Beauty Roundup: MAC x Basquiat, Zendaya Fronts Prada Beauty, Stila's Hunger Games Collection, and More
This week's beauty news reads like a culture section: a legendary artist's work reimagined as makeup, a blockbuster fragrance campaign, a movie tie-in collection, and a luxury house going full anime. Oh, and a ten-dollar eye cream that might just be the smartest launch of the month. Grab a coffee, get comfortable, and let's get into it.
Miss Dior becomes the heroine of her own animated film
For the first time in the fragrance's history, Miss Dior has been transformed into an animated character. Dior tapped Remembers, the French animation studio founded by Ugo Bienvenu and Felix de Givry, the team behind Arco, the multi-awarded animated film co-produced by Natalie Portman and nominated at the Oscars this year, to create an original short film retracing the history of the house's founding fragrance.
The film is genuinely lovely in its details: a playful bee guides us through Christian Dior's cherished roses, silhouettes of his beloved sister Catherine, and the Château La Colle Noire in the Grasse countryside where the original fragrance was born on a Provençal night alive with fireflies. Miss Dior's signature codes appear throughout (a giant pink bow here, a houndstooth print there) as the heroine races to the 1947 New Look show and soars over Paris clinging to multicolored balloons, in a nod to the brand's iconic campaign films.
Portman, the longtime face of Miss Dior, says the project came out of her work co-producing Arco: "This film recreates the birth of Miss Dior with incredible subtlety and emotion... For me, this film, requiring animation techniques rarely used today because they are extremely long and complex, also celebrates something that is essential at Dior. These techniques need to be preserved." Hand-drawn animation as a metaphor for haute couture savoir-faire? We're not crying, you're crying.
MAC turns Jean-Michel Basquiat's art into a full makeup collection
MAC's Fall 2026 drop is a collaboration with the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and it's one of the most ambitious art collabs we've seen from the brand in years. The collection launched August 7 and covers the artist's iconic crown motif and raw, expressive color palette across both packaging and formulas.
The lineup is extensive. The Maximal Silky Matte Lipstick ($35) comes in two shades: Ruby Woo-ster, a bright blue-red that winks at the brand's most famous lipstick, and Bowery Brown, a wearable neutral beige. The most interesting products, though, are the artist-supply-inspired ones. The Oil Effect Eye Paint ($30) has a smudgy, paint-like texture in shades Basquiat Blue, Oil Slick (black), and 1982 (brown), while the Pastel Painting Eye + Face Chalk ($30) comes in Royal Blueprint and King Pleasure. There's also a Pigment Colour Powder ($29) in Abstraction, Negative Space, and Crowned, plus a collector's Studio Cushion Foundation Compact stamped with the crown.
Completing the set: a four-piece Artist Brush Set ($120) with gold ferrules and a Basquiat-print pouch, and the Famous Bag ($50), a black canvas frame bag with gold crown and dollar sign artwork. The collection is available at MAC, Ulta, Nordstrom, Macy's, and Selfridges. No word yet on a Philippine release, but MAC PH usually gets the big collections a few weeks after the US.
Zendaya is the new face of Prada Beauty
It's official: Zendaya has joined Prada Beauty as the face of the Paradoxe Sweet Chemistry campaign, announced in late July and rolling out everywhere now. The fragrance plays fruity blackcurrant against neroli, and the campaign leans into the line "Never the same, always myself," which Zendaya says mirrors her own philosophy. "I love how Paradoxe celebrates complexity, capturing both strength and vulnerability," she shared in the announcement.
The fun detail here is that this makes Prada Beauty something of a family affair: Zendaya joins her husband Tom Holland, who already fronts campaigns for the brand. She was reportedly already a Paradoxe user before signing, and wore Prada Beauty on her press tours for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
If you want to smell like Zendaya, act fast. The Sweet Chemistry edition has been selling out, with Sephora's restock slated for September 1.
Stila goes to Panem with a Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping collection
Ahead of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hitting cinemas on November 20, Stila has launched a limited-edition collection inspired by the film, and there's a legitimate connection here beyond marketing. The film's hair, makeup, and prosthetics designer Natalie MacGowan Spencer specifically requested Stila products for the characters' looks, and the collection is inspired by her original designs.
The hero product is the Sunrise Eyes Set ($59), five travel-size Liqua-Play liquid eyeshadows each inspired by a character (Maysilee, Lenore Dove, Proserpina, Effie, and Mags) housed in a limited-edition gold tin. The rest of the collection is organized into three moods: Meadow Dream for golden, glowy looks (including the Heaven's Hue Highlighter, $30, and Honey Glow Balm, $25), Pretty Striking for bold drama (an electric blue InkWear liner, $26, and the Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Fiery, $25), and Rebel Beauty for muted, understated shades (Eye Shadow in Fauna, $20, and a waterproof liner in Intense Labradorite, $25). There's also the All Fire duo pairing a shimmering bronze Liqua-Play shadow with a black kajal, a nod to the film's central love story.
The collection is available now on StilaCosmetics.com, Ulta.com, and TikTok Shop, and lands in Ulta stores on October 16, perfectly timed for premiere-night makeup looks.
The Ordinary drops a $10 PDRN eye cream (and it's vegan)
PDRN has been the K-beauty ingredient of the year: the polynucleotide typically derived from salmon DNA that's credited with skin regeneration and that glassy, bouncy "salmon sperm facial" glow. The catch has always been the price. Leave it to The Ordinary to blow that up. The new Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Eye Cream costs just $10 (around £9).
The twist is in the sourcing. Instead of fish-derived PDRN, The Ordinary uses Lacto-PDRN, created by fermenting Lactobacillus rhamnosus, a prebiotic bacterium, then breaking the bacterial DNA into short fragments. Same DNA-fragment mechanism, fully vegan. It's paired with folic acid (vitamin B9) to support skin renewal, elasticity, and hydration.
Claims include reduced under-eye bags, visible lifting on sagging lids, softened crow's feet, and hydration for both upper and lower eye areas. Whether a topical eye cream can truly deliver injectable-adjacent results is an open question, but at this price, the barrier to finding out for yourself is basically zero. Expect this one to sell out the moment it hits local shelves.
And that's it for this week's Beauty News Roundup!
