Welcome to Style Detective, a series from T Magazine. Each month, we’ll investigate readers’ questions regarding the items and objects they can’t stop thinking about — and can’t track down. Subscribe here and click this link to submit your own questions.
 |
| Iglesias Mas/© Sony Pictures Classics/Everett Collection; Getty Images |
By Angela Koh Angela Koh is a market editor for T Magazine. |
|
“I’m trying to find the eyeliner that Julianne Moore wore in the 2024 Pedro Almodóvar movie, ‘The Room Next Door.’ It’s a smoky off-brown liner with hints of orange and red, and it might have some sparkle to it. Despite having spent a lot of time at beauty counters, I can’t find anything like it. Most eyeliner pencils are either too red, which makes me look like I have conjunctivitis, or plain brown, which isn’t interesting. I’ve already Googled, but there’s nothing written about Moore’s makeup in the movie.” — Adriana, Brooklyn, N.Y.
I’ll admit, I hadn’t watched the film — it’s been in my queue for a while, and your question finally got me to press play. “The Room Next Door” is about two friends who’ve lost touch, Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton), and reconnect when Martha is diagnosed with terminal cancer. As in his other movies, Pedro Almodóvar incorporates striking, saturated colors, especially pops of carnal red: the truck driven by Martha’s ex’s new wife, Ingrid’s slouchy leather purse and the lipstick that draws out the warmth in her eyes.
When the credits rolled, I scanned for the makeup artist: Morag Ross. An online search turned up no immediate contact information. On Instagram, though, we had a mutual acquaintance: Kathleen Hou, the beauty director at Elle magazine. I asked if Hou knew how to reach Ross, and her response was: “Do you know Stewart?” She meant Stewart Searle, director of Artists in Film, a New York- and London-based agency representing behind-the-camera creative talent. He put me in touch with Daniela Milton at Milton Agency, and she connected me with Ross’s primary agent, Mandi Martin, who passed my inquiry along.
 |
| Julianne Moore in the 2024 film “The Room Next Door.” Iglesias Mas/© Sony Pictures Classics/Everett Collection |
The following day, Ross’s response came with a twist: Moore isn’t wearing eyeliner in the film. “I kept the makeup really practical: good skin and brows, a little cheek color and tinted lip balm,” she wrote in an email. What you’re seeing is eye primer by YSL Beauty (sold out), IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara and a touch of Westman Atelier contour in Biscuit around the eye. I mentioned that you’d been hunting for the perfect smoky brown liner with hints of orange and red. “The simplest way to achieve [that look] is to use a brown liner and smudge some orange or red eye pencil onto it,” allowing you to control exactly how much color is coming through. Ross added that a rich brown mascara can enhance the warmth. To avoid appearing like you have pink eye, she recommended a brightening pencil along the lower waterline. On Moore, she used the Victoria Beckham Instant Brightening Waterline Pencil.
 |
| Clockwise from left: Victoria Beckham Beauty Instant Brightening Eyeliner, $33, victoriabeckhambeauty.com; YSL Beauty Lines Liberated Eyeliner in Obsessive Tangerine, $36, yslbeautyus.com; MAC Lip Pencil in Stone, $25, maccosmetics.com; Make Up For Ever Artist Color Pencil in Cacao, $26, makeupforever.com; Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick in Biscuit, $48, westman-atelier.com; Rare Beauty Brow Harmony Precision Pencil in Cool Brown, $19, rarebeauty.com; IT Cosmetics Tightline Mascara, $27, itcosmetics.com; Chanel Stylo Ombre Et Contour in Contour Clair, $42, chanel.com. Courtesy of the brands |
The next month, at Sandy Liang’s fall 2026 runway show in New York, I ran into Hou and thanked her for the introduction. She was there covering the scene backstage, where, coincidentally, the models wore what seemed to be brown liner with a reddish tint. Later, I reached out to the show’s makeup artist, Romy Soleimani, who told me she used Rare Beauty Brow Pencil in Cool Brown layered with a rose lip liner. “Follow your lower lash line with both colors and adjust,” she said, depending on whether you want it to lean redder or browner. “Then swipe back and forth with a soft, smudgy brush for a diffused effect.” For the brown base, she recommended MAC Lip Pencil in Stone, Make Up For Ever Artist Color Pencil in Cacao or Chanel liner in Contour Clair. Like Ross’s, in other words, her advice was simple: It’s by blending the two colors that you’ll get the shade you’re going for, and a look striking enough for an Almodóvar movie.
