was a modern and creative take on traditional style.”

Love Nina, love the inspiration, the message and our hair, but still not feeling this look with the gown. Team SPICE also aren’t sure that Lupita carried this off as well as Miss Simone did with her most bold looks.

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11. Kristen Stewart

This metallic eyed look didn’t turn out as ace as expected; the hue and the heavy liner not really working well on her tone of skin, and slightly ageing the young star.

Up close, perhaps this look was way fresher, but via camera, we weren’t really feeling this although we do appreciate the graphic application of the eye shadow, bringing a futuristic feel for the ‘Machina’ theme of the night.

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12. Ciara

So we’ll admit that up close, this beauty look isn’t as bad as we had first thought, but it certainly isn’t what we’d pair with the H&M outfit Ciara wore on the red carpet, and almost left the entire look on our worst-dressed list.

Ciara’s silver locks weren’t quite to our taste, despite a lot of work clearly having gone into the finger-waved, ’20s-inspired ‘do by Mizani global artist director, Cesar Ramirez. But the makeup (by celebrity MUA Yolanda Frederick) was rightly toned down and subtle, leaving the hair and the sparkling dress to make the most impact.

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13. Diane von Furstenberg

Speaking of bad hair though… Designer Diane von Furstenberg really went there with her embellishment, but with odd results.

It’s not that we don’t like butterflies, it’s just that we don’t like them stuck in anyone’s hair. It’s a definite reinvention of the talent’s style though, so that’s a positive.

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14. Lily Aldridge

Model Lily’s outfit made our hit list, but her golden brows? We’re not so sure, despite them being perfectly co-ordinated with her gown.

Inspired by Dior’s Spring/Summer’14 showcase, the brows were painted thickly in a metallic hue, but we think they could and probably should have been avoided; the ensemble would’ve looked classic without them.

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15. Cindy Crawford

Cindy’s on this list because we feel more could’ve been done to make the whole look more special. Large silver sequins are difficult to pull off (they have a tendancy to look tacky), even for supermodels, and sadly in this case, it was the beauty look that left this ensemble a little left of good.

We reckon a more voluminous hairdo, or even a ponytail may have saved this one. But we will admit the model’s body was smoking hot and her skin just glowed.

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16. Taylor Swift

Taylor landed herself on our worst-dressed list, and also our list of bad beauty, because we aren’t too keen on those dark lips.

The makeup was executed well, but with the platinum blonde and the stroppy heels, it was al a bit much. We’ve seen the singer look better and with makeup that compliments her better.

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17. Katy Perry

While we had Katy’s outfit on the best-dress list, her beauty look almost toppled the thing entirely, with this had and makeup combo going a little too left…

We understand the makeup’s attempt to be doll-like and counter the ‘Manus’ or man-made vibe of the dress, but the hair – asides going for regal feels to go along with the gown – is just too much; too rigid-looking and basically, weird.

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18. Kanye West

The weirdest beauty look of the night though, clearly from Kanye West, who opted for artificial beauty via a set of blue contacts.

It seems the rapper took the ‘Machina’ vibe to the extreme, with ‘Ye looking like a baddie from some sci-fi film, but it was just a tiny bit creepy for us, though props for committing to the look.

But what do you think? Share your best and worst celebrity beauty looks from the 2016 Met Gala online, tagging us @SPICETVAFRICA.

Image source: @Zoeisabellakravitz, Vogue.com, Look.co.uk, Allure.com, Nymag.com, Huffingtonpost.com