The crime thriller Carolina Caroline might be about a woman yearning to escape a small town, but for the film’s star Samara Weaving, her character’s big city dream is a reality. The actor stepped onto the red carpet for the movie’s premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5 oozing Old Hollywood glamour in a red David Koma gown paired with soft, romantic makeup centered around glowing skin.
“Because of the color, we wanted to keep the makeup quite soft and glowy and to keep it very classical looking and fresh,” Weaving’s makeup artist Benjamin Puckey says of the inspiration behind the look. “So we gave her a beautiful, luminous base, soft eye with feathery lashes, a bronzy glow, and soft pink, moisturized lips.”
A radiant complexion isn’t possible without the right prep, so Puckey kicked off his glam session with the actor by treating her skin with the Laduora SkinLift System. The compact tool is equipped with four different technologies (red light, near infrared light, face massage, and a proprietary blend of microcurrent and electroporation) and different treatment modes, so it’s like having multiple devices in one — handy when you’re a makeup artist who travels with a kit or you have limited space in your medicine cabinet at home).
Puckey went with the Advanced Lift Mode to take down any puffiness, smooth skin, and boost glow. “I always start at the jawline and work up, pushing up against the cheekbone to kind of create that kind of chiseled effect,” he explains. “It really glides over the face very easily, so you can maneuver it around the cheekbone. And then from the forehead, I went in upward strokes, and then from the side of the nose, again, against the cheekbone up. So I’m constantly making upward movements with it, kind of a very classic, almost like a gua sha technique, in a way.”
Once the treatment was done, Puckey moisturized Weaving’s skin with Beau Domaine’s The Cream for added radiance. “It made the skin feel very balanced and luminous, which also made the foundation sit better on top of the skin,” says Puckey. For a slightly bronzy effect, the makeup artist mixed the shades Sand and Swim of Saie’s Dew Bronze Soft-Focus Sculpting Liquid Bronzer to create a custom hue just right for the actor’s skin tone.
To complement Weaving’s crimson dress (styled by Jordan Dorso), Puckey softly defined the eyes by giving her a fluttery lash look with the K-beauty Mude Inspire Curling Mascara. “It’s a tubing mascara which coats every lash in a thin layer of mascara without making it too thick,” he shares. “It’s the one I stock up on every time I go to Korea.”
As the final touch that tied the makeup together, Puckey went with a “your-lips-but-better” lip shade, specifically Clé de Peau Beauté Lipstick Shine in 211 Influential. “That color is one that is a very universal pink that suits a lot of different complexions,” he explains. “It’s a perfect balance between warm and cool. I think people often get confused when they’re applying a pink that they feel like it should either be cool or warm tone. But if you find a pink that’s more neutral, that has a good balance, it can work on a lot of different skin tones. And also, because of the formula of the lipstick, it’s very moisturizing and has a little bit of a glossy finish. So it’s a very forgiving opaque pink, making it very easy to apply — it one of those colors that you can apply with your eyes closed.”
For hair, stylist David von Cannon tied the entire look together by sweeping Weaving’s hair up into a soft, side-parted updo.
Below, the key products behind Weaving’s radiant makeup at TIFF.
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